Mammoth
5 out of 5 Stars
Mastodon are bending time and space on their fourth studio album. "Crack The Skye" picks up where the progressive leaning Blood Mountain, but they expand even deeper into the elements of the music. If there was ever a band that made the melodic chiming sounds of an army of panzer tanks, it's Mastodon. This album is that heavy a trip.
Allegedly a concept album about the rise and fall of Tsarist Russia, "Crack The Skye" is ambitious and thoughtful at the same time it is skull crushing. The centerpiece of the CD, "The Czar," is a sonic spiral of heavy rock with textures shifting throughout the four parts of the piece. There's plenty of menacing atmosphere to the point that some listeners might be taken aback...most metal depends one speed and the harshness of the sound to provide the intimidation, yet Mastodon have mastered that most elusive of beasts; dynamic. The drawn out harmonies of "The Last Baron" wouldn't be possible if the band were trying to crack land speed records, yet there's no way to miss the power and the weight of the song itself.
"Crack The Skye" was my favorite metal album of 2009, and on a par with another conceptual rocking fave, Iced Earth's Glorious Burden.
Months later, it continues to reveal new things on repeat listens.
Along with producer Brendan O'Brien, Mastodon have delivered an album
that is both a sonic boom (listen on headphones or a surround system
for the best effect) and rocks harder than 90% of what most metal bands
and fans collectively obsess over.
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