Emperor of Sand by Mastodon

Emperor of Sand, Mastodon's seventh studio album, came out on Reprise on March 31, 2017, with Brendan O'Brien in the producer's chair, and it's the Atlanta quartet at their most gripping and most accessible at once. Troy Sanders on bass and Brent Hinds on lead guitar trade vocals, Brann Dailor sings too while his drumming tumbles and rolls, and Bill Kelliher's rhythm guitar keeps the whole prog-metal machine grinding forward.

The riffs are as knotty and heavy as ever, but the choruses are bigger, and "Show Yourself", a lean, hooky blast, became the band's most commercially successful song, climbing to number 4 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart; "Steambreather" followed it to number 18. It also brought the honors: opener "Sultan's Curse" earned Mastodon their first Grammy, the album was their first to be nominated, for Best Rock Album, and The Independent put it at number three on its year-end rock and metal list.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.