It's too bad for Mastodon that one of my rules for this list was one album per band. Had this restriction not been implemented it's a safe bet that Remission (2002), Leviathan (2004) and Crack The Skye (2009) would've all sat comfortably in the top 15.
All four are spectacular but this wins by a cunt hair. A concept record about a guy who goes to find the crystal skull which he aims to take to the top of a mountain, insert it into his own skull and elevate to the next stage of human evolution. Only Mastodon could come up with something as fucked up and get away with it.
Blood Mountain continued the same sound from Leviathan, but is song-writing wise trippier, weirder, more experimental and eccentric and all over the place, while retaining the aggression and brutality of their early work.
In fact, the laziest way to describe this album would to simply state that it combines the ruggest, salty sounds of Leviathan with Crack The Skye's floaty, trippy shit. This Mortal Soil, my personal favorite on Blood Mountain, blends these two worlds perfectly with its psychedelic southern rock intro with Troy Sanders' soaring vocals floating top (by far the most melodic vocals the band had ever used up that point) which suddenly gets pushed out of the way by thrashy riffing and throat-ripping howls.
Sleeping Giant is another example of the direction they would take with Crack The Skye. Perhaps the most cinematic song the band has made, with the mightest gongs in recent memory. I'm pretty sure the song refers to the mountain itself as opposed to an actual giant. If that's so, and the mountain is sleeping, could that mean that Blood Mountain is in fact a volcano? That one day it might wake up/erupt? Is the lava and magma the actual blood of Blood Mountain? I have no idea.
Capillarian Crest is little more than a four minute exhibition of guitarist Brent Hinds' chicken pickin' skills picked up from playing the banjo as a youngster, but what a glorious exhibition it is. The full-throttle opener The Wolf Is Loose shows off the members' hardcore roots, while Crystal Skull's rattly tribal intro made me a bit worried that Mastodon had gone all Soulfly on me (they hadn't).
Hand of Stone is probably the album's weakest link, with a fun riff that quickly becomes boring as the song never really progresses like the others. It just rolls on with that same riff until a trashy bit pops up at the end.
Drummer Brann Dailor's robotic vocals in Circle of Cysquatch scared the piss out of me the first time I heard it. Was not prepared for that and my headphones got fucked right up. There's also the by fans much maligned instrumental Melt Banana pastiche Bladecatcher, the weird sounds of which perhaps represents the protagonist's journey through the labyrinth the cysquatch told him to enter? I don't know. I don't think Mastodon fully understand the story of Blood Mountain either, but that doesn't matter. Still cool as hell.
And I haven't even mentioned the guest appearances by Josh Homme and Cedric & Isaiah from Mars Volta, or the badass blue moosewolfbear on the cover.
So badass.
Buy it @ Amazon.com
6 comments:
Holy moses thats a great one.
This album was a huge disappointment the first couple of times I listened to it. So I didn't listen to it at all after that.
That is until I saw the band play som of the songs live. I went straight home and listened to this album non stop for two weeks(and I'm not exaggerating).
Oh... damn, I actually had a bet with myself that you would place Mastodon on top.
Runnerup ain't bad though.
Excellent album!
I thought Mastodon was going to be #1 in this list. So, who the fuck is number one? Give us some clues, man!
Wait, I think I know who is number one... But if you send me some big cash I'm not going to spoil it.
Go ahead and spoil it, hombre. I dare ya.
Muuuaaahahahaha!
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