Released: 2017

Genres: Progressive Metal, Alternative Metal, Stoner Metal, Sludge Metal

The Musiquarium’s Emperor of Sand Review Score: 6.5 out of 10

I don’t like sand — it’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere…

With every Mastodon release since 2011’s The Hunter, the band has continued to round its edges, becoming increasingly safe and mainstream, though Emperor of Sand sounds more thematically-inspired than their last two albums, thanks to a return to the concepts, this time being about a desert wanderer who must confront his mortality.

Sultan’s Curse is a fairly decent opener, though not as memorable as something like Blood and Thunder or The Wolf is Loose. The 8 minute-long closer Jaguar God is probably the closest thing to a Mastodon classic here. The stretch of songs from Roots Remain to Scorpion Breath is absolutely fine, with plenty of progressive hijinks, but like the songs on their past two albums, they just sort of exist.

Lead single Show Yourself is one of Mastodon’s weakest songs so far, and is the type of track that seems like it was made with only one thing in mind: radio airplay — Steambreather is a vastly superior single, though still not great by any means. Precious Stones is a similar to Show Yourself, with the type of empowering lyrics that belong more in a Linkin Park album than a Mastodon one (“Don’t waste your time, don’t let it slip away from you, don’t waste your time, if it’s the last thing that you do”).

Like its two predecessors, Emperor of Sand is a decent album with lots of riffs and that progressive metal sound that Mastodon has spent the past 17 years mastering, but like those albums, it just pales in comparison to classics like Leviathan, Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye, with an overall sense of diminishing returns. Emperor of Sand is not a bad album, but that doesn’t mean I had fun listening to it.

For credit breakdowns and historic release details, view Mastodon on Discogs.

Back to the 2017 Album Reviews Guide or the Mastodon Reviews page.

Written by Brett Nippard