Know this: I love Mastodon. They are easily my favorite
metal band of all time, and are right up there with my favorite bands of all
time like The Mars Volta and Alice in Chains. The guys behind Mastodon are the
toughest and goofiest collection of metal musicians of this generation.
Leviathan is a masterpiece, Blood Mountain just kicks ass, and Crack the Skye
pushes metal into a bold new direction.
But the guys have made an album for each element and now
they’re relying on pure musicianship instead of crazy concepts mixed in. The
band’s fifth album, The Hunter, isn’t coming out until September, but the band
has released a track from the highly anticipated album on Youtube. “Black
Tongue” feels like a balanced mix of the band’s last three albums. It’s not as
heavy as Leviathan, but it retains the amazing production and layered nature of
Blood Mountain with just a bit of celestial otherworldliness from Crack the
Skye.
I really like the opening, which possesses the production
nature of Crack the Skye before Troy Sanders belts out a bellow to rival his
vocals on “Blood and Thunder.” It’s not a guttural call, but it feels deep,
like falling into a dark abyss. Sanders’ vocals still feel definitive compared
to the growling of stereotypical metal bands. They’re rough and melodic all at
once. The actual guitar work isn’t anything that Mastodon hasn’t done before,
but that’s far from a bad thing. Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher remain a dynamic
combination on the strings. Not to be left out, drummer Brann Dailor doesn’t
skip on his superb pounding and rhythmic crashes. His skills on the drums
remain some of the best in modern metal.
“Black Tongue” would feel right at home on Blood Mountain,
with its massive amount of layers and creative use of metal melodies. It’ll
definitely be interesting to see how Mastodon plays out without a wacky concept
to merge the songs together. The guys have said that they simply want to have
fun on this album. But the guys have made it unconscious habit of adding depth
and layers to their music; they’ve made a richness without trying or even
wanting to. I never thought I’d be more excited for a new Mastodon album than I
already am, but that shows what I know. “Black Tongue” is just an appetizer of
what is sure to be a deliciously rich main course.
