Mastodon: Crack The Skye

Another one just like the other one! This is the first studio recording of Mastodon's that I will have heard in its entirety, so there won't be many "this is different from their last record because..."-type comments. Also, the version of Crack The Skye that I bought has two versions of each song, a "traditional" recording and an instrumental of the song. I'll only be reviewing the traditional version of each song. Here we go!

Track 1: Oblivion
Nice slow, heavy intro. Fairly simple, but leaves room to grow. Overall sound doesn't sound too compressed, though it's nowhere near as "live as Beggars. Here comes a sweet fast riff that reminds me a little of the verse section of "Crazy Train". Oddly enough, vocals sound quite a bit like Ozzy as well. At least, the chorus part. I heard from a number of sources that drummer Brann Dailor made his vocal debut on this album. I'm going to guess he's singing on the verses of this song? He sounds good! Pretty decent range, nice clean tone. I suppose this album is very "singy" for Mastodon, most if not all of their previous albums have been almost exclusively screamed. I think I might like this version of Mastodon better. Acoustic-sounding intro to the bridge and solo, maybe a 12-string with light fuzz? Solo here, sounds pretty exotic, but not in a sitar-y kind of way. Maybe a Russian scale? There was a lot of russian influence on the record overall, as I recall. Grigory Rasputin makes a mention, but then how can you make a metal album about Russians and NOT mention Rasputin. Really. Song is coming to it's end on that same riff.
OSR: 4 Stars

Track 2: Divinations
BANJO INTRO! Sweetness. Pretty fast. Have i mentioned Brann's set sounds amazing? I don't know what brand he uses, but it's good. Different singer on the verse here, possibly Brent Hinds. I think he's the homeless-looking one. =P Sweet 6/8 riff here. Good mid-fast tempo for headbanging. Pretty noisy, fast riff here. Almost punky. Very predominant bass, clearly using a pick. And now they're just jamming over this riff for a while. Sweet trill... and we're back to the chorus. Ooh... odd time signature? That sounds sweet. maybe 5/4 or something.
OSR: 3.5 stars

Track 3: Quintessence
Another really big/epic intro. Kinda slow, but it may well pick up. Yup, it did. Cool circular riff from one guitar. We seem to be sticking with Brent for the clean vocals here, I can't say for sure, it just seems like a voice like this would come from a face like his. =) hmm... Dear Brent: surely you can think of a better lyric than "letting go" 5 times in a row. No, make that 10. ouch. Well it's better than screaming incoherently. That circular riff has reappeared, and we seem to be making clever use of a synthesizer here. Nothing as bad as Journey or Van Halen, it's rather tasteful. And an ethereal sort of oohing vocal. "Letting go" again... and we're riffing over a bass line, and another odd time signature! I have to say, what Mastodon may lack in vocal talent and lyric writing, they make up for with rhythmic prowess. Screamed vocals! ish. Almost whispered. At any rate, there isn't a pitch associated. OSR: 3.4 Stars

Track 4: The Czar: Usurper / Escape / Martyr / Spiral
Wow. Long song title, even longer song. 10:54. Ten minutes. Wow. Well we have a cool, minor-y synth intro, followed by a mirroring guitar. Synth fades out, guitar only. And now all the instruments are in. Bass line is making some cool harmonic things here, and the drums are nice and quiet, for the time being. Interesting parrallel octaves thing going in the vocals. Brent seems to be singing again. Sigh... Were I the producer i think i would encourage Brann Dailor (drums) to sing more. He has a better voice. "Don't Stay, run away" seems to be the theme so far. Not sure who is running or from whom, but i have a feeling it's the same theme with Rasputin. Tzarina is mentioned a couple times here. Cool quasi-heavy guitar riff happening. And a fast riff! woo. I like this part. A lot. Really sweet repeating lick/riff thing happening. And we seem to have a third singer... our bassist perhaps? I know one of them doesn't sing. I like that Brann doesn't always put his cymbal crashes on the first beat of a measure. It keeps you waiting for it. The anticipation is nice. And we have that same lick again. It is HOT, and it's very creative. I think it would sound pretty sweet regardless how slow you played it. And whoever's playing it nails it every time. Cool chord progression here, sounds like Sabbath sped up a bit. ooh, and we seem to have switched moods again. Very acoustic-y, 6/8 time-y. I like how even though this song is long, it holds your attention. I think this is the "Martyr" portion of the song. Though it could well be "Spiral". It sounds like what a spiral would sound like, but we have another 4 minutes until the end of the song. Sweet, extended solo with some nice Tele-like tone, but i'm sure it's a Gibson. That's all i've ever seen them play with. And we're back to the slow bit with "Don't stay, run away" again. I guess it works. It's not my favorite part of the song, but it's not a bad place for it. And i guess that's the end? It's got that same exotic-tone to it. OSR: 5 stars.

