Opening track "Sultans’s Curse" explodes with a muscular sludge riff reminiscent of "Black Tongue", immediately the most satisfyingly heavy Mastodon have sounded in years. Lead single "Show Yourself", with its punchy chorus, is the album’s "pop" moment, but like the other tracks here, it's weighty and seeped in steely-eyed grit and complex instrumentation. Sonically, the majority of Emperor of Sand falls between the huge slab-like riffs of The Hunter and Leviathan’s multipart thrash. It’s a metaphor for both cancer and chemotherapy. Emperor of Sand tells of a protagonist who is handed a death sentence by "a desert-like version of the Grim Reaper," according to drummer and lyricist Brann Dailor, and exiled to wander a barren, dusty wasteland as a deadly sun beats down on him. Just as recording began, bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders’ wife was diagnosed with cancer, while guitarist Bill Kelliher had recently lost his mother, also to the disease. This time however, the band's storytelling is anchored in the dark reality of personal tragedy, packing a real emotional weight to the gut. It comes as no surprise then that for their seventh album Emperor of Sand, Mastodon have returned to fantastical concepts … and to their comfort zone. Yet it always seemed the wrong route for a band so clearly in thrall to experimentation. Yet stripping down for 2011's The Hunter and 2014's Once More ‘Round The Sun was the band's most surprising move yet, eschewing convoluted concepts for punchy, straight-to-the jugular song writing. Few bands would consider embracing simplicity as pushing themselves out of their comfort zone. Their first four albums were virtuosic prog epics that explored the subjects of death by fire, white whales, mountains and astral travel.
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