Mastodon - Crack The Skye Review
Crack The Skye is a little more polished than their past CDs, but the traditional Mastodon experimentation and quirkiness is fully intact. The band always opens strong, and "Oblivion" is no exception.
Mastodon's skills are pushed to the limit on "The Czar," an 11 minute epic with layers of keyboards, and guitars that are sometimes funky, other times very technical. It's an epic track that twists and turns its way through various textures and vibes without being repetitive.
"Divinitions" starts with a brief banjo intro before kicking into a hard driving beat with some catchy riffs and a ripping guitar solo. Scott Kelly from Neurosis has become a regular guest on Mastodon albums, and he returns with vocals on the title track. The album wraps up with another epic, the 13 minute "The Last Baron." Masterfully arranged, it's the appropriate song to bring the proceedings to a close.
Read the complete Mastodon - Crack The Skye Review
(CD cover courtesy Reprise Records)
Comments
Great review Bowar! Crack The Skye is one of the best albums of the year so far.
Hugs.
Crack the Skye is one of the most disappointing albums of 2009. Not only have Mastodon lost the key ‘Chunky as hell’ riffs but ‘that’ difference that made them one of the most amazing bands both live and on the stereo to date! Crack the Skye is wizard metal, ‘twiddley’ guitars with no real weight! With music as bad as it is these days I was hoping for a ray of hope, sadly this day still hasn’t come! Still love you Brann
If i look at this album from a metal point of view, yes I would be very disappointed. The vocals have been watered down, guitars don’t have as much bite and the overall production seems more focused to the rock than metal/
This is the most interesting Mastodon release I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.
I think whats helped me is coming into this album with no expectations. No expectations about how it might sound, what the themes might be, overall tones etc.
I plugged in my headphones, smoked a joint and allowed the music to take me wherever it needed to. The amazing thing is that there is a lot going on, keyboards, ambient sounds, intricate drum patterns, and after each listen I pick up something new. This is album gets a 4.5/5. An amazing achievement!
yeah you can’t really pigeon hole a band like mastodon into the “metal” genre. You can’t really contain their sound in a one or two word label, It’s the same reason I love TOOL. Sorry the band didn’t bend to your idea of what music should be, maybe you should be in your own band, then you can make music the way you want to.
I hate to say this, but I agree with the reviewer above about this album being the most disappointing album of 09.
I have been so excited about this album for half a year. I spent the 39.99 for the special edition and waited patiently.
It arrived and I immediately put it on my computer and then got it on my ipod. I sat down with a beer and listened to the whole thing…three times.
I’m severely disappointed with this album. The lyrics are campy, the music is VERY repetitive and the overall feel of the album is flat. With Blood Mountain, there was some repitition of guitar riffs, but the album felt anything but flat. It had ups and down, etc.
I’ll keep listening, but my initial impressions have held over the last week of constant listening.
Too bad, as they were poised to really make a fantastic album that set the bar. Rather, they appear to have sold out to the pressure to put out music with little regard for real content.
Brett
Crack The Skye is without a doubt Mastodons finest hour (or 50 minutes to be precise) and I would argue that this is their “Master Of Puppets”
I’m sorry to hear some of you guys just couldn’t go with the flow.
Mastodon have never followed musical conventions, to truly appreciate the band is to understand that concept by embracing change & respecting the process of growth & progression.
To say this album has no content is astounding, Crack The Skye is nothing but content, soul & feel with a lyrical approach that demands more of the listener. With the influences to be heard all over it Metallica, Maiden, Sabbath, Tool, Rush, to name few, this is hands down the rock album of the year!
Brendan O’Brien needs to go back to producing Bruce Springsteen and keep his hands off of these guys…Mastodon has lost most of it’s ferociousness and intensity with this album…I tend to think that it has alot to do with the way that O’Brien has compressed the (crap) out of everything…or maybe it’s the symphonic texture of the album that I just can’t get with…their other albums have so much definition and space this one is all smeared and washy sounding and way too polished for me…I need more brutality from Mastodon and less “ether”, sorry Brann…good playing though…too much Rush, not enough Slayer…
@Brett
Repetitive?!?!?! Are you serious… this album sprawls with variance, and depth. Each track is very different from the others, and the tracks themselves have so much going on in them that I fail to see where you get the notion that they are repetitive.
You seem to me to be another metalhead who cant deal with a band evolving their sound, or shock horror tone down the grunt.
I love this album for all its richness, and I appreciate it for what it is. Sure it lacks the punch of Blood Mountain, or the aggression of Leviathan, or even the pace of Remission, but its a prog opus, and its score fulls marks for that.
I am a metal head, and have had a fair few great fullforce albums that have rocked my world over the last year or so (Obzen-Meshuggah, We are the Nightmare-Arsis, Suicide Season-Bring me the Horizon, Inflikted-Cavelera Conspiracy, Versus-The Haunted, Wrath-Lamb of God, Time Waits for No Slave – Napalm Death). This album like Cynics Traced in Air, or the new Isis album are for those willing to wade into territory where its not just about power/sreams, and blast beats.
Take it for what it is, not what your expectations were. Disliking it because its not heavy enough just seems retarded to me.
Broaden your mind.
Crack the Skye is awesome, and while not what I was expecting I love it as much if not more than the previous masterworks produced by Mastodon.
