After making the leap from indie to major, the Atlanta-based metal band Mastodon release their long-awaited third album Blood Mountain. Not many bands have the skill to evolve and encapsulate an entire ideology of metal from one album to the next. The first two Mastodon records—2002’s Remission and 2004’s Leviathan—were thunderous and venomous, while Blood Mountain seems to have a little more groove. It’s still heavy enough to rip paint from the walls, but it’s just not as ominous. It’s almost bordering on Corrosion of Conformity at times, but head to head Mastodon would get a 1st round knock out. Song’s like, “Sleeping Giant†encapsulates this new epoch of the band. It starts off with a few ringing chords and a foreboding ride cymbal, leading into an almost Cure-like reverbed guitar melody until the verse drops in to exemplify to you that they still rock—hard. Prog-metal is another territory Mastodon enters. “Capillarian Crest†opens with a guitar riff that would fit perfectly on the next Mars Volta album, except towards the end, evil lurks and you’re sitting comfortably in the devil’s lair. Blood Mountain rages and pillages, but it’s just more tonal and crisp, influenced by some of the early 80s bands like Maiden, along with post-hardcore, thrash metal and a few other genres—and perhaps eye of newt and bat’s wing for that matter. Fans of Mastodon should be pleased and embrace the evolution, and as long as Bränn Dailor is on drums, there really can’t be much to complain about.
