The most positive thing that can be said about Emperor of Sand is how much the music commits to the conceptual ideas intended, as the songwriting consistently suggests the sensation of wandering the desert, forever subjected to the unavoidable haze of the blazing sun. The pairing of these two tracks right out of the gate creating an uncomfortable set of expectations, as I was wondering if the entire album was just going to veer back and forth between great and mediocre. Unfortunately, that great start comes to an immediate grinding halt with the second track “Show Yourself,” a painfully dull southern hard rock jam that’s neck and neck with “The Motherload” for the single weakest song the band has ever written. Combined with the hazy vibes of the chorus and bridge/solo, especially the swirling mix of guitar chords and melodies during the latter, it makes for a quintessential Mastodon track and a killer album opener. An unsettling chime/bell intro segues into a tight 6/8 groove, complete with massive sludgy riffs and pummeling drums. The album opens up with “Sultan’s Curse,” which was released as the first single.
Even with all that in mind though, there’s always surprises to be found, and that becomes apparent as soon as you press play. On top of that, it was billed as a concept album, a musical approach that had been abandoned on their past two albums, about a desert wanderer sentenced to death.
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The album art and title font evoked the same stylistic choices as those releases, and the band teamed up with producer Brendan O’Brien, who worked with them prior on Crack The Skye. While it’s hard to tell what exactly every new Mastodon album will bring, there was much to suggest that this would be a sort of return to their first 4 releases. Since that time, every subsequent Mastodon release has been sort of an event for me, and they are now back with their 7 th studio album, Emperor of Sand. I was enamored not just by the intensity and titanic grand scale of their sound, but also the ambitiousness of their songwriting and the offbeat, weird, and creative tangents they would often delve into. The album cover and booklet were designed by Alan Brown, known as Medusawolf.Mastodon have been one of my all-time favorite bands ever since I first heard Blood Mountain and Crack The Skye in high school, in my early years of exploring the vast world of metal music. These words have not lost any of their relevance. Nobody has a start to them" - wrote Rolling Stone magazine in a review of one of the band's albums. "Mastodon is the biggest band of their generation. Even with the amazing parts of Brann Dailor drums. At "Emperor Of Sand" fans will experience some sharp, unexpected turns in the arrangement, while enjoying the characteristic licks that are inherent in the style of the Atlanta visionaries. The resulting album is another proof that Mastodon is a band that is never satisfied with what it has already achieved, but constantly tries to look for new ways, solutions, seek and surprise. very real things that happened to us, "adds Troy Sanders.
It took us 17 years to build it, but there are also our reactions to what happened in the last two years. In this sense," Emperor Of Sand "is connected with our entire discography. "There are reflections on immortality on the album. The question always arises: How much longer?". If someone you know has received a diagnosis that indicates imminent death, the first thing you think about is the remaining time. "The Sand Emperor is the equivalent of the Grim Reaper," Brann explains. An important part of the story is the concept of passing time. In short, it concerns an individual sentenced to death in a sinister desert. The album is promoted as the first song "Sultan's Curse".Ĭontent-wise, Mastodon's musicians return to "Emperor Of Sand" to tell one story. The sessions took place at The Quarry Recording Studio near Atlanta and at Henson Studios in Los Angeles. The songs on "Emperor Of Sand" by Brann Dailor (drums, vocals), Brent Hinds (vocals, guitar), Bill Kelliher (rhythm guitar, vocals) and Troy Sanders (vocals, bass guitar, keyboards) were recorded with the well-known Brendan O ' Brien, with whom they met during the session of the album "Crack The Skye" from 2009, and who previously recorded with AC / DC, Rage Against the Machine or Pearl Jam. The sixth work of American musicians is the successor to the album "Once More 'Round The Sun", released in 2014, which reached the high sixth position on "Billboard" and was on the tenth position in the UK.
The first studio album in three years by an exceptional band on the metal scene, the three-time Grammy-nominated group Mastodon.