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- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Kerrang!Nov 15, 2011The Hunter is an album in which to lose yourself. [24 Sep 2011, p.52]
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Q MagazineNov 8, 2011The Hunter represents them at both their most concise and their thrilling best. [Nov. 2011, p. 135]
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Entertainment WeeklySep 28, 2011Those hybrids mutate awesomely, creating one burly, beastly adrenaline spike. [30 Sep 2011, p.74]
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Oct 11, 2011The Hunter is an example of how to crossover without selling out--something Metallica never learned--and no matter how many copies it sells, this is the mainstream heavy rock album of the year.
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Oct 5, 2011From start to finish, The Hunter is a collection of songs that inadvertently expands their repertoire and capabilities while they turn off their heads and let their fingers tell the story.
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Oct 5, 2011The shorter form of most of the songs (none longer than five and a half minutes) means that you rocket through The Hunter at what feels like breakneck speed, strapped to an intergalactic, pyrotechnic rollercoaster of awesome.
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Sep 26, 2011The Hunter is a pitch for the mainstream--but it doesn't compromise on Mastodon's core ambition.
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Sep 22, 2011The band stand undiminished, combining Leviathan's raging metal with the sterling production of the proggier Crack The Skye.
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Sep 28, 2011The Hunter, their finest album yet, is proof enough.
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Sep 27, 2011Hinds hasn't delivered a logical sequel to Crack The Skye, but The Hunter triumphs in a less profound, more immediate way: It's the first truly fun Mastodon album.
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Nov 29, 2011It's Apocalypse a-go-go for the Georgia gentlemen. Go with them.
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Oct 7, 2011While their last four records loosely represented the four classical elements of water, earth, fire and air, The Hunter has no obvious thematic through line, and yet its 13 tracks make for a plenty cohesive listen.
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Oct 4, 2011The Hunter is another polarizing yet captivating (and incredibly fun) effort from one of the most talented bands in modern metal.
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Sep 29, 2011A delicately fingerpicked intro gives way to an expansive soundscape that, more than anywhere else on The Hunter, brings the band's mastery of dynamics to the surface before culminating in a pair of colossal solos that are among the most intense Hinds has ever ripped.
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Sep 27, 2011The Hunter is the album that shows that as long as Mastodon stay true to their selves, they have the creative wherewithal to not only endure but keep themselves in the spotlight for years and years to come.
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Sep 27, 2011Mainly, though, The Hunter demonstrates how contemporary radio rock can still be made with imagination, precision and a majestic sense of force.
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Sep 26, 2011It's an album that doesn't really need to peak, as it never promises a thing it can't back up, boldly and loudly.
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Sep 23, 2011As a first stab in the direction of avant-garde pop-metal, The Hunter is pretty damn compelling.
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Sep 22, 2011The Hunter, with its monstrous choruses, powerful percussion and jaw-on-the-floor fret-work, is sure to connect with anyone who's previously rocked out to their wares just as easily as it will absolute beginners.
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Sep 22, 2011Gone are the 13-minute multipart epics--the longest track here is just five and a half--yet there's a depth and darkness about The Hunter.
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Oct 12, 2011Yeah, sometimes you can't even hear the lyrics, and when you do they don't make sense (although that's improving by album). But the music is endearing, and most of the time spectacular and that's a great feature to have in any rock band.
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Sep 30, 2011I do miss the grit, heavy-lifting, and larger excavations of their earlier work--nothing merits tossing around the word "epic" here--but what they do, and what they've become, is fascinating.
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Sep 26, 2011If not quite as mind-blowing as its best work, The Hunter provides a solid summation of Mastodon's musical range.
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Oct 5, 2011Rather than play into expectations and write 12 15-minute songs about H.P. Lovecraft or the Dead Sea Scrolls, Atlanta's finest created a more-than-decent metal record.
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Oct 3, 2011There are a few radio-friendly moments. Happily, they're so sufficiently steeped in classic rawk that songs like 'Curl Of The Burl' don't sound like cynical stabs.
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Nov 23, 2011Overall, this album is sure to divide opinion on the band and its future; it will more than likely continue to raise Mastodon's star higher in the sky, enough to get the non-metalheads interested, but not enough to pull the group completely out of the sludge where it belongs and where it works best.
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UncutOct 18, 2011The Hunter feels purposely immediate. [Nov 2011, p.93]
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Oct 3, 2011It trades the organ liquidating power of Crack the Skye for a collection of songs that sound as much like a B-sides compilation as a new LP.
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Oct 6, 2011Mastodon's most accessible album to date finds the ATL-iens as unfocused as ever--and out of gas.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 86 out of 96
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Mixed: 7 out of 96
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Negative: 3 out of 96
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Sep 27, 2011
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Oct 4, 2011
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Sep 27, 2011