since i discovered this band for myself last year, i have become what is widely regarded a fan. i have their records up to 'blood mountain' and was listening to these albums in a quite natural way, which means i listened to them in order of appearance. almost, that is. i heard 'leviathan' before 'remission'. whatever, at the beginning of the year mastodon announced re-pressings of their reprise records back catalogue on coloured vinyl. i was thrilled to bits as it would spare me the agony of getting original colour vinyl of 'crack the skye'.
i already have 'blood mountain' on my favourite colour pattern and so i skipped the re-press. 'crack...' was set to be released on june, second and i pre-ordered through their u.k. store. i was really excited to finally hold it in my hands. i was able to maintain the illusion of hearing the records in order of release just like it would be a new output. as i never listened to the record before, i couldn't wait to drop the needle on it. musically it's quite different to their previous stuff. way more prog rock and less metal.
i have got to say i really dig the album. not the fact that it's less metal-ish but this whole thing is so sophistically worked out, it's simply jaw-dropping. i love the weird lyrical story of a paraplegic child leaving its body in a transcendental manner, slipping through a wormhole, landing in russia of the early twentieth century where the russian cult of the khlysts passing its soul into rasputin's body. after the assassination of the assumed khlyst rasputin, his soul is trying to help the child getting back into its own body. completely over the top but because of that so damn cool.
music wise mastodon serves the whole pallet of emotions, from raging to melancholic, over heavy to progressive. the only little downer is that brann dailor's drumming got less complex. it's a wild trip anyway and you should take it right now. the album name and the title song was inspired by brann dailor's sister skye, who committed suicide at the age of fourteen. 'remission' had some references too. 'crack the skye' is the last out of four mastodon albums based on the theory of the four elements, representing 'air' or better 'aether'. don't know how many were made on this 'baby blue' vinyl. reprise records. 2009/2015.
