MASTODON Crack The Skye CD (2009)

There are heavy albums and then there is Crack the Skye, a record so cosmically unhinged that Mastodon had to write an actual narrative synopsis just so people could follow what was happening. Astral projection, the Russian mystic Rasputin, wormholes, and a paraplegic kid whose soul gets trapped in the spirit world. Standard 2009 progressive sludge metal content.

Released in 2009 and still regularly appearing on lists of the greatest metal albums ever made, Crack the Skye is the moment Mastodon left genre behind entirely. The riffs are enormous but the record breathes, shifts, and pulls you somewhere genuinely strange. Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor's vocal interplay hits different when you know what's at stake conceptually. This is the kind of dark, ambitious alternative metal that makes you feel like the music is doing something to your brain chemistry. Pick this up if you don't already own it. There's no excuse.

Full length studio album on CD. USA. Released 2009.

Fans of: Gojira, Meshuggah, Baroness, Neurosis, Isis