Album Reviews
Mastodon: Blood Mountain
As soon as the frenetic drum roll of “The Wolf is Loose” kicks in, it’s evident that ‘Blood Mountain’, metal giant Mastodon’s third album and follow-up to 2004’s masterpiece ‘Leviathan’ — based on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick — is going to be a worthy successor.
On ‘Blood Mountain’, the band concocts a tale about a man who climbs a mountain to obtain the “crystal skull” and in that adventure he encounters a giant one-eyed Cysquatch, human-trees and harsh forces of nature leading to frost-bite and starvation, where in his hallucination the Snow Queen appears and convinces him to eat his own flesh. Reinvigorated, he sets forth again on his journey to attain enlightenment.
If ‘Remission’, based on the fire element, was brash and slightly unpolished, and the water element inspired ‘Leviathan’’s intricate and immediately memorable riffs that were rewarding on further explorations, then the earth element that forms the basis of ‘Blood Mountain’ expands on the complex and heavy parts with greater detail and approach that is unmatched among their contemporaries.
“Crystal Skull” builds on the primitive rage of “The Wolf is Loose” and features Scott Kelly of Neurosis on vocals. The bluesy southern rock vibe of “Sleeping Giant” dazzles before leading into the angular “Capillarian Crest”, where a minute into the song the playing gets faster and faster and faster without losing its sonic clarity to literally make your jaw drop.
It might sound baffling but Mastodon have managed to out-do themselves and raised the bar with ‘Blood Mountain’. Don’t be surprised if a couple years from now, they are talked about in much the same way as Metallica was back in the ’80s.
Truly, some of the musical chops exhibited by drummer Bränn Dailor make you wonder how many limbs the guy has, and the guitar interplay of Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher is some of the best of recent years. The guitar riff of “Circle of Cysquatch” is the kind of stuff that makes you break into air guitar riffage, while “Bladecatcher” starts with a delicate guitar lick before descending into an indescribable sea of noise and effects.
Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age lends his distinct vocals on the Tool-ish “Colony of Birchmen”. Then come the straight-forward metal songs “Hunters of the Sky” and Pantera-fuelled “Hand of Stone”. If “Hearts Alive” from ‘Leviathan’ was the emotional high-point that catapulted a good album to greatness then the last three songs do the same for ‘Blood Mountain’, from the dreamy wails and moans of “This Mortal Soil” and intricate prog-metal of “Siberian Divide” to the utterly gorgeous “Pendulous Skin” where Led Zeppelin’s “Tangerine” meets “Ten Years Gone”.
It might sound baffling but Mastodon have managed to out-do themselves and raised the bar with ‘Blood Mountain’. Don’t be surprised if in a couple years from now, they are talked about in much the same way as Metallica was back in the ’80s.
Blood Mountain is without a doubt one of the best prog albums out there, in the history of progressive music. I’ve been a huge fan of Mastodon since I first heard them on Headbangers Ball, and this record was a real treat. Great review, very informative and well written.
The first time i heard blood mountain - i was confused. I was always trying to define their musical style. “a Very heavy SOD” one of my friends said. Heavy or mellow - mastodon know how to keep their listener’s jaws open throughout this album. A great progressive Sludge metal album, or whatever genre u may call ‘em. It’s albums like this that will introduce open minded music listeners to Metal. Metal is by far, the most complex form of music that is existent in this world, which is why professional Jazz music teachers in popular music universities recommend bands like meshuggah, Cynic, etc etc to their students.
hail Blood Mountain. BTW - thanks a lot Vishal for ur review - i never knew this was a concept record.
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