Mastodon continue to surprise with every release. With Emperor of Sand coming in March, the band surprise-released “Sultan’s Curse” last week and have already returned with a new song. Just topping the three-minute mark, “Show Yourself” is a radio-ready rock song that suggests the band have been listening to a lot of Queens of the Stone Age. It’s breezy, upbeat and riffy, and the band doesn’t really flex their prog muscles until about 1:45, when the song changes tempos for a shreddy solo. While “Sultan’s Curse” called to mind Blood Mountain/Crack the Skye era ‘Don, this finds the band in entirely new territory.
Emperor of Sand will be released on March 31 on Relapse Records, and can be preordered here.
