Eehh, bloody heck, MASTODON are back. ‘The Hunter’ is, in some ways exactly what you’d expect from the band, but there’s an overwhelming feeling that the band sat down before writing it and had a meeting that resulted in a positive answer to the question “Shall We Go All Balls Out With This One, Lads?”.
Unrelenting, baffling and containing expectedly brilliant instrumental work, ‘The Hunter’ is a sort of symbiosis of old and new Mastodon, and though that makes it sound like a step back down from the prog rock of ‘Crack The Skye’, it’s really not and makes for intriguing listening.
‘Curl Of The Burl’, ‘Octopus Has No Friends‘ and ‘Blasteroid’ are great and there’s plenty of meat on the bones of the ‘The Hunter’ overall – there’s absolutely no way it can be called a bad or even average record – but there’s a few things that nearly spoil the fun; it lumbers a little ungracefully in places, and the moments of Mastodon-by-numbers are a little frustrating, especially when the back end of the record seems to lose focus entirely in places – despite that, album number five is by no means a disappointment and will keep the band powering forward for years to come.
Most certainly a record to spark up an oregano fatty to, ‘The Hunter’ won’t be Mastodon‘s opus by any means, but it’s solid and well worth a listen if they tickle your fancy.
TOM AYLOTT