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- Summary: The fourth album from the Atlantia, Georgia rock band features songs about the murder of Rasputin.
- Record Label: Reprise
- Genre(s): Rock, Metal
- More Details and Credits »
Top Track
Oblivion | |
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I flew beyond the sun before it was time Burning all the gold that held me inside my shell Waiting for you to pull me back in I almost had the world... | See the rest of the song lyrics |
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 27 out of 29
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Mixed: 2 out of 29
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Negative: 0 out of 29
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Amidst blistering tritone riffs and arpeggiated chords is a group keener to explore sonic harmony than crank the distortion. Crack the Skye is an epic trek across the space-time continuum, entirely on Mastodon’s terms.
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It’s the rarest type of album: one that exceeds every expectation you may have, branding itself in your mind forever and constantly surprising you with how amazing it is.
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It’s the songs that matter most on Crack The Skye, and the songs have rarely sounded stronger.
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Alternative PressThe music is as ambitious as the plot, but more coherent. [May 2009, p.116]
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First off, a warning: the best way to encounter Mastodon's Crack the Skye for the first time is with headphones. Reported to be a mystical -- if crunchy -- concept record about Tsarist Russia, this is actually the most involved set of tracks, both in terms of music and production, the band has ever recorded. "Ambitious" is a word that regularly greets Mastodon -- after all, they did an entire album based on Moby Dick -- but until now, that adjective may have been an understatement. There is so much going on in these seven tracks that it's difficult to get it all in a listen or two (one of the reasons that close encounters of the headphone kind are recommended). It may seem strange that the band worked with Bruce Springsteen producer Brendan O'Brien this time out, but it turns out to be a boon for both parties: for the band because O'Brien is obsessive about sounds, textures, and finding spaces in just the right places; for O'Brien because in his work with the Boss he's all but forgotten what the sounds of big roaring electric guitars and overdriven thudding drums can sound like. The guitar arrangements on tracks like "Divinations" and "The Czar," while wildly different from one another, are the most intricate, melodically complex things the band has ever recorded. There are also more subtle moments such as the menacing, brooding, and ultimately downer cuts such as "The Last Baron," where tempos are slowed and keyboards enter the fray and stretch the time, adding a much more multidimensional sense of atmosphere and texture. Still, Crack the Skye rocks, and hard! Its shifting tempos and key structures are far more meaty and forceful than most prog metal, and menace and cosmological speculation exist in equal measure, providing for a spot-on sense of balance. Some of the hardcore death metal conservatives may have trouble with this set, but the album wasn't recorded for them -- or anybody else. Crack the Skye is the sound of a band stretching itself to its limits and exploring the depth of its collective musical identity as a series of possibilities rather than as signatures. And yes, that is a good thing.
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In a way, Mastodon operates something like prime-era Metallica, unleashing these huge, blistering tracks that journey over peaks and valleys and ditches and oceans before leaving you spinning.
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For metal devotees seeking heaviness and shred paired with otherworldly curio, Crack the Skye is the be all and end all, but for anybody without a Celtic Frost tattoo, do not follow "the wise man's staff / Encased in crystal."
Score distribution:
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Positive: 47 out of 49
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Mixed: 2 out of 49
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Negative: 0 out of 49
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ChrisMar 26, 2009Stunning work from these guys--again. Much praise is due to Mastodon for pushing the envelope.
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Apr 24, 2012
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PRApr 1, 2009
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JoeS.Aug 31, 2009Best album from the best metal band alive. Need I say more?
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Mar 17, 2016
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OlegKMay 9, 2009Must Or Don't listen? No question. This is a relic! Certainly worth a cracking the Hinds' brain in Vegas!
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SmenkharonJun 12, 2009
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