Mastodon - Crack The Skye

Life has been pretty busy of late, so I'm a bit tardy getting to a review of Mastodon's latest album, Crack The Skye.  The bright side is that this has allowed the album plenty of time to marinate, so I feel I can give my full opinion without worrying later that I've stuck my foot in my mouth.

Tracklist:

01.  Oblivion (5:47)
02.  Divinations (3:39)
03.  Quintessence (5:28)
04.  The Czar (10:54)
05.  Ghost Of Karelia (5:25)
06.  Crack The Skye (5:54)
07.  The Last Baron (13:01)

As with many bands, its tough to evaluate Mastodon's most recent offering without making constant comparisons to their previous works.  In many ways, Crack The Skye is exactly what you would expect, continuing trends that have been obvious over the course of their previous three stellar albums:  reduced overall pace, further emphasis on clean vocals and melodies, more studio polish, the near complete absence of any thrash.  All-in-all, upon first dip you might come to the initial conclusion that, by Mastodon's standards, this album is pretty accessible.  Perhaps even a little.....*gulp*.....poppy.

I must admit that my own feelings about the album are a bit mixed.  I can say that I absolutely think it is very good.  But, I must also say that there are moments that evoke a slight sense of disappointment, causing me to harken back to the intense, thrashy days of Leviathan and Remission.  Crack The Skye is certainly not perfect, there are moments that do fall a bit flat, ideas that seem to sort of stall.  But that's the risk of pushing into new territory, and with that risk also comes enormous reward.

At its pinnacle, Crack The Skye showcases Mastodon's finest and most ambitious work yet, coming primarily in the form of the album's two monstrous epics, "The Czar" and "The Last Baron".  For all that was to be feared about the slower pace, clean vocals, and polish, on "The Czar" Mastodon takes those qualities and infuses them with their traditional heavy roots and a quantum leap in song writing, creating a progressive epic unmatched by anything they've done since Leviathan's incredible "Hearts Alive".  Clocking in at over 10 minutes, the song effortlessly transitions from melancholy crooning to slick, upbeat riffage to heavy monolithic crunch.  Three songs later, "The Last Baron" and its full 13 minutes of mind-blowing epic glory arrive to continue the trend.  The smooth melding of an eerie mellow intro into a monolithic core of pure progressive bliss all culminates at the heart of the song, where it utterly disintegrates into fantastic self-indulgent, mind-warping jazz-metal wankery for about 20 seconds, before launching head-first back into the thunderous heavy charge.  Such a seamless collection of dynamic elements serves to place this track atop the heap just as quickly as "The Czar" had stolen the honor from "Hearts Alive".  

The other songs on the album are, for the most part, fairly good.  They certainly do pale in comparison to the two epic tracks, but they serve as a nice and necessary change of pace.  "Divinations" is definitely a stand-out track, a solid upbeat rocker featuring an extremely well-placed surfer-esque chord later in the song.  "Crack The Skye" is another standout, featuring the heaviest crunch to be found on the album, as well as an outstanding guest vocal performance by Neurosis' Scott Kelly.  However, its on the remaining songs, "Oblivion", "Quintessence", and "Ghost Of Karelia", that I find myself grasping for a bit more.  Each of these tracks feature slick timing transitions, solid riffs, and improved vocal melodies, but its here that I feel the studio polish has rubbed away a bit too much of the legendary Mastodon grit.  The songs shift and progress, but they somewhat lack bite.  The sense of power and intensity that Mastodon typically employs to drive a song home is spread just a little bit too thin.  They are good songs, I enjoy them well enough as I'm listening, but once they finish they're all but forgotten.

Overall, though, this latest offering is more than satisfactory, and showcases some of the most dynamic work Mastodon has ever put out.  Its yet another facet of a band that is still maturing and progressing with each album.  I eagerly look forward to their next step.