Rock n Music Review.com

This is a dramatic departure for Mastodon. Much more metalcore than a continuation of their brand of sludge/prog/death metal. The clean vocals are very pedestrian and I believe are only done for the mallcore crowd.  Personally, I loved their hardcore screams and indifferent stoner vocal delivery of the past.  Brann Dailor still drums like a tsunami, but the guitar riffs are a lot less thrashy. Infact, the mathcore tightly coiled rhythm guitar is virtually absent, replaced with time tested guitar hero solos inserted in every song.  There are times on this album, when Mastodon starts sounding derivative, such as the much ballyhooed “The Czar: Usurper/Escape/Martyr/SpiralInvariable” which reminds of of Rush crossed pollinated with QoTSA.  Bands go directions that I don’t find interesting and lose me, and this may be the case with the Mastodon, but I’m going to give this one more time because I love this band.