I can already see them... in 20 years... being remembered, if they are not still among us, as those who in the year of grace 2006 released one of the most beautiful heavy metal documents produced by human hands from the 90s to today (not counting the 80s, naturally).

Mastodon are already legends!

Two years ago, they delighted us with an album that made us understand the innate potential of this combo, but for some reason, that album, "Leviathan" to be precise, couldn't fully engage me... nothing to say about the concept behind it (centered around the legendary creature of the white whale, Moby Dick) but on an instrumental level, it felt like the combo could have offered more, could have pushed their proposition even further... beyond every imagination, I would say, as I listen to this masterpiece that I have in my hands today.

"Blood Mountain" is beyond... beyond what was right to expect from a band like them...

There was fear before the release of this latest one, as they moved from the legendary American label Relapse to the services of a major; there was fear because 70% of the bands that manage to make a mark with substantial records and get signed by majors fail to deliver on their promise, which is to bring great music. But this is not the case with this band, indeed, it must be said that they signed their masterpiece now that they are with a major, something that hasn’t happened for a long time... Well... musically, the differences are noticeable, although the bond with the past is not dissolved at all; it is, in fact, fortified; the hardcore influences that were always part of the band's DNA are almost entirely set aside to focus especially on that dizzying impact of scorching heavy metal we all know; but it doesn’t end here, "Blood Mountain" is not at all a simple reinterpretation of metal from the past, but it is mostly evolution... it contaminates it, deconstructs it from within, rebuilds it by submerging it with an insane dose of old-school prog, psychedelia, free jazz passages, stoner (listen to Colony of Birchmen where even the great prankster Josh Homme of the revived QOTSA sings) a belligerent attitude typical of punk and hardcore, and with a veil of doom and sludge darkness that never hurts (the slowed-down finale of Hunters of the Sky is significant in this sense).

Said like this, it might seem like a senseless mixture, where the proposition is burdened by too many and sometimes unnecessary parts, but for Mastodon it’s not like that... everything is balanced, it is in perfect symbiosis, everything is inseparable here; their strength indeed lies in the simplicity of fruition... that is, despite the intricate work of the individual instruments, it reaches our ears in a very fluid and, if I may use the term, catchy way (always keeping in mind that we are talking about a band like Mastodon, and not thinking of the commercial nature of the proposal)... everything flows perfectly (hehe)... one never, and I mean never, feels a sense of fatigue; the listening keeps you glued to the chair for all of its 51 minutes of duration, surprising with freshness and increasingly exciting with each new listen (something not very easy to achieve).

The power expressed by the quartet is something devastating and explosive... Iron Maiden, Pantera, Black Flag, Isis (the early ones, from "Celestial"), Neurosis, Pink Floyd (listen to the last Pendulous Skin and then tell me), King Crimson, and more; mixed with a personality and originality of execution with very few equals... I won't talk about the tracks as there are too many nuances to discuss here; you just have to listen to it!!

Guys, if it wasn’t clear yet, this is the heavy-metal album that has been awaited for a long time, perhaps too long, and unquestionably metal album of the year; acting to revive this genre that many deemed old and dead by now, (even looking at the latest releases of the sacred monsters), and to chart a new course for the near future...

Mandatory bow to the new Gods of metal!!

Magnificent!! No bullsh*t...

 

Tracklist Lyrics and Videos

01   The Wolf Is Loose (03:34)

The hero of the gods
The crossing of the threshold
The belly of the whale
Refusal of return
Hollow eyes
Dry pale legs
Howling on
Thru fields and graves
Language of the signs
Symbols to our sight
Guardian to thy throne
Take on form
Daylight
Hide the skin
Cut it off
Scatter ash in the wind
Shapeshifter rolling on winds of tyrants make
Fierce lore of fanged horn
Danger all the way
Night's sea reflection
The faces of bodies slain
Returning to the form of natural human's fate
Grown from the cold
Spirits unclean
Dealer of the days
The ice will thaw
As the soldier walks thru the crimson side
Researchers of aftermath
Dispelling disarming man
One-toed horses subject of Genesis
And the immigrants
Fundamental side of a human mind
Hulder folk and fairies
So believe
The hero of the gods
The crossing of the threshold
The belly of the whale
Refusal of return

02   Crystal Skull (03:27)

Guide a truth
Prevail and ride
Into the black hole
Searching the crystal
Making the veins bleed
The source of consciousness
Alive
Crystalline resonance
Into the black hole
Searching the crystal
Making the veins bleed
A deep breath before the plunge
One million voices
Dispelling
A thousand faces
Disarming
Running thru the darkness
Holding hearts in my eyes
Falling short of gauntlet
Covered in blood-sucking flies
The touch is cold
I tore a path screaming through wind and blood
I will it all
Burning deep in my skull

03   Sleeping Giant (05:36)

Earth has burst
Mountain flames
Moon beheld
Father snake
Mind control
Has left its nest
Shame on
Bulls roar loud
The fearless fall
Wooden vessel
Broken wings
Caught my killer
In my grave
Shame on
Eyes of grace
Kill again
Trapped in maze
Trembling fear
Head scorched brow
Perish the land
Shame on
A vast calm wilderness
The call to adventure comes
Lead and land atop this rock
Infinite path carved with unrivaled skill

