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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Blood Mountain

Universal acclaim
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 99 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Reprise
Release Date: 12 September 2006
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Alternative, Rock, Metal
Summary
The Atlanta metal band's third album marks their major-label debut.
Also By This Artist: Crack The Skye
Also On The Web: Mastodon @ MySpace Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Alternative Press
Hearing Blood Mountain in its entirety is like awaking from a coma to discover you have working ears. [Oct 2006, p.206]
Playlouder
Put simply: there isn't a bad track on 'Blood Mountain', which will be seen as the metal release of this year, on whichever level you care to mention.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
If you’ve any interest, whatsoever, in rock music in any of its subgenre forms, you need to afford Blood Mountain some considerable attention.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
With Blood Mountain, Mastodon have completed a three-album arc that most young bands can only dream of, culminating in a record that’s as thrilling as it is multifaceted, as melodic as it is bludgeoning.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Blood Mountain is terrifying in scope as well as execution.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
One could go on for hours about the qualities of each individual song, but it is the way they coalesce as a whole that makes Blood Mountain an incredible listen from start to finish.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
A study in elemental force that rides the line between thrash and plod with enlightened originality and compositional skill to spare. [Dec 2006, p.89]
Pitchfork
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.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express (NME)
The perfect entwining of brain and brawn. [9 Sep 2006, p.37]
Observer Music Monthly
A truly original, innovative, heavy-as-hell, interesting heavy metal record that you can listen to more than twice without wanting to smash it to a million pieces with an axe.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Yes, sometimes more is better. [21 Sep 2006, p.82]
The New York Times
"Blood Mountain" is a strong record by a powerful band nearing an ideal of cohesion.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Blood Mountain is everything fans both hoped for and feared. Mastodon has dug even deeper in its foray into prog metal, but without losing an ounce of their power, literacy, or willingness to indulge in hardcore punk, doom, and death metal.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Mastodon mostly veer clear of the slick atmospherics that turn other technical metal bands into post-rock wallpaper. [Oct 2006, p.117]
Entertainment Weekly
Major-label metal hasn't sounded this hungry since Metallica got haircuts. [20 Oct 2006, p.81]
Q Magazine
Baffling, but exhilarating. [Nov 2006, p.144]
Stylus Magazine
An album of many highlights but not much visceral or emotional impact.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
Blood Mountain is a big slab to grab, especially shakier bits such as Josh Homme stinking up "Colony of Birchmen."
Read Full Review >Blender
Problem is, Blood Mountain's hail of convoluted riffs and abrupt time-signature changes never settles into one of Leviathan's mammoth grooves. [Oct 2006, p.137]
Spin
They're still not so great at turning their majesitc heft and pushy paradiddles into memorable songs with hooks. [Oct 2006, p.100]
Prefix Magazine
When the members of Mastodon decided to make an audiophile's wet dream of a metal album, they abandoned the vein-bulging spontaneity of their former selves.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Syrupy, multi-tracked vocals akin to Supertramp in a particularly foul mood have replaced the primal roar of old, while their tectonic hugeness has been supplanted by the wearisome over-indulgence of musos at play.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 99 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Schmidty 15 gave it an8:
These guys are insanely talented musicians. Just think of what they could do if they had a legitimate lead singer!
J H gave it a10:
Great album and an instant classic. Its become a standard that I judge everything else by. The drums continue to blow my mind.
Kyle Z gave it an8:
Not nearly as goo d as levanthian, or remission, there ae some great tracks on here for sure, but Mastodon is clearly getting less hardcore and much more mainstream, hope that this stops.
Israel M gave it a10:
One of the greatest metal songs of late years.
Joshua G gave it a5:
The 20/100 review got it right, even if it was a bit harsh: Mastodon ditched the tectonic, visceral force of Leviathan for technical acrobatics and flashy wankery, something that many other, more technically proficient bands outplay them at anyway. Mastodon were best when they knew the power of the riff and the power of pure fucking METAL; this is an unwanted sideventure into wankage. Colony of Birchmen and Siberian Divide are cool, I suppose, but Capillarian Crest is just pointless wankery that drives me up a fucking wall. Still a decent album, and better than most mainstream metal.
Steve S. gave it a10:
The most original and and interesting album of the decade. Brilliant.
Scott B. gave it a10:
This is THE perfect metal album. Bloody brilliant!
