Average Metacritic score 82 (22 reviews):
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/r ... d_Mountain
Mastodon
Blood Mountain (Reprise)
US Release date: 12 September 2006
Rating: 87
There's plenty afoot in the metal underground-- it's the mainstream version that desperately needs a new set of heroes. While junior-high faves Ozzy Osbourne, Guns n' Roses, and Metallica look like they could no longer eat the rich without gnawing on their own fatuous fingers, Mastodon are on the cusp of arena-sized success. The Atlanta quartet's already released two excellent full-lengths, 2002's Remission and 2004's Leviathan, as well as formative material in 2001's Lifesblood EP (which resurfaced earlier this year on Call of the Mastodon). If Blood Mountain, their brilliantly upsized and unrelenting third album, doesn't confirm their position as the greatest big-time metal crew on earth, I demand a state-by-state recount.
Anyone paying attention to heavy rock knows Leviathan is held in near-religious regard in metal circles-- it's an album that tops critical checklists and makes the kids shit their pants. I've spent a lot of time listening to Leviathan and the new record in tandem, and at first I couldn't believe it myself but... Blood Mountain may be even better. No, I'm not fucking with you. These 12 new tracks operate on a similar sonic level as their predecessors: Blood Mountain has the same producer, ex-Minus the Bear/current metal tweaker Matt Bayles, and though he obviously spent a lot more time layering substrata this time around, the recording's a lovely shade of dense.
Here, Mastodon's songwriting technique is refined, built upon, and doubled up, pushing the ingredients from their last album toward a more complex assault. It lands the band in totally fascinating realms: Leviathan's post-Remission exploratory impulse picked up and sharpened, with the entire band playing rich polyrhythms at a level that (for now) appears unsurpassable. I've heard shouts that the record's just too precise. Nope. Tech for tech's sake? How? Stranger yet, some have even written that Blood Mountain doesn't have hooks. It certainly does-- especially when those syrupy, psychedelic choruses and bridges feature increasingly stunning vocal performances by Brent Hinds and Troy Sanders, who've further developed as lyricists and howlers.
Leviathan left listeners reaching for Moby Dick, on which it was based. Now ditching those literary analogues, Blood Mountain moves from the white whale to the band's Ahab-sized vision-quest up a fabled peak. For it, the band has concocted a conceptual world-- and like any good game of Dungeons and Dragons its journey includes trials, blizzard-condition soul searching, cannibalism, and various beasts, including a half-sasquatch cyclops ("Circle of Cysquatch") and a monster constructed from various smaller, leafy creatures that, together, form a forest ("Colony of Birchmen"). It's a fantastical trek, and it allows the group to remain on an elemental theme-- Remission was fire, Leviathan water, and Blood Mountain is earth-- while glorying in their own Maiden-sized storytelling. Considering all the farting that takes place in the band's Workhorse Chronicles DVD, I'm afraid of what they'll do for wind.
Songwise, Mastodon break out of the gate with "The Wolf Is Loose", a showcase of rapid-fire technical skill and songwriting chops. As usual, the guitars jab and interweave, drummer Brann Dailor melts minds with his fills, and the switch between vocalists finds the lyrics jumping from gruff gut-checks ("The belly of the whale/ Refusal of return") to Sabbathian soul ("As the solider walks through the crimson side"). There are more compelling costume changes and time shifts than you can count-- and from there, it never lets up. Starting with Dailor, this time playing 50-gallon drums like an shadowy marching band, the hydra-fed "Crystal Skull" includes a blistering vocal assist from Neurosis' Scott Kelly. "Sleeping Giant" opens elegantly with a gloomy Isis nautical feel, before ripping into another slow psychedelic streak.
It's a taut, flaw-free opening triad, and looking beyond it, there isn't a dud in the bunch. Highlights? "Capillarian Crest" is mathy prog-metal that glides unrelentingly between whip-smart crescendos. "Circle of Cysquatch" tackles dark Meshuggah-esque thrashing and includes a bleak vocoder part. Jazz-fucking instrumental "Bladecatcher" layers Drive Like Jehu birdcalls over crunch and classical scale-riding. Guest vocalist Josh Homme adds trills to "Colony of Birchmen"'s dense fun-house mirror, providing the album's catchiest moment. The record's final few tracks are increasingly huge, culminating in the "Siberian Divide", in which our hero eats his own flesh when his mind is fucked by the Snow Queen. The Mars Volta-style intro had me nervous, but it's yet another perfect shapeshift between psych density and metal growl. And props where props are due: Cedric Bixler-Zavala contributes and actually adds an interesting vocal angle.
The one misstep? After the last track, following 17 minutes of silence, Homme stumbles over a supposedly self-penned fan letter to the band: "Dear Mastodon, my name is Joshua, I'm a big fan from Southern Cal. Really diggin' on your new scene. That's why I hope you don't mind when I got your new demos for your new CD, I had to sing parts on them and send them to you as a tribute," etc. Dorky, yeah, but giddy enough and easily overlooked. Plan: When you get to the final notes of "Pendulous Skin", press stop and start again.
The record's liners contain mountain-climber texts that add a great old school-sized aspect to Blood Mountain, but that trek to the snowy summit could also refer to Mastodon's ascension of the major label monolith. On the way, they may not have literally battled a cyclops or scored the crystal skull (though, guessing they found some okay weed), but they have returned to solid ground with their most awe-inspiring album to date. Please welcome the new monsters of rock.
-Brandon Stosuy, September 20, 2006
