Band: Mastodon
Album title: The Hunter
Label: Roadrunner Record
Distributor: CNR – Roadrunner Records – Concreteweb Promotion Office.
Release date: Out Now
Release: CD, Limited CD

Mastodon is an American metal band from Atlanta, Georgia and was formed in 1999. But this isn’t just your regular type of metal band, Mastodon combines multiple heavy metal genres such as sludge, stoner, groove and progressive metal and vocal wise combines clean singing with screaming. The band is composed of bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor.
The band recorded a demo in 2000, (which featured the band's first lead singer, Eric Saner on vocals). After recording that four song demo and a 7-inch picture disc through Reptilian Records, Mastodon landed a record deal with Relapse Records in 2001. They released an EP called Lifesblood in 2001 and their first full-length album named Remission was born and released in 2002, with the singles "March of the Fire Ants" and "Crusher/Destroyer”. The album that got them in the spotlights.
Now in 2011, the band is back with album number 5 that already got a lot of positive feedback in the short time that the record is out. I myself have only got 2 of records of their previous work, but when listening to this album, you can clearly hear a lot of differences. Luckily the band’s core remains unchanged when duel guitars and caveman like drumming still rule supreme. But the main change can be found sound wise. Although the band still plays insane stuff that sounds awesome, it sounds/feels like their overall sound has been cleaned up. Less heavy to make it more accessible for a wider audience I guess.
Apart from that the band still plays over the top crazy prog/groove/sludge/stoner metal so fans can rejoice with this new 13 song counting masterpiece.

96/100

Jeroen.