Saturday, January 16, 2010

The top 10 albums of 2009: No. 9

Mastodon
Crack the Skye

With Crack the Skye, Mastodon have charged into the realm of accessibility. Sung vocals, avoided by some metalheads like a strain of the pox, are in steady supply here. Throughout, the Atlanta metal quartet's musicianship remains enviable: They tear through savage riffs and runs, pulling tempo change-ups on a dime, an equilibrium of ferocity and control. Sabbath would be proud.


Read my review of Crack the Skye here.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

Dug it! Especially that last, LONG song. Though I gotta say, I don't hear a whole lot of Sabbath in them--which, I suppose, need not preclude Sabbath from being proud of them. To me, Mastodon seem more like a Southern prog band that occasionally gets brutal.

Jeremy Edwards said...

When I hear the Sabbath similarities, they're mostly in the vocals.