Reviewing this album kind of goes against what What Planets Collide is all about seeing as Mastodon are a well established band, but hearing this album for the first time got me so damn excited that i just cannot keep my excitement to myself!

It’s just a case of where to start with this one, it contains all the greatest elements of all 4 of the previous Mastodon albums except this one holds a major improvement that just makes it so special for me and that is the vocals. I remember not so many years ago that these 4 lads from Georgia were quite worried when they lost Eric Saner as a band member as they claimed they could sing themselves (or at least did not see themselves as singers) but blimey they have come along way. Not to say that they sounded bad on any of the other records but its the massive choruses of ‘All the heavy lifting’, ‘the Hunter’ and ‘Bedazzled Fingernails’ that are the stand out songs for me vocally on this release and the improvement is so gladly welcomed!! If you are after your flat out rifftastic songs then ‘Blasteroids’ and ‘Spectrelight’ are the choices for you and with the latter containing a cameo from Scott Kelly of Neurosis, it really does add that extra bit a venom that you need after hearing some of the more relaxed and reflected songs like ‘the Creature Lives’ and just to shock their fan base even more there is a melancholic nod to Dave Gilmore in the form of a wonderfully proggy guitar solo during the epic finale that is ‘The Sparrow’.

All together this really cannot be faulted and i can imagine this record remaining on repeat in my life for many months to come … JUST GET YOUR ASSES TO ENGLAND AGAIN AND TOUR THIS FAST AS PERSONALLY I CANNOT WAIT TO HEAR THESE NEW ADDITIONS TO THE SET…. ALL HAIL MASTODON!!

Stand out Track: Bedazzled Fingernails

Hear More at: Mastodon Youtube Channel