Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog

I have been reading “professionally paid” music critic reviews about the newest release from Mastodon – “Crack The Skye” – the majority of them  are not even worth discussing or repeating. I dig the new Mastodon album, simply put it rocks. For Metal sakes, anyone who knows Metal, should know and/or understand that Mastodon is and always has been a Progressive Metal band. With the Progressive Metal bands, you never know exactly what you are going to get with the next album. (To solidify my point, just look at Rush, Dream Theater and Queensryche, these bands have always experimented musically). So what, big deal, so the new Mastodon album is not as heavy as their last release “Blood Mountain” – give me a Metal break.

The Metal musical “escape” I feel and hear while listening to “Crack The Skye” is cool for me. The vocals are still heavy, the guitar leads are still heavy, and the rhythm section is the farthest thing musically from 1970’s Hard Rock as you can possibly get. This album was not created in 1977, this Metal is happening now. Sure, there are plenty of synthetic sounds applied to “Crack The Skye,” that is what makes this album progressive. The synthetic interludes and backdrops along with the lyrics are why I call “Crack The Skye” a Metal journey. Mastodon did not provide here, a “rip and tear – let it all loose, heavy frenzy” – if I or any other true Metal fan wants that, heck, I will listen to a Metal band that is supposed to play that way. Suffice to say, in my Metal opinion, Mastodon has created a Progressive Metal gem. Paid and uninformed music critics can call this new album from Mastodon anything they want. The sole reason why I live for Metal music in the first place, is due to it’s diversity with all of the Metal genres. At the end of the day, when you break it all down, musically, Metal will always be… Metal. 

I really give praise to the vocals, musicianship, song writing and lyrics on “Crack The Skye” – do I find any flaws? Nope. I could never write or play Metal music this darn good. I recommend to all Mastodon and Metal fans across the globe to chase this album down, play it, enjoy it. Rock out to it. Jump onto “Crack The Skye” and experience the Progressive Metal journey that Mastodon created. Now, just because I want to, here is a roll call of the fine Metal musicians that are Mastodon: Brann Dailor (drums, vocals & percussion), Brent Hinds (lead guitar, vocals & banjo), Bill Kelliher (guitar) and Troy Sanders (bass, vocals & bass synth).

This entry was posted on May 6, 2009 at 12:34 am and is filed under Album Review, current heavy metal music, Hard Rock, hard rock album review, Heavy Metal, heavy metal album review, heavy metal albums, heavy metal guitarists, heavy metal music, Heavy Metal Reviews, heavy metal vocalists, Metal, metal music, Metal Reviews, progressive metal, progressive metal albums, progressive metal music, progressive rock, rock music with tags Album Review, bill kelliher guitarist, brann dailor drummer, brent hinds guitarist, crack the skye album, crack the skye mastodon album, hard rock music, Heavy Metal, heavy metal music, mastodon, mastodon metal band, mastodon progressive metal band, Metal, metal album review, metal music, Music, progressive hard rock, progressive metal, troy sanders bass player. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.