With their not-for-a-hole-in-the-hole metal the American Mastodon effortlessly appeals to both an alternative and a metal audience. In both camps the fourth album was (2009) received as a masterpiece full of epic music in which post-rock, sludge, prog and many metal variants merge organically. Compared to that, you could consider successor The Hunter a step backwards. The bombastic musical structures
… of yesteryear were this time reduced to thirteen pointed songs. But within that the group still plays with dynamics and styles just as easily - aggressive and melodic but also with thick riffs and drawn-out guitar solos. So The Hunter is just as much a step forward and a new strong album in the oeuvre of the idiosyncratic Mastodon. (MR)more