Track 5: Ghost of Karelia
Cool syncopated cymbal intro. Another circular riff. I really dig that they keep looking for a way to make odd time-signatures work. It's sweet. I'm not really sure what to make of the title, but i suppose it would help if I had the lyrics in front of me. Starting to get heavy, reminding me of live videos from their older stuff. The drums are really busy on this one, lots of 16th note runs and such. This is kind of an unremarkable track otherwise, though it could well be because i'm coming off the high from the Czar. OSR: 3 Stars

Track 6: Crack The Skye
Well, this is the title track. So far so good. Got that same 12-string arpegiation thing going on. Fairly slow tempo for this portion of the song. Cool progression with the riff here, and now we are HEAVY METAL! We are screaming and we are angry. Wooooooooooo cool. I like. Very heavy, very well-placed in the song. Matched well with the vocals right after. Hmm. This tempo change kinda feels like slamming on the brakes, but we're back up to speed in no time. There is a good deal of screaming on this one (compared to the rest of the record);slamming on the brakes again, and now a solo! cool. Got a little bit of a Jimmy Page-style to it, and now we're working with a watery-sounding talkbox. Cool. Making words of some kind, but I can't make them out. It could well be a distortion box for a vocal and i just can't tell. And another solo, this one probably from Bill Keheiler. Tempo seems to be like a slow-slamdance tempo, not too fast, not too slow, and plenty heavy. "I can see the pain, it's written all over your face" is a cool line from this song. Dropping the volume down to a couple acoustics, and this one is wrapped. OSR: 4.8 stars

Track 7: The Last Baron
Wooo. Longest metal song EVER! 13:00. Cool fuzzy 12-string thing again. "We can set this world ablaze". Watery talkbox thing again. Another midtempo 6/8 song. Me likey. Wait wait... they're pleading with a female here? this is MASTODON for crying out loud. They don't beg for anything. They just TAKE. Weirdness. Oh well, it's the music that matters, and it is pretty stellar. Now we're taking the busyness up a step, the tempo seems the same. This is good. Going a little faster yet, drumming is fantastic, very busy kind of snare pattern going on. 5/4 pattern that is SMOKIN hot here. I am really digging these longer songs. They seem to have put more effort on them, and it shows. The articulation in the guitars is really clean, i like this a lot. Too many guitarists try to play as fast as they can, and it gets sloppy, but they don't do this. Ooh. Now they're going all break-down-y on me. Weird. It's really tight and all, but it doesn't really match what the rest of the album is like. Well, the drums match pretty well. It's just that the guitars match it exactly. I dunno. I guess it works. You can't have a song 13 minutes long and have all of it be perfect. Here's a cool groove-metal pattern. I like groove metal, if you know me at all.

And that's Crack the Skye! Odd time signatures, huge drum parts with elaborate fills, long, involved solos with eastern flavor, and songs about astral projection and Grigori Rasputin! I enjoyed the ride, and hopefully you will too! I always applaud metal artists who get out of the rut of screaming all their vocals. It is a difficult thing to do to write both interesting instrumental parts and vocals. Just be sure to buy the album. Not only will you be supporting these artists (for artists they are), but you get some pretty sweet cover art and fold-outs if you buy them from iTunes. Seriously. Check them out.