Mastodon: Crack the Skye
Mastodon: Crack the Skye
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Wednesday, 25, Mar 2009 10:31
Reprise, out March 24th.
In a nutshell...
Expansive, riff-ridden, heavy, beautiful metal.
What's it all about?
Mastodon are a band with some pretty heavy concepts and Crack the Skye is no different.
So, here goes: the album centres on a quadriplegic boy whose spirit leaves his body through the power of astral travel. On his journey he flies too close to the sun in an Icarus-like manner burning his umbilical cord that kept his spirit attached to his body. The boy ends up in the body of Rasputin (that's right, Czarist Russia Rasputin) and is murdered as the historical figure is. When his soul returns to his body the boy is healed. There are some other technicalities, but that's about the gist of it. Awesome. In the literal sense of the word, not like hot dog awesome.
Who's it by?
Mastodon formed back in 1999 and have produced four well-received albums, particularly Leviathan and Blood Mountain. They consist of drummer Brann Dailor, guitarist Bill Kelliher, bassist/singer Troy Sanders and guitarist/singer Brent Hinds.
Their sound is most easily summed up in these words: epic prog-metal. Oh and they rock. Pretty flipping hard.
As an example...
"Spiralling up through the crack in the sky/Leaving material world behind."
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
The critics have loved Mastodon before and they have been and will be no different this time around. They have already been nominated for one Grammy so why not for another.
What the others say
"[Crack the Skye] doesn't have the expansive, suffusing grime of the previous two, and the band's churn can feel a bit stretched-thin for minutes at a time." - Tom Breihan, Pitchfork
"We're talking goose bump-inducing s**t here." - J Bennett, Rock Sound
So is it any good?
Metal would not be half as good as it is without Mastodon. That is how indelible the mark is that they have made on the genre, just four albums into their career. They have it all: earth-shattering riffs that rival anything that has come before, literally out-of-this-world concepts, solid anvil beards and actual substance behind the macho exterior of the brutal yet stunningly beautiful compositions. Not to mention extraordinary musicianship that would make any wannabe greener than the wicked witch after a few shots of absinthe.
It is a surprise therefore that Crack the Skye opens in a rather unimpressive style, no insane guitar riff, no histrionic yelps or growls from either Sanders or Hinds. Just the kind of hackneyed, ominous drone of a lead axe that is synonymous with the tired Metallica-type bands that there is a surplus of now. This is smashed to pieces, however, when Dailor's thrilling fill-ins come rolling and crashing in. From this point, there is no looking back.
Not once do you get the feeling that the twists and turns, the peaks and troughs of Mastodon's prog arrangements are contrived or replete with pretentious ambition. It all feels so natural. Track two is something to just sit back and smile at. Opening with a trembling banjo that subtly disappears under a burning guitar, it evolves into one of the finest metal singles of the decade, perhaps ever.
Quintessence is the following number, equally thundering but opening up the more expansive aspect of Crack the Skye, with increasingly varied songs that mix up time signatures as well as the ethereal with heavy-handed rock, emphatically delivered with the help of producer Brendan O'Brien (AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen).
At points, the less patient of listeners will fail to put up with epics The Czar (consisting of four parts amounting ten minutes 54 seconds) and The Last Baron (13 minutes one second). Sometimes they will be right to feel a little jaded as the progness that lies within Mastodon begins to leak through the non-artificial, heavily-coated layers of Crack the Skye. But these moments are only minor slips.
After being plastered with so much glorious noise, and having had the joy to listen to an album so resplendent in beauty, any listener should agree that Mastodon can be forgiven for anything.
9.5/10
Thomas S Brewster