Mastodon - Crack The Skye (2009)

Mastodon
Crack the Skye (2009)
"Hipster metal". What an unfortunate tag to have placed on you. Having your efforts reduced to nothing but a ploy to attract adventurous Pitchfork readers; a mere curiosity that provides a playlist break between Feist and Panda Bear and seems to say "Hey! Look guys, I actually like some metal!" -- in the same way MF Doom proves indie kids' hip hop chops. Mastodon deserve more credit than that; more than the fickle appreciation of trend-whore hipsters and more than to be marginalized by metalheads claiming the band isn't even metal anymore and therefore hipsters should look elsewhere for their token metal band. It was with this in mind that made it hard for me not to smile at the copper-colored sticker on the front packaging of this album, which reads "Crack The Skye - The New Album From Globally Revered Hard-Rock Masters Mastodon" There, "hard-rock"; in one fell swoop proving the metalheads right and the hipsters wrong and moving the fuck on with it. Ending the pointless debate and challenging listeners to take their music for what it is and not what the listener thought it was or wants it to be or what is and isn't hip. Or, you know, something like that.

So anyway, Crack the Skye. Actually, first...well, I don't know about you, but I haven't gone back to Blood Mountain that often in the past two-and-a-half years. At first I saw it as a marked improvement for Mastodon: further embracing the prog-metal direction they took and absolutely nailed with Leviathan, and getting tighter and more technical as a band. As time went on, though, I began to question the use of the word "improvement". It was a progression alright, but it wasn't necessarily better than what they'd done previously, because other than a few spins of "The Wolf Is Loose" (great) and "Capillarian Crest" (awesome), I could probably do without hearing the album again in its entirety. It's a good enough listen in the moment, but the songs just don't stick. But Crack The Skye? Sheeeeiit. I doubt I'll be saying the same about Crack the Skye down the road.

They haven't gone back to the drawing board or made any dramatic changes, but they've kept moving in the same direction: more prog, more crazy (some might say "stupid") concepts, more guitar godliness, but now with more focus and 25% more epicness. At 50-minutes divided into seven tracks, they didn't do their label's PR team any favors. Actually, they gave them one proper single: "Divinations", which has the shortest length (three-and-a-half minutes), the largest hook, and arguably the most blistering guitar solo in an album filled with them. It's obviously there to keep the label heads' hair intact, yet it doesn't seem forcefully tacked-on even if it is the weakest track. The other tracks are given a bit more time to simmer and they make good use of it; shifting and changing riffs at will and bringing it back together by the time it's all over. Take "Oblivion", probably their first album opener that doesn't assault your speakers from the 0:00 second mark. Three different vocalists have their turns at the mic, the best of which comes from Brent Hinds, who seems to have been looking to the Motown catalog (between drunken encounters with other bands) because he really brings the soul to this track, as well as others. Fear not: it's actually an asset; not anywhere near as awful as I've described it.

I''m going to be abrupt here, because I could potentially go on for a lot longer counting the ways in which this album kicks ass, describing in detail my favorite moments and whatnot (top two: Scott Kelly's excellent contribution to the title track, and the earth-shattering, devil horns-inducing final minute of "Quintessence"), but it's just going to get redundant and I like to restrict my use of the word "awesome" to two or less times per review. So here's the album's only flaw: the central riff for "Ghost Of Karelia" is blatantly recycled from the Blood Mountain song "Sleeping Giant". There, that's about it.

Crack the Skye is an incredible album. It's Mastodon's most complete work yet and undoubtedly the greatest thing they've ever done and probably will do. Only four months into the year, hard-rock, hipster metal, or whatever you choose to call it, has it's best album of 2009. I can't really say it more clearly than that.


Score: 9.5/10


"Oblivion"


"Quintessence"