Mastodon somehow take their complex prog influences and distill them into super satisfying 4-5 minute heavy-metal songs. This has definitely been evident on the last two albums, the superb The Hunter and the passable Once More 'Round The Sun. While my favourite Mastodon album is the sprawling epic Crack The Skye (with the longest song reaching 13 minutes), the last two albums prove that the Atlanta band know how to appeal to a more mainstream metal crowd, whilst not losing their integrity; so Emperor of Sand continues in this vein, with some surprises up its sleeve. Choppy songs, with crazy time signatures changes, swapping between grungy stompers, beautiful slower compositions, whilst dealing with heavy over-arching themes.
Reuniting with their Crack The Skye producer, Brendan O'Brien, Emperor of Sand is a concept album about a lone wanderer in the desert after being given a death sentence by a wicked sultan. Clearly filming their cameos for Game of Thrones had an influence on the band. Themes of death, survival and salvation are interwoven in the lyrics, inspired by the band members' experiences of dealing with recent cancer diagnoses in their extended families and the death of guitarist Bill Kelliher's mum. Emperor of Sand is first Mastodon album in a while to have a central concept as clear as this. Genre classics Leviathan, Blood Mountain and Crack The Syke were united by songs that directly told a story or explored what the band members were experiencing at the time of recording through metaphorical narratives. Hunter and 'Round The Sun were just collections of excellent songs. So with Emperor of Sand, Mastodon have united their two most successfully elements together, that feels both thoroughly modern and a return to the tried-and-tested world of the concept album. And while I don't think Emperor of Sand is the best Mastodon album, it does serves as a neat summation of their career thus far.
Precious Stones neatly summarises this album's thematic concerns, with the chorus echoing "don't waste your time, don't let it slip away from you...don't waste your time, if it's the last thing that you do". This directness to the lyrics permeates the whole album. This is particularly apparent on the proceeding song, Show Yourself, quite possibly the most radio-ready song that band have every recorded. With it's twisty, almost funky, riff it should prove divisive amongst fans but it is incredibly addictive. However, the album has plenty of heavy moments, such as album opener Sultan's Curse, a good ol' classic stomper. Fans of this style will find this across the album but it is particularly strong on Andromeda and Stormbreather, which contains a pretty powerful chorus about lost identity. There is still plenty of experimental, musical adventures here though. Clandestiny features a pretty cool synthesiser back backed solo, reminiscent of a warped version of Peter Gabriel's time in Genesis mixed with the mad composition style of Frank Zappa. Ancient Kingdom has some pretty jaw-dropping key and time-signature changes that somehow cohere together. Roots Remain is a dense yet psychedelic look as the world crumbles around the narrator. With its acoustic guitar breaks in between the riffing and ending in with an ambient piano solo, it's almost rememinesct of old-school Opeth. Album closer Jaguar God is an insane fusion of different styles, backed by acoustic guitar work, soaring synthesiser lines, excellent guitar solos, big vocals, ascending piano keys, heavy riffing and over-worldly lyrics. It's a monster of a song that ends the album on a very strong note.
While Emperor of Sand will do nothing to quell the fears of old-school Mastodon fans about the band's increasingly mainstream sensibilities, the result is a hefty album that packs in all the elements that make the band successful. Mastodon continue to produce quality albums that successfully ride the line between experimentation, intelligent song-writing and mainstream sensibilities. Emperor of Sand rides the line just about right. This is dense and emotional music that you'll be unpacking for a while.
Rating: 8/10
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