Pack mules loaded up with trademark twisting-turning riffs and journals filled with deeply personal lyrics, Mastodon have headed into the desert to stare death in the face. Emperor of Sand is both a concept record about a condemned man and a chronicle of the behind the scenes illnesses experienced by the quartet's loved ones. As with life itself, you wonder where the time went.
In keeping with its themes, there's an of-the-essence urgency to most of these songs with just a couple of opportunities to draw breath. Once again, the quartet's grá for classic rock is woven into the story (surely no coincidence the back cover recalls the defiant fist of Thin Lizzy's Thunder and Lightning) but the stomp and charge is in keeping with the b(r)and moniker, and all their own.
If more spadework is initially required of the listener in comparison to 2014's Once More ' Round the Sun, the rewards found in the Sand prove to be just as plentiful. While teaser track Show Yourself was a winner from the get-go, it's pushed hard (and heavy) by a handful more on repeated listens, with hours of fan fun and finger-pointing in ranking the other 10.
Seven albums in, Mastodon have maintained their membership of that very select club where every one is a must-have. How fitting that after this journey with them through fear and doom you rest up in stronger shape for whatever is around the next bend.
Harry Guerin
