Artist: Mastodon
Album: Crack The Skye
Year: 2009
Grade: 5 pretzels
People always seem surprised when I tell them I’m a big metal fan. Apparently, in most people’s eyes, corduroy jackets and thrashing power chords are mutually exclusive. I think most of the problem comes from how picky I am about my metal music. The way I see it, good metal needs to balance two different artistic urges. The first is the need to be “epic.” Metal is, almost by definition, larger than life. Emotions, guitars and vocal-chord-ripping screams are all exaggerated into huge, dramatic versions of themselves. This overblown hugeness is what gives metal its power and sheer awesomeness. However, in order for metal to really win me over, it also has to have an element of “cool” to it. Simply hurling a wall of noise at me isn’t going to make me want to hear more. There needs to be something behind it all which grabs my attention and makes me try to dig for more details. I need to care about what these guys are doing and saying. Iron Maiden, for example, are a band I find very “epic,” but not very “cool” (sorry Maiden fans, they just don’t do it for me). All the fantasy references in the lyrics just become silly after a while. At the other end of the spectrum, mid-90s Metallica were very “cool,” but not “epic” at all. As a result, they sounded toothless and old. Few bands can find that perfect balance on the razor’s edge between these two.
I can say with the utmost certainty that Mastodon are one of those few. The Atlanta-based band has spent the past ten years proving again and again that they are possibly the finest new (and certainly not nu) metal band the decade has to offer. They’re capable of thrashing with the best of them, but they also have a tremendous talent for intricate guitar interplay. Best of all, they fully embrace melody, leaving you actually humming metal songs after a while. Never underestimate the power of catchy metal.
They’ve also got a pretty fantastic sense of humor. The following is drummer Brann Dailor explaining the story behind the songs on Crack The Skye. Oh, did I forget to mention it was a concept album….?
“There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way.”
Let’s just take a moment to let that sink in. Sure, it’s absolutely ridiculous, but it’s also damn hilarious. And the band knows this. More than virtually any other metal band I’ve seen interviewed, they seem to understand that the nature of metal is inherently dualistic: you have to be completely serious and completely full of shit at the same time. This is what makes metal fun, but also incredibly satisfying. You can wallow in the sheer weight of the music, or you can sit back and grin as four guys with beards solo on their guitars until their fingers bleed. No other type of music can do that. (In case you’re still not sure about their sense of humor, I suggest this video.)
Crack The Skye succeeds because it’s very much about the story Dailor is trying to tell, but it’s also completely not. Sure, the lyrics are all about Rasputin and astral cords and space travel, but that’s not really what you’re supposed to be focusing on. Mastodon can still absolutely rock and the great moments come fast and unrelenting on this album. “Oblivion” is a sludgy metal dirge, tapping into the same vein as 2006’s “Sleeping Giant”. “Ghost Of Karelia” shows expansive new ground for the band, highlighted (as always) by Dailor’s mind-destroying drumming. Towering above everything are the two monolithic epics on the album: “The Czar”, at a solid ten minutes and “The Last Baron”, which creeps over thirteen minutes. It’s a testament to the band’s strength and songwriting abilities that neither becomes boring. Mastodon are a band so full of ideas that the challenge is to jam them all into a fifty minute CD. On Crack The Skye, they shoot for the stars and the world is that much better for it.
I can say with the utmost certainty that Mastodon are one of those few. The Atlanta-based band has spent the past ten years proving again and again that they are possibly the finest new (and certainly not nu) metal band the decade has to offer. They’re capable of thrashing with the best of them, but they also have a tremendous talent for intricate guitar interplay. Best of all, they fully embrace melody, leaving you actually humming metal songs after a while. Never underestimate the power of catchy metal.
They’ve also got a pretty fantastic sense of humor. The following is drummer Brann Dailor explaining the story behind the songs on Crack The Skye. Oh, did I forget to mention it was a concept album….?
“There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way.”
Let’s just take a moment to let that sink in. Sure, it’s absolutely ridiculous, but it’s also damn hilarious. And the band knows this. More than virtually any other metal band I’ve seen interviewed, they seem to understand that the nature of metal is inherently dualistic: you have to be completely serious and completely full of shit at the same time. This is what makes metal fun, but also incredibly satisfying. You can wallow in the sheer weight of the music, or you can sit back and grin as four guys with beards solo on their guitars until their fingers bleed. No other type of music can do that. (In case you’re still not sure about their sense of humor, I suggest this video.)
Crack The Skye succeeds because it’s very much about the story Dailor is trying to tell, but it’s also completely not. Sure, the lyrics are all about Rasputin and astral cords and space travel, but that’s not really what you’re supposed to be focusing on. Mastodon can still absolutely rock and the great moments come fast and unrelenting on this album. “Oblivion” is a sludgy metal dirge, tapping into the same vein as 2006’s “Sleeping Giant”. “Ghost Of Karelia” shows expansive new ground for the band, highlighted (as always) by Dailor’s mind-destroying drumming. Towering above everything are the two monolithic epics on the album: “The Czar”, at a solid ten minutes and “The Last Baron”, which creeps over thirteen minutes. It’s a testament to the band’s strength and songwriting abilities that neither becomes boring. Mastodon are a band so full of ideas that the challenge is to jam them all into a fifty minute CD. On Crack The Skye, they shoot for the stars and the world is that much better for it.
Can't wait to buy the album!
ReplyDelete