Mastodon's 'The Hunter' was a bit of a departure for the band. Most of their previous albums are conceptual pieces that are intended to be consumed as a whole. 'The Hunter', while it does embody the recurring theme of wood-related topics, is more of a collection of stand-alone songs. In our recent interview with bassist-vocalist Troy Sanders, he said that the new approach was a nice change of pace:

"…it was kind of nice to shed the idea of doing another concept record and not only throw a curve-ball to ourselves, but the rest of the world. It was therapeutic in a way — for ourselves to explore any musical territory or any lyrical content we felt [was] exciting at the time. So it was quite refreshing for us to write 'The Hunter' and it kind of rejuvenated a whole new level of energy within the four of us. We're really proud of the direction we went."