Review: Mastodon – Crack The Skye (2009)
Progressive metal quartet Mastodon have long been known, even within the oft-abrasive independent scene, as a band who is dependably impressive. Their 2002 debut album, Remissions, clearly shows the band in a heavy period, and the band has slowly and steadily evolved musically from that point. Carried by the early success of Leviathan‘s “Blood And Thunder” and consistent material like “Crystal Skull” from Blood Mountain, the strong critical reception to all of their releases is no surprise.
Each Mastodon offering has that psychedelic historical intrigue and approachability to it, and Skye is not the exception, nor will their next record be; it seems the band thrives with a thematic impetus driving the soul of their music. It’s been said that, elementally, Remissions was fire, Leviathan was water, and Blood Mountain was earth. If so, Crack The Skye is air, and in more ways than one. In that sense, there are really expansive overtures at work (“Oblivion,” “The Ghost of Karelia”). Yet despite their heavy, wide, sound and dark themes, there is actually an tremendous amount of minutia and nuance evident on Crack The Skye that take several listens to fully uncover. There, then, is its exceptional strength: this album nearly perfectly juxtaposes elaborate macro and micro-composition.
Deep and miasmatic, “The Czar: Usurper / Escape / Martyr / Spiral” is the album’s centerpiece, featuring some of the most memorable riffs and changes. Being that it comes in stages, it naturally unfolds many of the story’s turns and realizes the album as a concept. Epic solos and all, it explores some startlingly gorgeous material, such as the twelve-string acoustic entrance to the “Spiral” section. Even the banjo intro to “Divinations” is allowed, and somehow fits perfectly. Placed late on the album, “Crack The Skye” might be an unlikely highlight, but it showcases one of the finest and heaviest-penned riffs in the band’s history.
Mastodon’s “Divinations,” from Crack The Skye.
The loose story: A young paraplegic is confined to a wheelchair, but finds that he can leave his body through astral travel. When exploring, he approaches the sun too closely and vaporizes the golden umbilical attaching him to his earthly frame. His spirit drifts through a wormhole and travels back to Czarist Russia, meeting a group of members from an Orthodox cult called the Khlysty, as they perform a divination and speak to the dead. They channel his spirit into the mortal body of Grigori Rasputin, in order to warn him that he is soon to be assassinated. Having been warned of his impending doom and encouraged to flee, Rasputin instead martyrs himself for the boy. When he is finally killed, the two spirits leave his body and travel back through a crack in the sky, and again through the wormhole. They encounter the Devil on their return, who tries to take them to Hell. However, they evade capture and Rasputin successfully guides the boy back to his present body, where he has been completely healed.
In typical fashion, two of the tracks top ten minutes easily, packing in swirling riffs, ominous melodies, and thunderous drumbeats; musically, however, Crack The Skye is actually the lightest of their work to date. The band sings most of their way through the album, and even records some atmospheric background vocals (“The Czar”), a stark contrast to their previous albums that featured plenty of tattered scrawl and chugging guitars. There is more craft than ever here, though, and Mastodon have long been in a class of their own – to have broadened their approach is both daunting and laudable.
At very least, Mastodon are still the band that The Mars Volta wishes they were. As their records go, Crack The Skye is not tame, per se, but what it lacks in brute force it makes up for in complex, layered harmonies. If they’re not better outright, they’re still dripping with panache, and certainly a rich addition to an already immensely strong oeuvre. Which of their artistic approaches is better is entirely a matter of taste. That this album shows both immense artistry and maturation within the band, however, is an absolute certainty.
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Crack The Skye is a little too broad for me. I’ll try to get the hang of it, but I still prefer Leviathan.