Concept behind crack the skye

It's got that slow buildup before really kicking you hard. I'm always a sucker for bands with multiple singers, and the change up in sound and style between them in Oblivion made it my favourite off the album. Divinations and Quintessance were okay, but my excitement somewhat returned for The Czar.

I love long, epic songs like this Stargazer, Bat Out of Hell and Scenes From An Italian Restaurant are some of my favourite songs of all time ; and I thought it gave a nice little touch of prog and variety to the album. The only song I straight up did not enjoy was the title track, mainly for reasons I mentioned earlier. Well done to these guys for keeping hard rock alive. Bill Griffin: I have never before heard a band so in need of a singer as this one.

Forced myself to listen all the way through once and, though musically there were interesting spots, I won't be giving it a second go round. Mike Knoop: Another album I like well enough while it's on, but couldn't hum a tune from it if you held a gun to my head. I found myself checking the track list at certain points about four minutes into The Czar , halfway through the The Last Baron , when the vocals kick in on the title track , but most of it rumbled past like a locomotive in my periphery.

It all strikes me as kind of anonymous. I've dipped my ear occasionally into post-2K metal, but someone with finer hearing than mine will need to explain the difference to me between Mastodon and likeminded bands like Baroness or High on Fire.

I do salute cover artist Paul Romano, who did their early artwork, for another beautiful yet unsettling album cover. He really helped Mastodon stand out from the rest. The musical expertise, the dense and varied layers of guitars, three singers, an astonishing drummer, great music, it's difficult to put into words the incredible dimension of this musical journey.

A masterpiece! Mark Mastrorocco : Also my intro to Mastodon. I was instantly blown away by the rhythm section. Brann drums and Troy bass groove like no other. The Last Baron is an absolute musical masterpiece. Robert Dunn: I may have to go and lie down, I am feeling rather bludgeoned at the moment. There is no doubting the musicianship of all involved, but the chug-chug-chug of chord after chord accompanied by too much drumming and growling just isn't my thing.

I had wondered if the reference to Karelia would introduce a spot of Sibelius, but if it was there it was being battered to death by a prehistoric mammoth mastodon, it was a joke of sorts. Likewise there was no reference to a bonnie boat despite the mention of Skye, but then there is no shepherd in shepherd's pie either. I am not a fan of heavy metal in anything other than bite size portions, it may well be old fart syndrome, but this has done nothing to change my mind.

I almost said it was too loud and you couldn't make out the words but that would have meant I had turned into my father, and that is too scary to contemplate. I am glad it was suggested and chosen though, it is always good to hear something you wouldn't normally listen to, even if it is only once. Iain Macaulay: This really hit the spot with me for this week.

Yes, there is a lot going on In each track, and yes, you need to invest a bit of time to soak it in. But it is still a very accessible, warm sounding, sophisticated listen. Colourful without being a messy palate of incoherent noise.

Technically superb without being totally pompous and overblown. And boy can they write a big chorus when they want to.

Where as some disagree, I personally love that the sounds change through the tracks, both the guitars and vocals, in styles and sonically. For me, it really adds to the interest level. Especially as I usually find music like this quite monotonous and repetitive after a while. One a lot of kids learnt to play the guitar and drums to. Richard Brantner: I recently saw them perform this album in its entirety in Kansas City. Guitarist Bill Kelliher explained to The Skinny magazine that this, "is one of the heavier, doomier, songs on the record.

We had the main riff floating around for a while, like maybe a year — year and a half, basically just heard Scott Kelly's [Neurosis] voice all over it. That's when we called him out to sing on it.

For his part, we gave him the lyrics for the rest of the record so he could get a feel for what was going on. Dailor explained to Billboard the concept behind the Crack The Skye album: "It's about a crippled young man who experiments with astral travel. He goes up into outer space, goes too close to the sun, gets his golden umbilical cord burned off, flies into a wormhole, is thrust into the spirit real, has conversations with spirits about the fact that he's not really dead, and they decide to help him.

They put him into a divination that's being performed by an earlyth-century Russian Orthodox sect called the Klisti, which Rasputin is part of. Knowing Rasputin is about to be murdered, they put the young boy's spirit inside of Rasputin. Rasputin goes to usurp the throne of the czar and is murdered by the Yusupovs, and the boy and Rasputin fly out of Rasputin's body up through the crack in the sky and head back.

Rasputin gets him safely back into his body. For me they remind me of my chronic illness and how it made me unable to participate in the world around me. It does not feel like a graceful life being bed ridden and desperate to die or get better. Illness pulls you away from any relationships you have form with people, and naturally people mostly go away and forget you too while they are busy with new people and living their lives, even though you are left sick in bed with the memories of them.

There are nice guitar solos half way through sprinkled over the chill stoner prog sound Mastodon is great with. We are led out of the song with the sounds of the guitars gradually fading away. You hear so many interesting things happening in the opening. Everyone is playing something crazy, yet everything is fitting so seamlessly together. The lyrics are crazy and paint such a vivid imagery in my head:. I enjoy a lot of the instrumental themes toward the end matching up with the themes at the beginning of the song.

The song ends with this interesting noise that I envision it as the sounds of a spaceship flying away. The bassline is very strong and a really great groove is created combined with the drums.

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