MASTODON
Blood Mountain
Reprise
· Mastodon prove once again that they may just be the best damn metal band on the planet.
Mastodon's 2004 album Leviathan was hailed by both critics and fans alike as the best underground metal album of that year, one that would catapult Mastodon to the big leagues. Some worried that the move to a major label would lead to a less challenging, more mainstream sound, but those fears can be laid to rest, because Blood Mountain takes all the ambition and musicianship of the band's previous efforts and cranks them up again.
Opening with the relentless barbarians-at-the-gates chug of "the Wolf is loose," the song's chanted chorus and twin guitar heroics make the band's intentions perfectly clear. From there, the band twists and turns through a dizzying amount of tempo, time and mood changes throughout the rest of the album.
Unlike so many of their peers, Mastodon understands the importance of dynamics, producing dreamy and atmosphereic textures along with the fiery and apocalyptic ones. "Sleeping Giant" slowly crawls along, featuring delay-drenched guitars and clean yet ominous vocals, evoking Black Sabbath's more psychedelic numbers, while "Capillarian Quest’s" intricate rhythms and quirky vocals show the band’s ability to tightly focus their progressive side. The entire band has grown as musicians, but drummer Brann Dailor again singles himself out for special props. His polyrythmic patterns and lightning-fast fills give every song a tremendous drive, and no matter how busy he gets, he always plays what the song requires and never gives the impression that he's simply showing off. Despite the others tremendous technical skill, it is Dailor who is truly a legend in the making.
The album also features several guest turns from Neurosis' Scott Kelly, QOTSA's Josh Homme and The Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Ikey Owens. On virtually every track of Blood Mountain, Mastodon show a finely honed grasp of songcraft and a noticeable progression in almost every regard since their last album. The album’s concept is a fitting one, for with it Mastodon have truly climbed to the top.
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