Mastodon’s third album, Blood Mountain is the charm. Not that there was much lacking in 2004’s poll-topping Leviathan. Like with Metallica’s Ride The Lightning, there are diehard fans who insist a peak was reached on the second album. But evidence on every facet points towards Blood Mountain’s dominance. There’s growth in vocals, musicianship, arrangements, concept and lyrics. Probably aware that Cookie Monster style screamo vocals can get old, especially since nearly every extreme metal band has been doing it for the past 18 years, Brent Hinds and Troy Sanders do some pretty creative work intertwining each others’ vocals, alternating screams with real honest to god singing. On “Colony of Birchmen,” with the assistance of Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, the chorus is downright velvety. Throughout the album, drummer Brann Dailor has outdone himself. Always known for his amazing skills on the kit, it’s Dailor’s handiwork that earns Mastodon’s “prog-metal” tag. Check out the tricky time signatures in “Capillarian Crest.” The guitarwork is inspired throughout also. Not everything is so forbiddenly densely layered. “Sleeping Giant” is straightforward enough to almost make it on a classic rock rotation, but with enough twists to make it a unique, slow-building psychedelic epic. “Circle of Cysquatch” offers cyber-vocoder effects, while the jazzy “Bladecatcher” makes a jazzy nod to Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas), with effects that sound like R2D2 getting fucked up… The last three tracks are increasingly epic, the peak being “Siberian Divide,” with The Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala contributing vocals.
Rather than riffing off pre-existing literature (Melville’s Moby Dick), Mastodon created their own world for Blood Mountain, a mythical construct alive with all kinds of beasts, tree roots acting as its capillaries coursing its lifeblood to an actual heart in the center, and a crystal skull at the peak. The journey starts in a labyrynth at the foot of the mountain, populated by Cysquatches, one-eyed shamans. Then there are Birchmen who resemble trees, until they climb off each other, surround you, and convert your cellular structure to become one of them. The ultimate goal of the quest is to obtain the crystal skull, which is the key for humanity to evolve beyond its reptilian origins and primitive urges for violence and evil. It’s homegrown mythology that rivals anything by Iron Maiden, for sure. While it’s a little too dense for mainstream acceptance to the extent of platinum sales, Blood Mountain is without a doubt one for the metal gods.
