“4 1/2 stars out of 5″
Grab some big headphones or crank up the stereo volume for Mastodon’s triumphant return to progressive metal, “Crack The Skye.” This album, on which no track is less than five minutes and two tracks clock in over the big 10:00 mark, is about immersing the listener in the roaring guitars and textural keyboard sounds.
Melodic, ambient metal sounds start you up on this album, which tells a story of a quadriplegic who projects his spirit into the universe and ends up as a trip through Czarist Russia and a fateful encounter with the dreaded Rasputin.
While surprisingly for a concept album, no single track serves as filler for the story, the two riff-laden masterpieces “Divinations” and the appropriately complex “The Czar: I. Usurper – II. Escape – III. Martyr – IV. Spiral” stand head-and-shoulders above the rest of the album and quite possibly above all the rest of Mastodon’s works, with guitar play and background melodies more complex than anything the band has ever produced before.
Other, more subtle tracks like “The Last Baron” serve as bridges both for the story and the high-pitched, exploratory tone of the album, while managing to utilize keyboard and wild variations in tempo to project you into the middle of the band’s vision.
Wormholes, time travel, astral projection and Stephen Hawking are all visited and each track sets you in the middle of a different yet always complex world.
Several of the songs are so intricate and complex, sounds laden on sounds, that it’s difficult to get it all in a pass or two. Expect to want to re-listen to each track, looking for something different each time.
This is helped along by a seemingly dueling background theme to each track, providing both ambience and counterplay with the main metal and drum play. For those who want to immerse themselves even further in the prog metal ambience, the deluxe edition of the album contains instrumental versions of each track.
Overall, “Crack The Skye” emerges as Mastodon’s finest album thus far, bringing together their love for complex, intricate metal scores with the ambience and flow that made Mastodon famous.
-Zachary Hughes
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I don’t understand why this album has gotten such great reviews. As far as I’m concerned, this is Mastadons worst album. Blood Mountain was alright, especially with cameos from Steve Vontill of “Neurosis”. But to be honest, this is the most watered down Mastodon I’ve ever heard. The guitar playing is sub-par and the extent of work in drumming is worse than mediocre. I would imagine it has something to do with Mastodon abandoning Relapse Records and switching to Warner Brothers.
Although I’ve noticed this trend with many bands I’ve liked. The first several albums are real strong and then it becomes boring. Maybe its an attempt to do something new, but it almost never is progressive in any way, shape or form.
Its the same with many metal and hardcore bands. The Dillinger Escape Plan, what once was a powerhouse in the hardcore community is now overdone and dried out. Baroness’ Red Album is another good example. Baroness were originally a doomy kinda band. But now incorporate a lot of clean vocals and have a totally different dynamic. Cult of Luna; I remember when they were heavy, but not anymore. Cryptopsy, long time legends for ridiculous sweep guitar and blast-beats are now a watered down, poppy metal band.
I suppose thats the way it goes. We start off with great bands like: At The Gates
Cave In
Coalesce
Origin
Opeth
Impaled
Converge
The Crown
Melvins
EyeHateGod
Now we have god awful bands like
The Devil Wears Prada
Norma Jean
The Chariot
Zao
Demon Hunter
Underoath
BrokenCyde
Blacklisted
Killswitch Engage
Arch Enemy
Slipknot
Its just so original, lacks any structured thought process or concept. Its regurgitated and boring and worst of all its lazy.
You can count it sometimes, every 3 seconds Killswitch Engage has the same audio recorded “perfect” harmonic pinch.
Maybe I’m just getting older. And I’m set in my ways. The last thing I want to be is an old man saying “Your generations music sucks.”
But if you evaluate any metal band and you heard where it all started. You’ll hear something new and say yeah…”thats an At the Gates riff.”
Travis… I’m just gonna say it:
no cares about your thoughts on music. Ever. At all.
Go pay your rent.
Your absolutely write about the mastodon change up, man.
What happened to that band?
I like a couple songs of the new record, but they’re just not heavy anymore.