MASTODON Crack The Skye Vinyl LP (2009)

There are albums that make you feel smart for liking them, and then there are albums that make you feel like you've briefly touched something ancient and unknowable. Crack the Skye is the second kind.

Released in 2009, this is the record where Mastodon stopped being a band that metalheads argued about and became one that music writers ran out of adjectives to describe. Conceptually it orbits astral projection, Rasputin, and the Romanovs. Musically it's progressive sludge metal that somehow swings between Pink Floyd-scale atmospherics and riffs that could bend steel. Brann Dailor's drumming alone justifies the price of the pressing. If you came up through the Atlanta metal scene or spent any time digging through the heavier end of Southern metal and sludge, this one hits different on wax.

Standard full-length LP pressing. Country of origin: USA. Genre: Progressive / Sludge / Alternative Metal. Release year: 2009.

Fans of: Gojira, Mastodon, Meshuggah.