"Show Yourself" is a single by American progressive metal band

Mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

, off of their studio album ''

Emperor of Sand ''Emperor of Sand'' is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Mastodon. It was released on March 31, 2017 through record label Reprise Records. The album's first single, " Show Yourself", peaked at number 4 on the US ''Billboard'' ...

''. It peaked at number 4 on the '' Billboard''

Mainstream Rock Songs Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...

chart in 2017, making it their highest-charting song to date.

Background

The

guitar riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompanime ...

for the song was first created by band guitarist

Bill Kelliher William Breen Kelliher (born March 23, 1971) is an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist of heavy metal band Mastodon, and being the only band member who doesn't share the lead vocal duty. Early life Kelliher is an Irish citize ...

while creating a collection of riffs when on tour in 2016. With most of the band's members alternating vocal duties on the band's song, vocals for "Show Yourself" were handled by drummer

Brann Dailor Brann Timothy Dailor (born March 19, 1975) is an American musician, best known as a member of heavy metal band Mastodon, in which he is the drummer and one of three vocalists. Career Dailor first started playing in a band called Eviscerati ...

. Dailor was initially hesitant to sing on the track, personally not liking the guitar riff, referring to it as "too easy", though he later changed his mind on it. Dailor reflected on the track's simplicity, stating: The song was released as the second single from their album ''

'', on February 3, 2017. The band performed the track live on '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' on April 3, 2017.

Themes and composition

The song comes from the band's seventh studio album, ''Emperor of Sand'', a concept album which explores heavy themes such as humanity's existence and limited mortality through the scenario of a person being diagnosed with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

and going through

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...

. The song lyrically plays into the same concepts, with lines such as "You're not as safe as far as I can tell, and I can tell / Only you can save yourself / Soon this will all be a distant memory / Or could this dream be real at all?" While the band is known for music that is

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

and complicated in structure, the song is relatively straightforward, with ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' describing the track as "relatively stripped-down, melodic and direct. 'Show Yourself' erupts from a straight-ahead riff layered with spasms of wild guitar from Brent Hinds. The song features a guitar solo by Hinds as well. Stereogum noted that, while the band's first single, "Sultan's Curse" contained the atmosphere of their earlier work, "Show Yourself" instead sounded like the " grungy chug-brood more in line with the work that the band has been doing in recent years". Dailor summed up the song as "super-

poppy A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, '' Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug o ...

” by Mastodon standards, while still dealing with the same themes of death and sadness".

Music video

Contrary to the heavier, serious subject matter tackled by the song and its respective album, the song's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

is more light-hearted and

campy Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting ae ...

in tone. The video features a down-on-his-luck, sad sack version of

The Grim Reaper Death is frequently imagined as a personified force. In some mythologies, a character known as the Grim Reaper (usually depicted as a berobed skeleton wielding a scythe) causes the victim's death by coming to collect that person's soul. Other ...

who, feeling pressure from an angry boss and wife at home, is tasked with killing the members of the band. The Reaper then begins his mission, but ends up killing only look-alikes of the band - impaling "Hinds" with a broken guitar neck, locking "Dailor" in a

tanning bed Indoor tanning involves using a device that emits ultraviolet radiation to produce a cosmetic tan. Typically found in tanning salons, gyms, spas, hotels, and sporting facilities, and less often in private residences, the most common device is a ho ...

, hitting "Sanders" with a copy machine, and throwing a toaster in "Kelliher"'s bath - leading to the Reaper getting "fired". It is only after his firing that the Reaper ends up killing the band. The video ends with him getting his job and wife back, and earning a brand new

hearse A hearse is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin at a funeral, wake, or memorial service. They range from deliberately a ...

, for his efforts.

Reception

The band's live performance of the song on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' was specifically praised by

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

, describing the performance as " Mastodon aren’t your typical

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

band, and they proved that with their performance on last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live...Atlanta’s favorite progressive rockers delivered a smashing performance of their Emperor of Sand single "Show Yourself", scoring major points for their accessible brand of insanity" and concluding that "It's performances like this one that could well convince an unfamiliar late night crowd to give metal a solid shot." Loudwire similarly praised Dailor's "crisp, clean delivery" of his vocals and Hinds' wailing guitar solo in the performance.

Personnel

− vocals, drums *

Troy Sanders Troy Jayson Sanders (born September 8, 1973) is an American musician, best known as a member of heavy metal band Mastodon, in which he plays bass and sings alongside guitarist Brent Hinds and drummer Brann Dailor. He is also active in Killer ...

− vocals, bass *

Brent Hinds William Brent Hinds (born January 16, 1974) is an American musician best known as a member of the Atlanta, Georgia metal band Mastodon, in which he shares guitar duties with Bill Kelliher and vocal duties with Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor. Hi ...

− lead guitar *

− rhythm guitar

Charts

References

{{Mastodon 2017 songs 2017 singles Mastodon (band) songs Reprise Records singles