Crack The Skye (CD)

The mighty Atlanta-based metal outfit Mastodon rest high atop new-millennium metal's Mount Olympus. Unleashing a sonic assault that is intense, intricate, and absolutely enormous, the band has garnered considerable praise from the metal community as well as other listeners not given to effusive comments on the finer points of headbanging. Mastodon's 2004 concept album, LEVIATHAN, inspired by Herman Melville's MOBY DICK, was considered an immediate and undisputed metal classic upon its release, and set the standard for the genre's post-Metallica resurgence. The band returned with another monolithic slab of thrash-prog fury on 2006's BLOOD MOUNTAIN.

• Category:  Music  »  Hard Rock & Metal  »  General/Heavy Metal
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: March 24, 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Reprise
• UPC: 093624987222
• WAPI (Tower ID): 113234877
• Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
• Tower.com Sales Rank: #1475 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #58 in Hard Rock & Metal (See Top 100 Hard Rock & Metal Bestsellers)
• #42 in General/Heavy Metal (See Top 100 General/Heavy Metal Bestsellers)

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Rolling Stone (p.81) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "CRACK THE SKYE is an awesome display....It's thrill-ride stuff that conjures not just art-metal predecessors such as Helmet but also old-school prog-rockers like Rush, Frank Zappa and Yes."
Spin (p.74) - "CRACK THE SKYE is a seven-song, 50-minute phantasmagoria of psychedelic song structures, cosmic lyrics, and foreboding atmosphere. Opener 'Oblivion' provides a fiery summary of what's to come..."
Alternative Press (p.116) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Guitarist Bill Kelliher's mathy riffing is simply seismic; standouts 'Oblivion' and 'Quintessence' juxtapose burning-horizon solos and must-mosh-now thunderclaps."
Kerrang (Magazine) (p.50) - "The record rumbles to life with the ominous 'Oblivion,' the sound of thunder moving over mountains, and the menacing tone this strikes is prevalent throughout and best demonstrated on the title-track, which is one of the meanest and most overpowering songs you're likely to hear this year..."
Q (Magazine) (p.107) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]heir most mainstream to date....A sprawling prog-metal masterpiece....Richly rewarding..."
Blender (Magazine) (p.61) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "New to the mix are rich vocal harmonies, Vocoder, organ and unprecedented awesomeness....Mastodon present a prog-metal concept that would make Stephen Hawking bang his head."
Pitchfork (Website) - "'The Czar,' a four-part, 11-minute epic that's still only the second-longest song on the album, gargles and fumes and lurches for nearly three minutes before launching into its first glorious steamroller riffs."

Mastodon: Brent Hinds (vocals, guitar, banjo); Troy Sanders (vocals, bass synthesizer, bass guitar); Brann Dailor (vocals, drums, percussion); Bill Kelliher (guitars).

Additional personnel: Rich Morris (Mellotron, synthesizer).

Audio Mixer: Brendan O'Brien.

Audio Remasterer: Bob Ludwig.

Recording information: Southern Tracks Recording, Atlanta Ga.

Atlanta's Mastodon climbed to the top of the metal heap the old-fashioned way. Taking the template for success etched by Metallica, the band captured the imagination with a series of albums that offered potent heaviness and relentless experimentation. After graduating from respected indie Relapse, they released 2006's acclaimed BLOOD MOUNTAIN, an album with a fire motif/fantasy adventure concept that opened numerous doors both commercially and critically. Their latest, CRACK THE SKYE, completes their elemental cycle by focusing on "ether," while also serving as a tale of czarist Russia. The progressive metal elements that bled into their sound on BLOOD MOUNTAIN are pushed even further here, led once more by Brann Dailor's furiously technical drumming. As Dailor goes, so goes the band, and his stick work remains some of the finest this side of Neil Peart. The crackling "Divinations" follows up the contemplative, restrained "Oblivion" with furious thrash riffs and springy dueling fretwork, and "Quintessence" wraps glittering guitar arpeggios around Dailor's impossibly percolating drums. The four-part "The Czar" is a towering epic that comes off like Rush on steroids, each part with its own distinct feel. A more mature and adventurous metal album is unlikely to be heard for a long time.

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