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EDIT INFOMastodon - Blood Mountain
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Album Details
- Artist: Mastodon
- Album: Blood Mountain
- Label: Relapse
- Year of Release: 2006
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: christopherdrew on 2006-09-15
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RecommendMastodon has an impressive track record so far, as each release they've come out with has been an adventure in sonic abuse, with their last album, 'Leviathan', pretty much taking the tops of our heads off (if you don't agree, then you're WRONG. End of story. I win.); so where do they go, two years later, with the much-anticipated 'Blood Mountain'? They stick with what works, reuniting with producer Matt Bayles and giving us what is probably the metal album of the year.
Musically, I'm at a loss: there's almost no place to begin. As soon as I think I've got a grip on one song, it shifts into something else, and seamlessly, might I add. Mastodon are at home with punk thrash as they are doling out heaps of doom metal, and everything in between. This isn't just prog-metal (as everyone's calling it): every song is a simultaneous exploration of what metal is, was, and could be. The album is constantly in flux, never allowing the listener to grow comfortable, yet it's consistent enough to keep one engaged, if not enthralled.
Oh, and it's friggin' HEAVY, too.
Lyrically, well, again, we've got ourselves a concept album, though not one as recognizable as 'Leviathan's ode to Melville's Moby Dick; 'Blood Mountain' is a loosely-tied collection of feverish elemental struggles, as our anonymous hero ventures through various mythological vignettes to overcome demons both psychological and physical, all of which is sure to be documented in a future issue of Heavy Metal magazine.
Translation: Blood Mountain friggin' rocks. If you claim to love metal, you'll own this, or else we'll make you turn in your membership card at the next meeting.
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on 2007-05-18 SolitaryMan Said:
I could go on for days and days about this band. In my eyes they're the best American metal band since...dare I say...Metallica? It's definitely possible. What these guys do so damn well, and never more so than on "Blood Mountain", is combine earth-shattering metal with progressive writing and playing to create thinking-man's metal that can still be blindly headbanged over. It's deep and it's to-the-point. Deep as in "Siberian Divide" with it's swirling riffs and absolutely crushing closing passage. To-the-point as in "Crystal Skull" and "Colony Of Birchmen", both so damn catchy and furious they make you wonder if Mastodon learned from the feet of the aforementioned legends known as Metallica. Hell, these guys are better than Metallica have been in 15 years and, for my money, are one of the best bands in any genre out there today. "Blood Mountain" is just another in a series of excellent albums, near-flawless in every way.
Rating: 9/10