I hated this album at first but now I think it’s incredibly awesome. Those chunky as hell riffs aren’t gone for good, they just decided to do something new. They’re like the David Bowie of metal, constantly reinventing themselves and making something they haven’t made before while still retaining core characteristics of their sound. This album isn’t really metal, but it’s certainly not soft music. It’s still got an edge, it’s just more reflective. I think it’s great that the same band who tore it up on Remission can sit back and experiment with whatever they feel like and come out with a laid-back album like Crack the Skye. I’m seriously looking forward to seeing what they do on their next album, I’m sure it’ll sound like nothing they’ve done before.
Also, it’s worth noting that if you downloaded this album from the internet there’s a 9 in 10 chance that it’s the crappy 128 bitrate rip, so if you didn’t buy it or get it from iTunes you’re not really listening to it. I had the crappy version and I could barely hear all of the awesome layers going on. The newfound clarity of sound when I bought the CD was pretty stunning.
If you are a songwriter or musician you will understand the progression on this album. Heaviness can only go so far by itself. In the end what truly moves us is a great song. Mastodon was seized on this disc by a desire to leave us songs which will stay in our memories forever- unforgettable riffs, instantly recognizable grooves, and yes, melodies which will capture our imagination and emotions. They have succeeded brilliantly. A great band can never stand still- I will follow Mastodon wherever their fascinating path takes them.
I agree with comment #9. As a working musician who loves progressive yet heavy bands like ISIS, Opeth and Tool I have to say that Crack The Skye is a masterpiece. The band certainly has evolved and this album showcases their potential to become true masters of composition, arrangement and emotional complexity. I’m already looking forward to their next album…
This is by far they’re best record to date! Mastodon has always been a band that I liked because they had a unique quality in they’re songwriting. They were never a generic metal band, and that was what helped draw me to them. With this release, they are now an “art-metal” band, up there with Meshuggah Isis and Tool. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have been alive when the cd was released, because to me this feels like what Pink Floyd fans felt like when DSotM was released, a piece of art that will coincide with a particular time in your life.
This record is leaps and bounds beyond they’re last few records (which I think were great). They have found substance and you can tell that they are seriously happy with the way the record turned out.
If you want to hear blood mountain again, put it your cd player. If you want to hear leviathan again, listen to it again. I personally dont want to hear the same record over and over again, and I think that this was the perfect natural progression for this band. If you disagree, just look at how much the band themselves likes it! They obviously like they’re old records too, but if they are so happy with it there must be something good about it for god’s sake.
4.9 out of 5
Changing my life!
Brilliant. For those who thought it was to ethereal, I do remember listening to an interview with the band stating that this album was to represent ether/air. Well done. I must say this album caught my ear before I had ever heard any other Mastodon. I had seen their shirts roaming around some friends of mine who are way into metal. I myself am more of a progger. Tool is king in my musical world, Opeth, also a top contender. This album to me, it’s an absolute masterpiece!!! I caught the Divinations video, late night on Headbangers Ball, which I see about once a year at someone elses house. That song leapt out at me. How full of power and energy. The entire album makes me feel like the Universe is coursing with primal, raw force, and it wants to be tapped into, it begs us all to come drink from its fountain.
I appear to be in the minority here, but yeah, this album was a HUGE disappointment. I mean, it must have been hard to follow their last three albums with anything, but surely they could have done better than this.
With Divinations being the one major exception, all of the songs on here lack any sort of direction or momentum of any kind. Mastodon used to accomplish this by utilizing sudden and frequent meter and rhythmic changes, but on here there are none. Not to mention the complete absence of any sort of variance in dynamics, thanks to the big-shot digital compression the producer violated their music with. One of the many downsides to signing with a major label. The songs all just sort of plod along and moderate tempos, sort of meandering between samish riffs while Troy awkwardly delivers Brann’s childish lyrics about wormholes and Rasputin.
So naturally the critics are just eating it up. “They stopped making music that challenges me as a listener! Hooray! 5 stars!!”
One word for Crack the Skye….Amazing!!! This is one on the best prog-metal efforts in years…this album is their “Master of Puppets”, “Reign in Blood”, “End of Silence”, “Age of Quarrel”, etc…live they are more then just muppets jumping around like some think they should be…they have a presence hence their success. I for one can’t wait to see what they do next!
Crack The Skye is seriously the greatest rock album to come out in the last 10 years. No it’s not the Mastodon of old but that’s the point. These guys are always growing. Take a look at the difference between Leviathan and Blood Mountain, which really had a jazzy undertone to it. CTS is Mastodon’s Dark Side of the Moon, Moving Pictures, Master of Puppets and South of Heaven all rolled in to one. It’s the album they’ve been striving for. All the years of hard work have paid off, boys. Give me “The Last Baron” against any POS nu metal band out today.
“I appear to be in the minority here, but yeah, this album was a HUGE disappointment. ”
Well minority, it’s tough for me to bear your crushing dissapointment but it’s mostly because I’m listening to this album and its awesome.
Thanks for the information people. I bought the album but haven’t opened it so I’ll probably return it. I have blood mountain and it is pretty cool I also saw Mastadon on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force dvd and they were the mean food band they were cool. But alas it sounds like success has claimed another band as it’s victim see Tool, Metallica, wow I could just keep going but you know what I mean. They lose their edge because they have a lot of money. Rich people usually aren’t as angry as the poor
It’s funny how people are surprised by this “evolution” that mastodon has shown with crack the sky. But if you listen to every album in order the progression is very natural. You can totally see this album coming. Rock! And keep them coming!