Mastodon
Blood Mountain

THE REVIEW

Abandon all that is superfluous.

Strip away what is unnecessary for you; focus on yourself and leave the rest out.

To climb the mountain, you need nothing you don't already possess by nature, but which we tend to always obscure and forget: perseverance and awareness.

The pitfalls are many, and the summit is distant: but this does not mean it is impossible to reach. To climb the mountain, do not attempt to practice virtue. Virtue is only a consequence; once you have become aware of your being, let yourself go and be traversed by existence.

Only at that point will the world open up before you, along with nature and its ancestral sounds...

The music of Mastodon is the sound of nature.

It is the mighty wind that blows among ancient trees, it is the sea that roars through the cliffs, it is the howl of a wolf directed at the moon.

It is the powerful sound of nature awakening and reclaiming its dominion, usurped by human selfishness. "The Wolf Is Loose" and "Crystal Skull": euphoria and fear invade us at the beginning of our ascent to the summit. Guitar riffs and earthquaking drums ("Capillarian Crest") are like a herd of wild horses, but kept in check by man: you can see their nerves taut like strings, their veins pulsing like drums.

The music of Mastodon is the obsessive dance by moonlight of an indigenous tribe, the battle hymn of some lost people in the forest invoking their god of war; we let ourselves be drawn in as if in a trance by their cursed dance ("Circe Of Cysquatch").

It is an avalanche that overwhelms us, yet purifies at the same time ("Sleeping Giant").

It is the aggressive and proud gaze of two lions contending for territory ("Colony Of Birchmen").

They are the tears of rage that spontaneously and clearly spring from our eyes ("This Mortal Soil").

It is our very breath. It is the frantic beating of our heart.

The primary instinct, the sacred fire of life in our eyes. Eternal catharsis.

The summit has been reached: it is not death, but rebirth.