Style: Progressive metal, groove metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: A spacy, airy take on progressive metal interlaced with a metric ton of groove
Thoughts: Mastodon. A band that is known well beyond the typical metal circles. They are often touted as one of the best bands in the genre not only because of their strong songwriting but also the skill at which they do it.
On Crack the Skye in particular the band showed a songwriting prowess that is rare in any genre. The fact that it's paired with some of the most technical playing yet catchy instrumentals I've ever hard puts this album in rarefied air.
The opening track - Oblivion - tells us all that we can expect from the album. The first riff has this eerie string of notes that immediately put me on edge. As the song builds the notes change into a full on chord that will form the basis of the entire song.
As the song progresses there is this building sense of lightness to the music. Yes, it is heavy, yes it is crazy, yes it's catchy as all get out... but it also feels light. It's hard to describe without hearing it, but the music feels vast and open. It feels like it wants to fly away and take me with it. It's something that I haven't really heard in another album besides this one. It's in every track, and it is the glue that holds everything together.
Crack the Skye is my favorite Mastodon album. It's the only one I currently own. I've had Leviathan and Remission in the past, but I didn't enjoy them nearly enough to listen regularly. I remember a ton of hype around Leviathan when it first came out, but for me this is the defining album for Mastodon.
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