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Mastodon - Crack the Skye

Crack the Skye is the fourth studio album, released on the 24th March, by American progressive metal band Mastodon. Influenced (in their words) by Tsarist Russia, astral travel, out of body experiences and Stephen Hawking’s theories on wormholes. Can it top the success of Blood Mountain?

Background

Mastodon have been gaining pace ever since the release of their first full length album "Remission" back in 2002. Each album they release has been an energetic pounding on the senses; a combination of powerful guitar riffing, intricate melodies and a unique styles of vocals. This has meant an ever increasing fan base, bigger tours and more awards and recognition in a pretty saturated metal market.

The band has been on tour, playing the Mayhem Festival last year and then with Slayer on the The Unholy Alliance tour. It has also been announced that they will support Metallica this year on the World Magnetic Tour.

What’s It Like

I could just write "brilliant" and leave it as that, but lets dig a bit deeper. "Crack the Skye" takes a slight turn of style after the award winning and frantic "Blood Mountain". The subject matter revolves around Tsarist Russia, Astral Travel and a quadriplegic (stay with me), as drummer Bradd Dailor explained in an earlier interview:

"It’s about a crippled young man who experiments with astral travel. He goes up into outer space, goes too close to the sun, gets his golden umbilical cord burned off, flies into a wormhole, is thrust into the spirit real, has conversations with spirits about the fact that he’s not really dead, and they decide to help him. They put him into a divination that’s being performed by an early-20th-century Russian Orthodox sect called the Klisti, which Rasputin is part of."

"Knowing Rasputin is about to be murdered, they put the young boy’s spirit inside of Rasputin. Rasputin goes to usurp the throne of the czar and is murdered by the Yusupovs, and the boy and Rasputin fly out of Rasputin’s body up through the crack in the sky and head back. Rasputin gets him safely back into his body."

The lyrics do speak of some pretty odd things, but the guitar work is really great. Each of the 7 track is filled with a mix of bounding meaty riffs complimented with some melodic and progressive lead guitar runs from Brent Hinds. Scott Kelly of Neurosis makes a guest appearance on the title track and there are two 10 minute plus tracks in the form of "The Czar" and "The Last Baron". Both of these are real epics, taking you on a weird voyage into the stars!

Track Listing

1. “Oblivion” - 5:47
2. “Divinations” - 3:39
3. “Quintessence” - 5:27
4. “The Czar: I. Usurper - II. Escape - III. Martyr - IV. Spiral” - 10:54
5. “Ghost of Karelia” - 5:25
6. “Crack the Skye” - 5:54
7. “The Last Baron” - 13:01

Overall

This album proves that Mastodon can deliver the goods again and again. Some may find the concept of Rasputin, and time travel rather strange, but then this isn’t your average run of the mill metal band. Best guitar work is probably found on "Quintessence" but each track has its own slice of greatness. Well worth picking up a copy.

Buy this now from: amazon.co.uk