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                                    Mastodon: Crack The Skye Review

                                                                                                              By Ike Lubanko

            Mastodon have been one of the greatest metal bands of the 21^st century.  Their sophomore album, Leviathan, has gained much praise among the metal community.  Their follow up to this album, Blood Mountain, was somewhat of a let down.  It was not by any means a bad album, It just wasn’t up to par with Mastodon’s standards.  Blood Mountain was to Mastodon  what …And Justice For All was for Metallica, a sign that the band needed to change to stay relevant.  Because of this striking comparison, there were many fears among fans that Mastodon would release a dumbed down, boring pop metal album similar to Metallica’s 1990 self titled album and continue to make mediocre metal for the duration of their career.  This could not be farther from the truth.  

When the album arrived in the mail the first thing that struck me was the Album Art.  Mastodon has always led a one band war against generic Album Covers in the Metal scene (see Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold, and Children of bodom album covers for perfect examples) and this album is no exception.  The art work looks like something that could have been engraved on to a Japanese sword or artifact of some sort, the unique design and intricate details really stand out.

Now, on to the actual album.  One thing that is quite apparent from the get go is that Mastodon have NOT dumbed down their music, on the contrary, Crack the Skye filled with odd time signatures, harmonized guitar parts that flow together amazingly, and dazzling drum fills by drummer Bran Dailor, who takes a much looser, almost Keith Moonlike style to drumming than most metal drummers.  The music itself flows together almost like a Pink Floyd album, the songs transition into each other beautifully and it really feels like a full album, something many modern metal albums are lacking.  The songs themselves are very deep sounding, there are heavy crushing riffs like the verse riff in the title track, but then there are cleaner more ambient moments such as the verse in “Quintessence.”  You can really tell the band was experimenting here, there are banjo lines, weird phasy effects and synth lines.  However these things never feel too overdone.  When they are present they seem to compliment the song very well and don’t take away from the heaviness of the song. The Rhythm guitar remains the main focus of Mastodon.  The riffs on the album are heavy yet very melodic and memorable, there is lots of acrobatic guitar harmonies and riffs that resemble Metallica’s earlier work.  There are guitar solos on the album as well, but as with most of mastodons work, they are usually meant to compliment the song and not to show off or make people go “wow!! Listen to that!” The two guitarists, Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds really show a sense of teamwork on this album, trading riffs, harmonies and solos throughout the song. The bass in some of the songs is not only present but plays a large role in laying down the main melody, but in other songs it is not present at all or barley audible, however for most of the album the bass plays a large enough role in the bands sound.   There is a noticeable difference between this and Mastodon’s earlier work, there is no question that Mastodon’s earlier work such as the album “Remissions” is harsher and heavier with more screaming vocals by bassist Troy Sanders, but when compared to “Levathian” the album doesn’t seem too much of a departure.  Most of all the album is not dumbed down at all, the instrumental work  as well as musical complexity if anything is stepped up on this album, the influences taken from prog rock bands like Genesis and King Crimson really show. Mastodon has done a great job of blending punishing metal riffing with elements of progressive rock without sounding cheesy or forced. The quintessential song on the album is aptly named “Quintessence.”  It begins with an interesting guitar riff in an odd time signature before going into a heavy, but melodic and very catchy chorus, it finally winds down into a downtuned breakdown with a guitar harmony at the end.

“Crack the Skye” is a concept album, the story involves a paraplegic who can travel through space and embarks on a journey that involves the spirit world, Russian Cults, Rasputin, and Satan.  While the story itself may sound cheesy the lyrics themselves are quite good.  They flow very well with the music and never feel forced as if they are obligated to tell the story even if it means sacrificing the overall sound.  Similar to Levathian, Mastodon have succeeded in writing a good concept album.  Listening to the whole album is an experience which a concept album should be.  It takes you on a journey through music so to speak instead of force feeding you a story and hoping you’ll get the concept.  “Crack the Skye” is very abstract and can be interpreted many different ways very much like Pink Floyds “Animals”