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Best Heavy Metal Album: Mastodon - Blood Mountain Mastodon - Blood Mountain
12 September 2006
01. The Wolf is Loose
02. Crystal Skull
03. The Sleeping Giant
04. Capillarian Crest
05. Circle Of The Cysquatch
06. Bladecatcher
07. The Colony Of Birchmen
08. Hunters Of The Sky
09. Hand Of Stone
10. This Mortal Soil
11. The Siberian Divide
12. Pendulous Skin
Mastodon is back!!! Blood Mountain could be one of the most anticipated Relapse albums since the Suffocation come back and finally we have the chance to hear what these guys are up to now. My hopes were really high as when I first heard this band (with their album Remission ) they shocked me like no other band has shocked me before. So here's my objective review about their new record.
Mastodon began exploring a more alternative and even Emoish sound since Leviathan, now they evolved a little more and all the Hardcore overtones, all the magnificent aggression found in Remission is almost gone. Blood Mountain could be the Leviathan extension pack as most tracks have that weird EMO sound that characterized the aforementioned album (don't say anything until you've heard "Sleeping Giant" please). This fact could be a turn-off for some and a turn-on for others; the truth is Mastodon, while creating a totally easygoing album, will double their fan-base with this new record no doubt.
Now it is kind of fruity music indeed, but it's still Mastodon, so even if this sounds like a bowl with peaches and plums there's still the marvelous execution and the complex as hell songwriting. People can still feel overwhelmed when hearing the powerful and fast attack of "Capillarian Crest" where everything sounds like the good old violent band but with better structures and a lot of genres thrown in the mix. This feature in particular will please most of the diehard fans as the band kept on writing intricate formulas with mind-blowing structures, irregular timing, shocking drumming and multi-faceted songwriting.
This album is totally a new experience; the music doesn't sound like that old Mastodon creating blasting riffs like the one in "March Of The Fire Ants" (their best song in my opinion) or aggressive tracks like "Workhorse", this time they began experimenting a lot with some of the oddest forms of music ever in history; take "Bladecatcher" as a good example of what Blood Mountain sounds as a whole…a huge blend of weird genres like Grind, Heavy, Metalcore, Alternative, Progressive, Nu and Emo (give or take a few) emphasized in the Melodic touch of Emotive music.
In the end this album stands for a nice experience; I can't say it's a groundbreaking album ready to redo a whole genre and I can't say it's a bad album either, it is just Mastodon ladies and gentleman. One thing is for sure, it is no way near their masterpiece called Remission for two things, Remission was a straight shot to your brains without the "experimental/EMO" mambo-jambo all over the place, and the most important reason…Remission didn't have one gay song in the entire roster period.
If you're thinking "this guy sucks at rating albums" and if you didn't get the whole point of the review, here's a brief explanatory text.
Rating Explanation: Yes the band performs miraculously and of course their songwriting is complex and intricate. The genres mixed together and all those experimental passages make this album incredibly original; the production is quite good…not perfect. Finally, when you combine all those things you just get a jammed and amorphous invention and the product as a whole sounds kind of cheesy and not really that impressive nor shocking.
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