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If you’ve any interest, whatsoever, in rock music in any of its subgenre forms, you need to afford Blood Mountain some considerable attention.
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Most of the songs show the band in top form.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Intense, invigorating and beguiling.
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Blood Mountain is a big slab to grab, especially shakier bits such as Josh Homme stinking up "Colony of Birchmen."
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An album of many highlights but not much visceral or emotional impact.
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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.
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"Blood Mountain" is a strong record by a powerful band nearing an ideal of cohesion.
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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.
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Blood Mountain is terrifying in scope as well as execution.
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New Musical Express (NME)The perfect entwining of brain and brawn. [9 Sep 2006, p.37]
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Alternative PressHearing Blood Mountain in its entirety is like awaking from a coma to discover you have working ears. [Oct 2006, p.206]
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Paste MagazineA study in elemental force that rides the line between thrash and plod with enlightened originality and compositional skill to spare. [Dec 2006, p.89]
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UncutMastodon mostly veer clear of the slick atmospherics that turn other technical metal bands into post-rock wallpaper. [Oct 2006, p.117]
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Rolling StoneYes, sometimes more is better. [21 Sep 2006, p.82]
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Q MagazineBaffling, but exhilarating. [Nov 2006, p.144]
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BlenderProblem 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]
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SpinThey're still not so great at turning their majesitc heft and pushy paradiddles into memorable songs with hooks. [Oct 2006, p.100]
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Entertainment WeeklyMajor-label metal hasn't sounded this hungry since Metallica got haircuts. [20 Oct 2006, p.81]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 166 out of 180
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Mixed: 2 out of 180
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Negative: 12 out of 180
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Aug 10, 2011
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KirkSOct 24, 2006
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Jul 16, 2018