Review: Mastodon – Crack the Skye
Mastodon – Crack the Skye (2009) [Reprise] // Grade: A
When I first heard Crack the Skye a couple of weeks back i couldn’t get the image of villagers at the gates of Castle Mastodon armed with pitchforks and torches screaming “SELL OUT!”
Fans outgrowing bands is nothing new, it happens… People and tastes change at a higher rate than a band’s evolution from album to album. But sometimes a band just outgrow their fans, which is the case on Crack the Skye. Can you blame Mastodon for wanting to undertake some new challenge? They’ve gone as far as they could go with their epic brand of Stoner Metal, why not see if they can somehow find away to take what they’ve been doing for years and make it commercially viable? With Crack the Skye Mastodon has done just that by releasing their …And Justice For All or Ænima if you will.
The complex & plodding song structures of albums past have been refined and tightened so that they breathe in an almost King Crimsonion sort of way. Much of guttural vocals have been pushed to the background allowing for slicker and catchier vocal melodies to take the sort of spotlight never afforded on earlier Mastodon albums. And this is all done without ever neutering any of the bands trademark intensity & power.
I’m certain this will all come to the dismay of those Mastodon fans hoping for another Leviathan, but to anyone who has been following Mastodon and listening closely for some time, this album should come as no surprise. Mastodon has been hinting at this sort of album for quite some time. This is what Prog Metal should sound like, challenging, uncompromising yet entirely accessible to indoctrinate a whole new legion of followers. We too often chastise rather than celebrate bands/album who are able to strike that sort of elusive balance. Hopefully in time even those taken aback by where Crack the Skye has gone will come to appreciate what Mastodon has set into motion here.
Crack the Skye is currently streaming on Mastodon’s Myspace so feel free to chime in with your own opinion.
- My Pal the Crook
March 17th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
listening to this now. and so far you are dead on.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Brendan O’Brien is the shit! This is one of those records that’s going to get better and better with each listen.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
The first thing I thought of was “epic”. As in “epic expanse of space”. I had this nice out-of-body experience while listening to this gem…and yeah, people have been bitching that it’s not as heavy / fast as past albums but those tend to the be the thick-necked lunks who show up at the live sets and flail their arms around, whipping themselves into a frenzy. The progression they’ve made over the last few albums was pointing to “Crack the Skye” and they produced something that was more than what I expected…
March 17th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Mastadon has had a huge progression musically and this album in my opinon is just as good as Leviathan or Remission. Much Like the rest of The southern Metal scene, they all seem to be feeding off one another and honing in on this more melodic tighter sound that had its grass roots influenced by Crust and Metal Bands such as DAMAD (pronounced damn-mad), Meatjack, Metallica and taken the prog influence of Floor. I love this album, and Like Cornbluth said it’s only gonna get better with every listen.
March 17th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Very accurate review. You’d have to be under a rock to have not seen this coming from Mastodon.
March 18th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
this album is something i can’t really put my finger on. its epic for sure, quite good…. i think in 15 years this album will be regarded as a landmark release.
April 14th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Check out Friend Without a Face new single “Tsunami”, featuring Brent Hinds from Mastodon streaming here:
http://fiendwithoutaface.viinyl.com/
Album out on June 7th!