The Hunter, the follow-up to 2009's critically embraced Crack The Skye, was recorded in the band's hometown of Atlanta as well as in Los Angeles with producer Mike Elizondo. As with all of their albums, Mastodon, which is bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist Bill Keliher, and drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor, decided to take a completely different tack and musical approach to the music on this album. The band feels confident that fans will be excited and fulfilled by what they will hear.
Mastodon is an explosive, unbridled force. Possessing an uncanny songwriting sense, fearless innovation, unparalleled technical ability and a bottomless pool of raw talent and creativity, Mastodon is inarguably one of the most exciting bands of its time.
Mastodon formed in 1999 when drummer Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher moved to Atlanta, GA from their hometown of Rochester, New York. Only three weeks after arriving in Atlanta, Dailor and Kelliher met bassist Troy Sanders and guitarist Brent Hinds at a HIGH ON FIRE show that Hinds put on in his basement. Dailor and Kelliher had almost a decade of playing and touring experience together; Sanders and Hines had a half-dozen. Within a few weeks of forming, the quartet's intense songwriting chemistry generated a solid set of hard-hitting songs. These songs merely touched the surface of the outfit's boundless well of ideas.
When asked about the sound of Mastodon's third studio album, The Hunter, drummer Brann Dailor told the German edition of Metal Hammer magazine, "When you listen to the songs, they don't sound as 'fun' as we perceive them to be, I guess; it's still pretty extremely heavy material." He added, "We had a few songs that were kind of, not left over from 'Crack The Skye', but just stuff that we wanted to be on that album, but that album kind of took on a whole different thing of its own and there were a few stragglers that were super-heavy and crazy that didn't make it, and we finally got to put them on this record. And then we wrote a whole bunch of brand new stuff. There's, like, 14 songs that we recorded. And it's sort all over the place a lot of different sounds. Some straight-up classic-rock-sounding songs, straight-up death metal-sounding songs and some completely bizarre, weirdo rock songs that we're not really sure what they are, but we love them."
"The Hunter" was recorded at Doppler Studios in Atlanta with producer Mike Elizondo. Drum tracks were previously completed in Los Angeles at the legendary Sound City Studios where NIRVANA's masterwork "Nevermind" was recorded.
"On The Hunter, Mastodon have gone back to basics at the height of their powers... Raging metal with a sterling production... ethereal and crushing. It's official: Mastodon are one of the all-time great hard-rock groups." - Alternative Press
Features:
140g, Black Vinyl LP
Recorded at Record Industry
Single-pocket jacket with lyric insert
Parental Advisory Explicit Content
Selections:
Side A:
1. Black Tongue
2. Curl of the Burl
3. Blasteroid
4. Stargasm
5. Octopus Has No Friends
6. All the Heavy Lifting
7. The Hunter
Side B:
8. Dry Bone Valley
9. Thickening
10. Creature Lives
11. Spectrelight
12. Bedazzled Fingernails
13. The Sparrow