BLOOD MOUNTAIN

Mastodon's 2006 album is, in my humble opinion, not only their best (yet) but also one of the best progressive metal albums ever. With "Blood Mountain", the band continues to perfect what seems to be a mixture of death metal, jazz and classic symphonic prog. It goes without saying that the playing abilities of these four gentleman are way above the regular musician. Of course, the honourable mention goes, as usual, to the exquisite drumming skills of Mister Dailor, who always delivers his goods fast, accurate and tempo-perfect. The album starts with "The Wolf Is Loose", an up-tempo ass-kicker that you can almost call it a classic Mastodon album opener. Then follows "Crystal Skull", which is a perfectly decent metal song but in the context of the album, with the quality standard set by the other songs, it ends up being a bit of a let-down. The third one is one of the most prog songs ever done by Mastodon (in the classic sense of the word), with its complex intro, the string quartet and the coolest vocal melody. Songs 4 and 5, "Capillarian Crest" and "Circle Of Cysquatch" respectively, are both competent metal songs, although they don't have the usual "jam" structure that Mastodon usually use (and which I prefer), having a more common rock structure. Then we have the odd "Bladecatcher", with vocals paying homage to Mr. Bungle. The song is crazy and cool, the only flaw being the fact that it sounds a bit to emo-ish for my personal taste. The second part of the album is a bit more melodic and epic, containing a good song ("This Mortal Soil"), three great songs ("Colony Of Birchmen", "Hunters Of The Sky" and "Siberian Divide") and another great instrumental coda ("Pendulous Skin"). "Colony Of Birchmen" is very melodic and it's one of the best vocal efforts of the whole album. "Hunters Of The Sky" has a really mind-blowing intro and "Siberian Divide" features a cool collaboration with Cedric Bixler-Zavala, of Mars Volta fame. The last song, "Pendulous Skin" is really beautiful, with great keyboard guitar interplay and a very funny message by Queens Of The Stone Age's mentor Josh Homme. The album is a great piece of music, with some of the best ever done by Mastodon. Some people argue that this is not progressive music and to that I can only say that, to me, a prog band only has to do intelligent and complex music. Concept albums and long songs are just an after-thought.

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