Mastodon

Blood Mountain

[5/5] Considering their grand conceptual notions and their longtime alliance with master cover artist Paul Romano, it’s no surprise Mastodon left Relapse Records’ indie stable for the bottomless coffers of Warner Bros.: If any modern metal band needed a giant canvas on which to spew their vision, it’s these Atlanta behemoths. Ostensibly part three in an elemental series (2002’s Remission being the “fire” album and 2004’s Leviathan the “water” one), Blood Mountain finds Mastodon neck-deep in the primordial ooze, ascending to a very literal artistic peak by album’s end. Fools may cry “sellout” because the vocal melodies flow better, the guest list has some flair (members of Neurosis and the Mars Volta alike), and the meter changes aren’t immediately obvious. But make it through to the nightmarish, otherworldly hidden track (loaded with guitar squiggle and alien vocodered singing, and Blood Mountain is undeniably the weirdest album Mastodon have ever released, as well as the only major-label album ever to find unity between the quasi-Egyptian guitar harmonies of Iron Maiden’s Powerslave and the alien mathematics of Cynic’s Focus (look it up). True, Mastodon’s career is already full of five-star albums, but hearing Blood Mountain in its entirety is like awaking from a coma to discover you have working ears-in which case, you know, this one gets a six. (REPRISE) Aaron Burgess