(Reprise/Warner)

When I first lay my greasy mitts on Mastodon’s new album Crack The Skye, my initial instinct wasn’t to throw in the CD and see if the much-hyped, much-debated album blew me away or proved to be nothing more than self-indulgent prog-wank. Rather, I wanted to watch the accompanying DVD and see if Brent Hinds was as truly mental as the press has painted him to be. From the public fisticuffs to the health scares to drunkenly announcing himself as the greatest guitar player on earth, I thought Crack The Skye’s DVD would shed light on the personality of Hinds, who wrote most of the music on the album. Instead of an insight into the guitarist, the DVD – and the album – simply confirm that Mastodon have grown stratospherically. Crack The Skye sounds like a metal band who’ve had a major label whispering sweet nothings about ‘shifting units’ and ‘marketing’ in their ears. As a result, most elements of the band’s mammoth sound have been gentrified on Crack The Skye. Producer Brendan O’Brien has castrated the heavy end of the band’s sound and as a result tracks like Oblivion and Divinations seem to plod along. While lingering heavy metal undertones are the saving grace of Quintessence and The Czar: Usurper/Escape/Martyr/Spiral, not even guest vocals from Neurosis’ Scott Kelly keep the title track free from stale vocal melodies. While the DVD shows Hinds content with the album’s prog guitar noodling, Crack The Skye, despite a few catchy riffs and memorable tracks, is going to ultimately disappoint heavy metal fans.

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TOM HERSEY

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