Blood Mountain

The heat is off Mastodon these days (only 4 reviews for 2014's Once More Round the Sun compared to 17 for The Hunter), but it doesn't stop their 00s output being highly influential on the new wave of metal that has appeared since. Their sound never quite had a specific focal point, though originating from sludge metal, and expands to include a terrifying array of different influences and aspects on an album such as this, Blood Mountain. Perhaps a testament to the band's creativity, the mountain has never been mined fully, leaving many ideas here that remain unique and instantly recognizable.

Firstly, it's key to point out that Mastodon were never as accessible as their mainstream reputation suggested, particularly evident when listening to a song such as 'Sleeping Giant', which uses its latter half to twist and turn mazily on fleeting guitar melodies, extended drum fills, and frequently switching musical ideas. Nothing ever stays still for any great length of time, though the band never descend into total self-indulgence or allow their jamming to carry too far, finishing most of the songs in under 5 minutes. If you're eyeing that 22:15 runtime of the closing 'Pendulous Skin', then fear not, because most of that is silence spent waiting for Kyuss/QOTSA guitarist Josh Homme to read a tongue in cheek fan letter to the band. However, packed into those tight songs, expect a lot of dazzling guitar runs, deliberately tricky polyrhythms, and many-legged riffs that crawl off sideways the moment you blink. For technical skill and attention to detail, Blood Mountain is still gobsmacking 10 years after the event.

What seems a bit strange about the album is that it tries so hard to be head-scratching. There are all sorts of weird and random things left scattered across the musical space, not least the gobbledigook tape-rewinding words in 'Bladecatcher' that appear over hyper-speed death thrash, which breaks for a wonderfully light and fun melody/riff/guitar thing and then thundering chords. Forget about a bloody mountain, you feel like Mastodon are taking you on a tour through the Amazon rainforest, displaying the world's largest natural selection of sludge, thrash, extreme, prog, shred, and mainstream metal. Arguably the most straightforward song is 'Colony of Birchmen', which has one of the catchiest mid-paced riffs you're likely to hear and a kind of Metallica strut to its progress, despite still feeling otherworldly and atmospheric. The songs mostly function as discrete pieces of music, though the themes overlap to some extent (lots of creatures and far-flung places), leaving us slightly confused by the whirlwind progression of ideas and the many changes in direction.

In her review, NausikaDalazBlindaz mentions that Mastodon don't always achieve the "sense of wonder, awe and majesty" they are aiming for, which I must agree with to some extent. She highlights the sometimes lacklustre vocals, provided here mostly by Troy Sanders (as opposed to Brent Hinds who would sing more on Mastodon's later albums), as one of the factors in that failure and that also holds true, since there are several moments when his delivery - and Hinds's on 'This Mortal Soil' as well - fails to meet the atmospheric requirements of the music, resulting in a loss of sense of place and spectacle as much as a sense of wonder. Nevertheless, this weakness also highlights the album's key strength, which is that the majority of the music can transport the listener away to another place and opens itself up completely to the imagination. The only other complaint that seems pertinent is that there isn't a great deal in the way of hooks, partly caused by the vocal performance, though there are more complex features to hold onto once you get under the surface of the songs.

Looking back at my relationship with this album, I must say that I neglected its quality for a long time, but when I really listen deeply to it I can find a great deal both to enjoy and admire, as well as knowing that it has a fairly unique position in metal. None of the 12 songs are poor, though 'Hand of Stone' and 'This Mortal Soil' seem to be lacking something. If searching for pure enjoyment and great songwriting, 'The Wolf Is Loose', 'Colony of Birchmen', and 'Crystal Skull' should do the job for you; fans of instrumental madness and progressive wanderings will drool at the feet of 'Capillarian Crest', 'Siberian Divide', and 'Sleeping Giant'. That said, it's difficult to see why you wouldn't enjoy Blood Mountain and you will probably be blown away by some of it too.