Mastodon - The Hunter

Mastodon can be described as heavy, disorienting, progressive, and deeply rhythmic. With The Hunter, one word that has eluded their portrayal is now at the forefront of their sound: catchy. This album has unbelievable accessibility and groove, and while old-school fans might be up in arms about it, Mastodon will have no trouble recruiting hordes of brand new fans. Before even listening to the album, it’s clear that things have changed. The album art, band logo, and track lengths all point to a departure from the band’s previous choices. But never fear, this is not a Heritage situation. Even though Mastodon is taking a sizable creative risk, it’s not nearly as polarizing as Opeth’s 70’s throwback extravaganza.

The music has been stripped down to something far more bare bones and rock oriented, with infectious choruses and relatively simple structures. It will remind listeners of a twisted doom cousin of Foo Fighters at times, and this is definitely a good thing. Mastodon performed Crack The Skye in its entirety more times than necessary, which left many fans hating each and every proggy second of it. With The Hunter, the songwriting is still heavy as ever, but far more concise than Mastodon’s last album. The album doesn’t take itself too seriously, especially lyrically, and as a result listeners will find themselves smiling as they headbang along to the album's crushing riffs. Although The Hunter is thoroughly enjoyable, there are a couple of things that kept it from deserving a perfect "10".

One qualm many will have with this album is its production. Songs like “Dry Bone Valley” and “Octopus Has No Friends” were completely void of grit, and a rougher, less “perfect” mix would have given the songs a bit more edge. Another issue is more a matter of taste. Mastodon’s narrative quality has always been admirable, and each of their previous albums wove an intricate story, with tracks effortlessly interlaced. The Hunter is not a conceptual work. There’s a bit of a space theme, sure, with tracks like “Blasteroid” and “Stargasm," but it’s nothing close to a tale like Leviathan. While this album is undoubtedly music to blast through your headphones, the crushing walls of sound present on albums like Blood Mountain have been left in the past.

“Black Tongue” is the first track, and marks the first steps down a very different path for the band. Those who have a firm investment in Mastodon’s signature progressive sound will not be pleased, but if they’re able to step away and appreciate the album for what it is, and not what the band’s name has come to represent, they will likely find themselves engrossed by some aspect of The Hunter. “Curl of the Burl” is reminiscent of a sludgier Queens of the Stone Age coupled with Mastodon’s own unique spin. The bizarrely titled “Bedazzled Fingernails” is one of the most interesting tracks on the album, and the closest thing to Mastodon’s previous sonic sensibilities.

Mastodon may be able to connect with dismayed fans in a live situation better than on the recordings, which are clean and precise almost to a fault. The art and videos the band has produced are killer and will lend themselves to a captivating show. Is this enough to hold the interest of those listening to the album sans supplemental material? That’ll have to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

All complaining aside, The Hunter is one of the top albums of the year. Marketable hard rock with progressive influences doesn't always have to leave fans feeling pissed off. Yes, this has “radio darling” written all over it, but so what? I’d rather hear this played on constant rotation than what’s been polluting the airwaves as of late. A couple of the tracks fail to resonate since they are meant to function independently as opposed to contributing to a bigger picture, but that's splitting hairs given the overall quality of the record. Closing with “The Sparrow”, a melancholic and atmospheric piece replete with soothing vocals and driving percussion,The Hunter cements itself as an admirable addition to Mastodon’s discography.

Zebulon Pike – Space is the Corpse of Time

One of the simplest facts about Zebulon Pike is that they are a band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After that, things become much more complicated, as they engage in a genre of music that can only be described as auditory mad science. Formed in 2002, every single one of their albums has been a brain-demolishing piece of experimentation: And Blood Was Passion in 2004, The Deafening Twilight in 2006, and Instransience in 2008. With each release, they have become more dense, more intelligent, more volatile. Space Is the Corpse of Time continues this progression, spiralling out in a universe of it’s own making.

Their band name comes from an American historical figure, an officer and an explorer after who also leant his name to Pike’s Peak in Colorado. This is extremely fitting for a band that goes about the process of writing an album as though they were launching an expedition. Listening to Space Is the Corpse of Time is an act of discovery, as if the band were feeling their way through a new musical landscape. Listening to to depth and sparkle of “Echoic Worlds” is like watching from spaceship windows as starts are born and galaxies accrue.

Space Is the Corpse of Time is incredibly complex and littered with musical references. In fact, it is possible to treat the listening experience as a game of spot-the-influence. A chugging riff here will evoke Meshuggah, then an eerie and caustic atmosphere will conjure Bloody Panda, and then the avant, anxiety-inducing drumming will call up YOB. Masters of skillful combinations, Zebulon Pike combine a classic rock aesthetic pioneered by bands like King Crimson with an experimental jazz spontaneity, prog rock complexity and Mike Patton-esque genre-defying energy. But with all the name-dropping, all the references that Zebulon Pike inspires, at the end of it they are, most of all, themselves. Their aesthetic is singular. They are a cyborg of a band, a plasma, marrying the organic and the electric, futuristic instrumentation with a very human heart. No matter how many times the nebulous “Powers of the Living” morphs into a new musical shape, it retains a curious, pensive emotional tone, like a touchstone.

There is much that sets Zebulon Pike apart from their peers, but a key component of the success of this album is the intelligence, the deliberateness with which they deploy various tones and techniques. Every tremulously clean tone and grating bit of feedback, every bit of blazing speed or anguished slowness is carefully chosen and incorporated at precisely the correct moment. There is a moment in “Spectrum Threshold” when a passage with sludgy guitars suddenly clears, gentles, and the entire piece transforms. There is something part science and part magic about this style of composition, a kind of alchemy that takes base elements and handles them just so, combines them at just the right time and in the right proportions and suddenly, somehow, there is an overflow of liquid gold.

Zebulon Pike should be way, way more famous than they are. A band of brilliant composers with an equal mastery of contemporary classical and heavy metal styles, they consistently crease genre-defying, brain-melting music that is as transcendent as it is pleasurable to listen to.  Give Space Is the Corpse of Time a listen, let it put down roots in your mind, and I promise you will not be disappointed.

Websites: zebulonpike.com / myspace.com/zebulonpike / facebook.com/zebulonpike