CRACK THE SKYE

Unfortunately, I don't think this album is up to par with their past work..... They have not evolved..... this is not a masterpiece. half of it is boring. someone wrote that their time signatures are more basic and this is true. the music is less creative as their past stuff. the aggression that is mastodon is, not completely, but very much lost. Yes it is a prog album, and yes it is better than 99% of the music you will hear on a basic radio. But the production on this album is far from excellent. The change in the sound of the vocals is annoying. The drumming is without a single doubt(from the ears of a drummer) less than exciting compared to previous albums. The album does flow, but the music is hardly what they are known for. The guitars sound muddy(and this may be due to bad mixing or producing, which is what I believe). bring back the badass-ness that is lost. If this is the first mastodon album you've ever heard, and arent thrilled with it, listen to the album leviathan. But this one is an album to keep in the collection and throw on once a year, that's about it. review here is about 2.5