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Mastodon - Blood Mountain

 

	RELEASED: September 12th, 2006 PRODUCER:Matt Bayles, Mastodon LABEL:Warner Bros./Reprise BAND: Brann Dailor Brent Hinds Bill Kelliher Troy Sanders
+ Excellent musicianship, Unconfined by genres, Relentlessly creative - Every so often the experimental stuff falls a bit flat	TRACKS: 1.The Wolf is Loose 2.Crystal Skull 3.Sleeping Giant 4.Capillarian Crest 5.Circle of Cysquatch 6.Bladecatcher 7.Colony of Birchmen 8.Hunters of the Sky 9.Hand of Stone 10.This Mortal Soil 11.Siberian Divide 12.Pendulous Skin

OVERVIEW

For all the Gothen-clones in today’s metal scene, all of the moshcore bands with copycat breakdowns and girl jeans, and the wretched spawn of AFI and all their soundalikes, there exists a remedy; a band unrestrained by the conventions of whiny choruses, unafraid to marry crushing guitar and fusion jazz drums, and ready to spit in the face of anyone that say nobody’s doing anything original in metal anymore.

You can find this remedy in the “Rock” section of your local record store, in a little package with MASTODON written on the front.  No prescription necessary.

Ok, seriously, there’s been a whole lot of buzz about this album, especially about how it compares to their 2004 opus “Leviathan”.  Is it better?  I would say no.  Does that mean it’s inferior?  Definitely not.  Come on people, which is better?  Master of Puppets or Ride the Lightning?  Led Zeppelin II or IV?  The Joshua Tree or War?  The point is that Mastodon isn’t making a “Leviathan, Pt. II”, and thankfully so, but it still peels paint and throws the genre rulebook completely out the window.  For those of you that want me to spell it out for you, Blood Mountain is slightly more accessible, notably more schizophrenic (compare “Bladecatcher” and “Colony of Birchmen” and you’ll see what I’m talking about), and each song has more individual character than most of the tracks on Leviathan.  I love Leviathan, but Blood Mountain triumphs in its own right

SONGS

Blood Mountain kicks off in style with the everywhere-at-once drums of Brann Dailor and proceeds to pummel with what is easily one of Mastodon’s most straightforward songs ever, but it’s a great song that definitely accomplishes it’s purpose of priming you for the rest of the record.  “Crystal Skull” features some great heavy riffage and solo work, which makes “Sleeping Giant” seem really slow by comparison, but as a more sludgy number, it does a good job pacing the record and is pretty darn enjoyable to boot.  Things pick right up again with “Capillarian Crest”, an off-kilter slammer with some of the best musicianship on the record during the song’s lengthy interlude.  “Circle of Cysquatch” is another more straightforward headbanger (relatively speaking), which brings us to “Bladecatcher”, a full-on redline-the-speed-meter bruiser with some of the album’s oddest effects, and Mastodon has the good sense not to spoil this chaos-fest instrumental with vocals.  The album’s 2nd single, “Colony of Birchmen” does well at advancing the storyline (yes, there’s a plot to this one too), and is yet another song that appears pretty straightforward until after a few hard listens.  Things lean a bit more on the demented side with “Hunters of the Sky”, almost like the later tracks on Leviathan, “Hand of Stone” features some of the better clean vocals on the record, and the record is paced nicely with “This Mortal Soil”, which, if you’re paying attention to the story, gives a hint that the hero might be nearing the quest’s end.  “Siberian Divide” is a bit odd even by Mastodon standards, jumping from hardcorish shouts to a chorus-of-the-chipmunks refrain that still makes me scratch my head every now and then.  The 22-minute closer “Pendulous Skin” isn’t quite as gigantic as its run time would suggest – it’s actually about 5 minutes of actual song (which is pretty good, but not great), followed by 15 minutes of dead space and a “fan letter” from none other than Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and a tongue-in-cheek reference to the album being leaked a few months before it officially debuted.

CONCLUSION

At this point, Mastodon really doesn’t have to answer to anyone.  Nobody in today’s mainstream metal scene can touch them in terms of creativity and uniqueness, and even if you don’t like their style, you’d be crazy to deny their prodigious talent and creativity.  Blood Mountain is one of those albums you might not like at first spin, especially if you’re not a fan of the band to begin with, but this is one heck of a progressive metal album that definitely is worth all the buzz it’s received.  Excellent, indeed.

Review by Matt Rewinski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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