I reeeallly disliked The Hunter. It brought out this seemingly (to me) random "We're Mastodon, and we make weird music" attitude that I never really grasped. Eh. Whatever.
Love the new one though! Listened to it quite a few times already and I'm loving most every song. The only one that I find strange is Aunt Lisa... I think. The one with the strange choir of children in the background.
listened to it again some time ago. Well I think it's definitly a different direction they took on this one but can't beat Excursion Demise in any way.