With their expansive, multi-layered approach to prog-metal, previous Mastodon albums have taken repeated spins to sink in. Not this time. With its straightforward guitar grunt, hummable chorus and mere four-minute run time, single The High Road provides instantly accessible thrills.
It's one of the simplest tunes Mastodon have made - a sure sign that, on their sixth album, the Atlanta band are finally settling comfortably into the "hipster metallers" tag they've been given.
That genre-spanning appeal comes from Mastodon's intellectual - and yes, beardy - approach to crafting moshpit-baiting metal mayhem. But where previous albums found the longest way possible to get to the payoff - like Crack the Skye's 11-minute opus The Czar - Once More 'Round the Sun takes the quickest route possible. The longest song here, album closer Diamond in the Witch House, clocks in at seven minutes, and even that comes with an appealing Kyuss-style desert chug.
Instead, there's the guttural growls and speed metal gallop of Feast Your Eyes that's all over in a concise four minutes, the Deftones-esque Ember City, that loses none of its impact despite its radio-friendly chorus "If I want you to stay, what do I say to you?" And start tuning your air guitars because Motherload delivers an epic solo spanning nearly a minute.
The simplifying of their sound doesn't mean Mastodon are staying complacent: 'Round the Sun rocks as hard as any previous Mastodon album. In fact, sometimes it rocks harder. Try the thundering opening blast of Tread Lightly, a rampaging racket of metal carnage. With ridiculous lyrics like, "I saw the mountain crumble down", Chimes at Midnight should soundtrack an episode of Game of Thrones.