04   Capillarian Crest (04:25)

Capillarian gone away
Capillarian gone away
It's a shattered wave
Cosmogenic cycles
Universal dreams
The unseen essence
Energies refreshed
12 years of silence
Frivolous to moments
Shake the hand of lightning
Capillarian carnate
Capillarian carnate
You don't have to go
Escaping from the long way
And leave us here all alone
Carve out your soul
Lay it on the altar
And leave us here all alone
This river is running violence
A way to catch our breath
Rising from the mercury
We will climb to bestow our trust
Take away the anchor
Amplify the mystery
Inhale the earth and wind
Map out the plans to our test

05   Circle of Cysquatch (03:19)

Elephant spirits
Tower of ivory
Story of ancient deities
Seizure of the fleece
Protector of its place
Fly thru dreamscapes
Of valleys gullies and spires
Herd across suicidal slopes
Changeless moonshines
Circle cyclops image
A race of one-eyed beings
All feared and shunned
Rakshasa demon
Seizure of the fleece
Protector of its place
Eyes all around you
Enter the labyrinth
Visions of the hunted
Beware the birchmen
Incisors thought to be
Skulls of us
Our release

06   Bladecatcher (03:20)

[Instrumental]

07   Colony of Birchmen (04:19)

This forest is growing faster than I can tell
Cell structure eats away at a massive swell
Seems however I'm a victim of circumstance
Hunt for ogres and dwarves
Lion slicer
Run with death
Run with death
White faces coming closer with every step
Earth envelopes taking breath without happenstance
Carve my teeth out ripping through the sheep's head curse
Hunter gatherer
Ridden from the cave
Run with death
Run with death
Gone away
My heart's gone away
Taking everything
My heart's gone away
Take it now
Hunt for ogres and dwarves
Lion slicer
Run with death
Run with death
Gone away
My heart's gone away
Taking everything
My heart's gone away
Take it now

08   Hunters of the Sky (03:52)

Running faster than I ever have
Evading sharks of the sky
Death trap and I kill again
Dig through my own hives
Shelter from sky
Talon of raptor
Force-fed glass giant moth
Reaping fields of the flesh
Heavy hand thwart the scheme
Of the dominant nymph
Omen she brings
Carried on weathered wings
Fly reptile
Leather wings
Bones hollow
Petrified
Running faster than I ever have
Evading sharks of the sky
The earth's ashing floats
What is good for man
Cast us out into the known

09   Hand of Stone (03:30)

No one sees the difference in the land
Where the sky meets earth
Form horizons
Hand of stone
Arm of strength
Nature's fire
Fist of gold
Venom stains the lips and burns the tongue
With vengeance and hatred
Extremities forged in nature's fire
Unrelenting vigor
Carve the future
Feast or famine
Drink deception
The wells run dry
The need for temptation
Falling thru brain field
Head for divide
The hand matches
The hand that leads the way
To kill the shepherd
Just to see his face
Heed the warning
Ingest the rotten bone
The hand that falters
The hand that turns to stone
Chew on the root that gives us sight
Cranium shatters
Feed the needles as they fall
The truth
The mask
Brain divided

10   This Mortal Soil (05:00)

Floating in red again
A deepened soil
Nothing
Empty cup
Trade not known
Showing promise of a perfect land
No regrets for a fallen ground
The omen passed
Woman possessed
Reflect on the duties held
Oceans morph to dust
Chasing the timeline
Bolts of light flash
Original storm god
The atmosphere that floats above the earth
Is corrupt for man
This we know
What has dwelt within the early dawn has gone away
That's okay
Dig
Climb
Ancient elm
Root
Ride the vine of father ground our carving
The atmosphere that floats above the earth is corrupt for man
This we know
Circle
Made of ash
Betray her presence
Huntress
Gentle breath
Listen to the poison rose

11   Siberian Divide (05:32)

Ice god shakes the earth
Destruction of the path
Sinking deeper in the snow
Eating bark with blackened hands
Swollen fingers frozen jaw
Warm teeth wrapped around my wrist
Frostbite eating away at our limbs
Slit the belly brontotherium
Climb towards vermillion snowbank fall
Station of the crosses prayer save all
Chewing bone
Euphoria
Land and sky
Shining skull
Ice field blanket land
Hunted beyond the fray
No direction known
Running with the band
Provisions wearing thin
Avalanche sweeps the land
Starvation setting in
Spilling all that's left
Should've kept the fruits from virgin's vine
Three-horned face
Pillar of red
Evil lives atop my crooked spine
Rosebush current flow
Carmine river go
Solar storms erupt on the sun
Ice fields blanket land
Snow queen
Hypothermia
Ice lips
Hallucination
Ice field blanket land
Hunted beyond the fray
No direction known
Running with the band
Provisions wearing thin
Avalanche sweeps the land
Landscape ebb 'n' flow
Think I felt the end of time
Skulls aglow as crystal shines
And starts to warm the empty climb

12   Pendulous Skin (22:15)

You went away
gone so long
you arrived

unfortunately for me
its too late now

although you know that
there's no other way back
you lied
we died

now so slow
endure and wait
patiently for...

although you know that
that on the way back
he died!

now so slow
endure and wait
patiently for...

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By ThirdEye

 The music of Mastodon is the sound of nature.

 It is the frantic beating of our heart. The primary instinct, the sacred fire of life in our eyes. Eternal catharsis.