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| | Crack the Skye | | | Music Artist : | | Mastodon | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | Reprise Records | | Release Date : | | 2009-03-24 | | Store Price : | | $13.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $12.99 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Oblivion
2. Divinations
3. Quintessence
4. The Czar: I Usurper, II Escape, III Martyr, IV Spiral
5. Ghost Of Karelia
6. Crack The Skye
7. The Last Baron
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 just caught them on tour with Dethklok
Submitted on: 2009-11-04 |
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| Just caught them on tour with Dethklok and the new album sounds AWESOME live!!! I was really impressed. |
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insane
Submitted on: 2009-11-02 |
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| it is with out a shadow of a dobut one of the best albums i've ever heard, even though the cd was 15 dollars at fye, it was still worth it, it is the second album that i brought that i said "i wish there was more songs on it (collision course by jay-z and linkin park was the first) buy it, buy it, buy it (namley from amazon if you want it cheap) |
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 Crack the skull
Submitted on: 2009-09-20 |
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| Mastodon's Crack the Skye album is not as skull crushing as the last three, but it is as memorable. It opens with the powerful and closes with the epic Last Baron. My three favorite tracks on this album are the blistering Divinations, Quintessence, and title track. |
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 Crack the Skye = Cash-In Pie?
Submitted on: 2009-09-13 |
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This is the most embarrassing album I've ever heard. With every song I had to resist the temptation just to turn it off and listen to something else. And that temptation was strong. I don't know what these otherwise superb musicians thought they were trying to accomplish here, but the end result suffers that sad effect common to any deliciously brutal talent which aims to become "classic" - maudlin farce-meat wrapped in a sheen of clever chintz. Without a doubt the fratboy-pandering disc-jocks are already eating this stuff up like pez.
Listen: the riffs all sound recycled, and much of the denser contrapuntal riffing has been replaced by absent-minded chord-strumming. What's worse, the vocal melodies are derivative of numbskull classic rock radio fodder. Neither of these elements compels me through a series of arrangements that are supposedly more ambitious in scope simply because - they're longer? The drive and complexity evidenced on, say, "Capillarian Crest" or "I am Ahab" are entirely absent here. Seasoned musicians and music aficionados will quickly recognize this despite even the barrage of inexperienced professional corporate-lackey critics drizzling their drool all over it.
People who are actually paying attention have seen this happen far too often. I'd rather watch a crummy gore band develop some chops and expand into an area of prowess and actual terror than watch a once thrilling and sophisticated ensemble get overfed and lazy.
Look at it this way: if your first exposure to Mastodon was via MTV and/or you thought "Sleeping Giant" or "Colony of Birchmen" were the stand-out tracks from Blood Mountain, then go ahead and jump into this frothy Mastodon bubble-bath. If you could've done without those little forays into crossover territory, then you will undoubtedly hate this album.
I sincerely wish a naysayer such as myself would've spoken up before I even flirted with the idea of listening to this record, and I am sick to death of web-goggled joe-six-pack superfans flat-out apologizing for weak art. Furthermore, apologizing in the name of "progress" or "evolution." Crack the Skye is the sound of stagnation and complacency, and I think it's time someone called the bluff. To say nothing of fanboy apologists who automatically squash anything negative and exult that which most formulaically reflects their groupthink. Is it too much to ask of you to stop policing the pages of records you already own and just enjoy your life?
Luckily I only paid six bucks for a used copy of Crack the Skye. I'm not going to give it another earnest listen and I'm not going to bother re-selling it to some eager tweakerwigger Headbanger's Ball adherent. This belongs in the trash with the rest of the consecutive disappointments from Relapse in the past few years. Unless of course you need fog machines and laser shows and a few sips of electric kool-aid to make your favorite music sound good. Then, feel free to go through my garbage can.
What's next guys? Three female backup singers in tight black dresses? A fifth wheel with a cape and cigarette holder standing behind a garrison of synthesizers? I can appreciate the angle of approach: a broader scope and a shot at more emotionally moving compositions. But sadly, this is about as emotionally moving as a collaboration between Steve Perry and Candlebox. And about as metal, too. There's more vigor to be found in a Death song circa Human - dishpan-poor production and all - than there is on this entire recording.
Just what we needed, more predictable depresso-rock. Way to sell out, guys.
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Shuffle no more
Submitted on: 2009-08-28 |
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This record is so good, I finally took my iPod off shuffle mode for the first time in nearly two years. I think that speaks volumes.
Over the past two months, I've listened to *this* record only, nothing else... can't get it out of my head. In a lot of ways, it feels like Master of Puppets and ...And Justice for All meets Dark Side of the Moon and Meddle. But even that is not a fitting description. It's hard to categorize.
Sure, the concept is a little contrived (OK, it's a lot contrived). But musically it's just one h*ll of a ride. And personally, if I didn't KNOW it was a concept album, I never would have guessed as the songs themselves don't sound like contrived pieces stuck together to advance a story line. The individual songs all stand well on their own.
Give this record a few plays through before you make a judgement, because it tends to grow on you. I haven't heard a record this good in many, many years. If this is the future of rock, and heavy music in general, I'm going to enjoy the future. |
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