Blood Molehill (Blood Mountain - Mastodon)

Member Name: Fennesz

Product:	Blood Mountain - Mastodon
Date:	30/01/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Their most accessible yet. They're still not taking themselves too seriously.

Disadvantages: Fluffy production. Kinda lacking direction.

I've never really been a fan of metal, although I'm fine with the concept. It's the tedious cliches and the inability to let go of old dinosaurs of the genre and their influences that gets me. I've had moments with a couple of bands, like Tool or Isis, but they tend to be the type that get called elitist and pretentious, which isn't far wrong. Recently I discovered Mastodon, though, whose dizzying ferocity has taught me the simple joys of feeling like a caveman without one mention of either corpses, crypts or bats.

Blood Mountain, like their previous two albums, is sort of a concept album, although it is nowhere near as inspired as Leviathan, the album that played out the story of Moby Dick (!) in all its whale-chasing insanity. The idea is a bit hazier this time, following one mans ascent up a mythical mountain and the challenges he faces. It's all a bit Dungeons and Dragons, but eh, it's better than graveyards.

On their first proper album, Remission, Mastodon hadn't really carved out a unique identity yet, so they were content to just display virtuosic skill and technicality. On Leviathan, though, people were expecting something different, and that was what we got. A definite oceanic feel was there, all foamy fury with razor sharp melodic guitar riffs cutting through it all like lightning. Here, the feel is hard to pin down. It's a lot less focused, with a lot of experimenation and messing around. "Bladecatcher" consists of a bizarre dads-favourite-band intro followed by a whirling, screeching alien creature having some sort of fit. It isn't self indulgent or pretentious, it's just too much novelty for the sake of it.

Technically, the band are as good as ever. All these guys are some of the best instrumentalists I've ever heard but not enough praise can be heaped upon drummer Brann Dailor. I've heard people talk about their favourite metal drummers before and it tends to always be about the hideous ultra-fast double bass drumming, but this guy is a gift to the genre with his mind melting fills and jazzy syncopations. The guitarists are versatile as ever, going from jangly to head-severingly sawtooth and everything in between with ease. All this is great, but the production is so layered that it all feels a bit flat and muffly. Listening to Remission everything pops out at you. Blood Mountain gets me feeling a bit woozy and passive to it all. I miss Dailors happy snare. Occasionally, a weird little surprise knocks me out of my slumber, such as Josh Homme and Cedric Bixler Zavala guesting. Cedrics piercing howl adds an interesting element to "Siberian Divide".

All in all, I didn't love this as much as everyone else did. It's less of a dramatic statement than its predecessors and it isn't as fresh. It isn't a bad album though, and I haven't lost faith in them. Their new album "Crack the Skye" is set for spring and with a concept as mad as it has (Czarist Russia, travelling as a soul through space and time guided by Rasputin?) it can't fail to be epic. If not, the album art will be worth it alone.

Summary: Might be good for newcomers, but even then I would say get Leviathan.