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Mastodon - Crack the Skye CD (album) cover

CRACK THE SKYE

Mastodon

 

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal

4.14 | 714 ratings

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BrufordFreak
5 stars A much-praised 2009 release. That I was unprepared to hear and appreciate back in when it came out as I was, at the time, un-educated and under-exposed to the Prog Metal/Tech Metal and Heavy Prog scenes.

1. "Oblivion" (5:52) bass and guitar machine gun arpeggi with singing performed by alternating voices of drummer Brann Dailor and lead guitarist Brent Hinds. I love the sound of this! A powerful, engaging, and impressive opener; good first impression. (9/10)

2. "Divinations" (3:32) give BLACK SABBATH a modern sound and more modern metal instrumental styles and this is what they might sound like. I like Brent Hinds soloing on the axe using three different sounds--as if he's duelling with himself in triplicate. (8/10)

3. "Quintessence" (6:35) a lot of MOTORPSYCHO sound to this one--especially in the drums and lead vocal during the verses. The chorus takes us more into head-banging territory before a surprising BEATLES-like passage. Interesting. I'm also reminded a lot of the VON HERTZEN BROTHERS. Far more simplistic song structures and performance displays than I was expecting. (8.5/10)

4. "The Czar" (10:55) (18.875/20) - i. Usurper - nice trippy launch into psychedelia (4.5/5) - ii. Escape - ramping up to SABBATH territory. Cool bass 'n' guitar riff in the A Section to sink into; great drumming. (9.5/10) - iii. Martyr - spacious psychedelic interlude is then filled with blues-metal walls of sound. (4.125/5) - iv. Spiral - weird little instrumental decay.

5. "Ghost of Karelia" (5:24) very nice power metal/prog metal with a fairly simple song structure but high quality performances by all of the instrumentalists. This drummer is very impressive! (8.5/10)

6. "Crack the Skye" (5:54) Death metal growls with almost saccharine MOTORPSYCHO-like choral vocals! Interesting. LINKIN PARK taken one step further? A great weave of instruments and then, surprise! a keyboard and vocoder in the fourth minute. And, of course, Brann Dailor's drumming is all over the place (perhaps even detracting from the song a bit in the final minute). (9.125/10)

7. "The Last Baron" (13:03) great music over which tandem singing and guitars trade leads with a melody for the first 3:20. Then there is s tempo speedup and new machine-gun fabric established over which an Ozzy-like vocal sings. Incredible band cohesion in the sixth minute! An almost-country STEVE HOWE-on-steroids guitar solo at 6:00. (Perhaps where fellow Atlantan Jared Leach modelled his guitar style for his band GHOST MEDICINE's 2016 album, Discontinuance.) At 8:25 there is another shift as new ZZ TOP-like motif and tempo are established--and then another one at 9:35 into a slower MOTORSPYCHO-like drawn out style. Overall, an incredibly impressive song--one of the best mid-length epics of the decade! (23.5/25)

Total Time 50:06

The song structures and performance displays are far simpler than I was expecting from this band--especially after all of the hoopla surrounding the original release of this album.

A-/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music and definitely a prog metal highlight of the 2000s; highly recommended as a wonderful addition to any prog lover's music collection.

BrufordFreak | 5/5 |

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