Emperor of Sand is the latest LP from Mastodon, a band that I have a lot of love for. That love comes from the fact that they've put out some of my favorite records in modern progressive metal, such as the anthemic Crack the Skye or the brutal Blood Mountain. These guys know how to pen a compelling metal tune with plenty of nooks and crannies to dig into. However, the past couple of albums have been a little hit-or-miss. This is especially true of The Hunter, an album that I still hold no particular reverence for, and while I think the band's last full length Once More 'Round The Sun was much better, it still had its pitfalls. And upon listening to the initial singles from this new album, it seemed like those same problems would persist, and to some extent they do, though I will concede that Emperor of Sand is the most cohesive and conceptual record the band has released in some time.
To start, I'll go over all the things I think this album does right. The songwriting here is really strong, in fact, these may be the most consistently catchy and well penned songs the band has ever assembled, from the opener to the fantastic "Precious Stones" or "Ancient Kingdom" Mastodon is laying down one colossal tune after another, and the lyrics here deal a lot in mortality and leaving a legacy behind, which plays really well with how the music sounds on this record. Honestly, aside from a few production quirks here and there ("Steambreather" being the sorest spot here) there's not much musically that I don't like on Emperor of Sand; it is more consistent than the last album and the lyrics hit harder than the past couple of releases have.
However, vocally, this album is a but weak in spots. This is mostly because the drummer is doing most of the singer here, and while his voice isn't bad, his clean style sticks out against the harsher instrumentation. The biggest culprit here is easily the single "Show Yourself" which still sounds bad to me, even having sat with it for the past couple of months; it simply doesn't sound like a Mastodon song, and doesn't really make any more sense in the context of this record.
But the vocals are my only major complaint, and though they do bring the album down for me personally, I still found myself enjoying this album. The saving grace is definitely the songwriting and instrumentation, and when the vocals gel with the instrumentation, these songs really shine as some of the band's best melodic material ever.
7.5/10
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