Emperor of Sand [VINYL]

Mastodon is the band you know make tracks that are 95% amazing. Why not 100%? Well that's because they love to throw in that innovative or way out tracks just for controversy. And that's the problem - Mastodon fans are never happy because they are so damn good!So this album. Brilliant. BUT. There's no weird track. The closest is the pop track 'Show Yourself' but even that's superb and you'll get it by listen 3.That's the problem with Mastodon, or maybe fans like me. They've become a safe pair of hands, and I'm uneasy. Fans like us are never happy lol!Seriously though this album is a real showcase of all their past talents and incredible skill in making some of the best rock tracks and albums to date.Stand out tracks for me are:Sultan's Curse | Show Yourself | Precision Stones | Steambreather (wow) | Word to the Wise | Andromeda | Jaguar's Curse.In terms of style, you can hear 90s grunge in this...Think Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Nirvana - (at their most experimental).I'm sure some fans will feel a little lost without the obvious The Czar or Last Baron track. Yes they feel more familiar with shorter and more traditional track lengths - sub 10mins!! Plus there is no super aggressive Blood and Thunder or The Wolf is Loose.Where does that leave us? A solid album that's where. But you know just 2 tracks more would have made it perfection. But the guitar likes, riffs, nerdling and heavy beats are there.This is less the 'concept' album of old, with always changing key and time changes over a a 12 mind epic 6 part track...But that's no bad thing i guess.I'm not the guy who has to play this live after all!Well done on a true to form (almost). Exceptional album again!

After treading water a little bit with their previous two albums 'The Hunter' and 'Once More Round The Sun,' Mastodon returned with their old logo and with it a sound closer to their rawer, earlier albums. You could argue that this album is the spiritual successor to 'Crack The Skye,' but I'd say it's closer to being a less direct sequel to 'Blood Mountain' but mixing that albums' thrashier direction with the more vocal melodic elements of the last two albums, peppered by moments reminiscent of 'Remission.'As with their first four albums ('Remission' to 'Crack The Skye') 'Emperor Of Sand,' is pretty much a concept album, 'a cancer concept album' according to an early interview with the band, and despite the slightly cryptic album titles and lyrics, you do get a sense musically that the tracks all run parallel to each other. As with pretty much all Mastodon albums, isolate the tracks and you're going to have many great songs independently, leave all the jigsaw pieces together and you'll be treated to an interlocking masterpiece and an album in the proper sense of the word.

More classic powerful driving pulsating anthemic rock that maintains excitement and relentless pace from start to finish. This band are at the top of Thier game.Every song is well played well constructed and bristles with passion/intensity and controlled aggression throughout. Slightly shorter songs than usual thus more tracks (11 ) than usual and a classic epic song to end proceedings ( Jaguar God) This band are getting better and better with every relese and every cd shows progression and advancement from the previous relese.The line up of the band has remained stable and unchanged thought it's existence.I think has helped them to fashion their sound . They are familiar with each others playing and thus can play off each other well and over time have horned their sound to its current level due to the chemistry between them. I recommend you buy this CD then emerge yourself into Mastodoms expansive wall of sound and experience exciting abrasive soundscape of music to permeate your senses Guaranteed you will have a great experience and will want to repeat the experience again listening to masters at work bringing you out of this world music

Good but not brilliant. I'm a long-term Mastodon fan. This stuff is good but after many listen throughs its still not brilliant. Yes, there are catchy verses, some great riffs but nothing you could call memorable or ground-breaking. Most tracks have the same formulae - good riff at the start, get to chorus as soon as possible and repeat. Jaguar God is an attempt at a longer, more traditional Mastodon song but never quite makes it. Some of the interesting progressive moments are nothing more than that - brief moments of interest that soon revert back to a formulaic chorus. Shame.

Another great album from Mastodon not much more needs to be said. Very heavy, very proggy with some great hooks. Having bought the vinyl version whilst listening to the Amazon Music download in the car today I'm a little confused as to why the track 'Roots Remain' is called 'Eons' on the vinyl version.

They're back. Not as immediate as OMATS but in the same vein. This one is a grower, but they are the same class act as always. I have spun this over ten times and only had it about two weeks so far. If you liked OMATS you'll love this. If you didn't then you can go and listen to "Remission" on repeat and complain about how nothing is as good as the old days.

If you haven't heard this album you are missing out, sometime I plug in 2 sets of headphones so I can listen to it twice at the same time. Incredible melodies, riffs and soul in this album. Also check out cold dark place another so and all their albums. Basically, get more Mastodon in your life

Great album, all the parts coming together and well produced. Chunky sound with lots of good lead licks, different to previous albums but getting towards the highs of Crack The Skye etc. Highly recommended