Mastodon

Prog is a nebulous term that only gets fuzzier as time goes on, but Mastodon embodies the best qualities of the genre while stamping its own unique features on it. The group’s fourth full-length, 2009’s Crack The Skye, came three years after Blood Mountain, and peeled back some of the layers of sludge and gloom that shrouded its predecessor. Mastodon has long chained itself to the concept-album format synonymous with prog, but this year’s The Hunter feels like an emancipation party, with unrelated songs about meth-head lumberjacks and fucking in outer space. Musically, the songs split their seams with soaring choruses and frenzied, melodic fretwork.

Updated 10/20/2011