When Mastodon started, they wanted to be the best speed metal band in America. After they did that, they wanted to be the best doom metal band in America. With Crack the Skye (Reprise, 2009), they would become the best prog-rock band in America. Now, they've made their most accessible, paradigmatic album with Once More Round the Sun (Reprise, 2014). Now that they've achieved that, I'm not sure where Brent Hinds and company can go next. When you win the Super Bowl, you don't keep going. You take a moment to bask in your achievement. Biding their time is the best thing they can do at the moment.
Besides a few hip television appearances as a collective, the members of Mastodon have taken to the wind for the time being: Brann Dailor is running the gamut of magazine, television, and internet press, filling down time with Guitar Center drum clinics for something to do; Bill Kelliher has been inviting company along at theaters around the country, at a price of course, but still...you could hang out with the other guitar player from Mastodon, beers and all; Brent Hinds keeps busy with bizarre guest appearances in music videos and product endorsements, not to mention shopping talent around the Atlanta, Georgia music scene.
Bassist Troy Sanders has remained consistent in his craft, though. His collaboration with Sepultura, Dillinger Escape Plan, Mars Volta alumni Killer Be Killed has begun its assault on the non-existent MTV generation of today to predictable effect. Their self-titled debut plays too much on the sum of its parts instead of focusing on creating something new.
But that's not what Mastodon have done. Mastodon have pulled a Metallica.
Biding their hungry, snarling brand of prog-metal out from the underground into the light took time, and now that they've been fed they want to stay fat. And who could blame them? Their riffs still kick my ass, the leads are rip roaring, and the vocals are only getting better and better. There's no denying the group has developed an ear for melody, and it sounds natural even after sacrificing a level or two of their intensity to achieve this change of color; but the snarl is still there, like an over-zealous tattoo from youth that never loses its charm.
Let's say you don't care for lumps in your jet-black afternoon coffee--those early songs stomp through set-lists on a regular basis, bringing modern metal classics like "Mother Puncher" and "Iron Tusk" to a whole new audience, some with the candy coating still fresh in their ears from child-hood.
Like I said, Mastodon have pulled a Metallica. If Once More Round the Sun remains a singular statement, if the mighty Mastodon decides to back track, get in the studio for a heavier-than-a-metric-fuck-ton magnum opus and just shoot for being the superlative metal band of their time, they could probably hang up their tridents and retire in glory.
I don't necessarily want to see the band dissolve, but once you've achieved something so great, why spoil it? The Beatles broke up at the height of their powers in 1970, the Rolling Stones put out new music in 2005. If the Mastodon men wish to be remembered with quiet dignity and grace, they should follow the Fab Four's example. Or maybe pull a Led Zeppelin/Queen and lose a pivitol member to death. Perhaps they should play a round of Russian Roulette, just so the process is as democratic as possible.
Whatever the case may be, Once More Round the Sun is not a better album than their indisputable masterwork Leviathan (2004, Relapse), but it is just as good in very different, as well as very similar, ways. They even brought Scott Kelly back for old-times' sake to close the album with the twisting, moody requiem "Diamond in the Witch House". This record has everything - it is steak and ice-cream at once. Just let it be perfect, don't compromise said perfection, and everything will be fine.
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