Mar 24, 2009  The title track, and track 6, of Mastodon’s fourth album “Crack the Skye”. Lead vocals are by Scott Kelly of Neurosis, who has sung on every Mastodon album since Leviathan.

• A&R – • Art Direction, Artwork, Design – *, • Bass, Vocals, Synthesizer [Bass Synth] – • Booking [North & South America For] – • Booking [North & South America] –, • Booking [Rest Of The World] –, * • Drums, Vocals, Percussion – • Engineer [Additional] – • Guitar – • Lead Guitar, Vocals, Banjo – • Legal – * • Management – • Management [Business Management For] – • Management [Business Management] – • Management [For] – • Mastered By – • Music By, Lyrics By – • Producer, Mixed By – • Recorded By – • Recorded By [Assistant] –, • Synth, Mellotron –. Commonly known as the Royal Edition. Includes the full album and the score (instrumental) version of the album. Housed in gold-stamped textile digibook, with 22-page affixed booklet, new artwork and packaging.

Comes with a 6'x6' exclusively designed lithograph. Recorded at Southern Track Recording, Atlanta, GA Mastered at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME ©2009 Chrysalis Songs/Trampled Under Hoof Music (BMI). Scott Kelly appears courtesy of Recorded at 60 Pyscho Hum Studios Medford, OR © ℗ 2009 Reprise Records, a Warner Music Group company. Made in the U.S.A. Barcode appears only on a sticker.

Both discs contain CD-Text.

As you might expect from an album named after one of the more obscure 1970s progressive rock bands (Crack the Sky, no 'e' on the Sky), this Mastodon album has a certain nostalgic vibe to it - it feels, in fact, like Mastodon taking a stab at making stoner metal, right down to the vocals which sound a lot like Sabotage-era Ozzy Osbourne. (Indeed, if you Crack the Skye do you get a Hole In the Skye?) Of course, this is stoner metal filtered through Mastodon's distinctive sludgy-prog aesthetic, so this isn't purely an exercise in nostalgia - instead, it's a lightning raid on the past, plundering whatever works best for the purposes of Mastodon's compositional goals and leaving behind what doesn't work for them and in this way advancing their sound even as they pay tribute to their influences. I don’t know how Mastodon do it, but once again they’ve managed to release an album that tops their previous effort as career highlight; Mastodon just keep getting better and better. Crack The Skye takes the ball ‘Blood Mountain,’ brought and runs with it, The music is even more progressive, even more virtuosic and the material is even more dense. Somehow Mastodon have also simultaneously reinvented themselves and stayed true to their trademark sound at the same time.

The jangly, awkward riffs are the same and the complex jazzy drumming is the same, but the music has a fresh, cleaner and at first glance more ‘listenable,’ air to it; in addition to this the production is amazing, the artwork is in keeping with the tone of all Mastodon artwork to date and once again the album is a concept album. No doubt a few fans in Remission T-shirts will still label this album as a sell out despite the fact that this is Mastodon’s least commercial offering to date due to the length, density and originality of the music. Fans of the direction Mastodon started to take with Leviathan and especially with Blood Mountain will welcome Crack The Skye as the next logical step; praising the numerous guitar solos, haunting clean vocals and entertaining lyrics.

Everything you’d expect in terms of passion and performance is represented here and represented in stronger doses than ever before. The album is bursting with new ideas, with exciting bass lines, complicated time shifts and yet all the force you’d expect from the band who wrote Remission. If you have an open mind there is a hell of a lot to enjoy here, such as the new Keys and synths, along with longer songs and cleaner vocals (plus more vocalists) that add whole new dimensions to the sound that Mastodon previously only hinted at in songs like ‘Ol Nessie,’ and ‘Sleeping Giant.’ Some may be surprised to find that in addition to the amazing Troy and the aggressive Brent, Brann Dailor appears to be lending his vocal talents to the album. Additionally, many fans will welcome Scott Kelly back for yet another wonderful guest vocal appearance. There is little point in naming standout tracks as the entire album is the best thing the band have ever done, but if I was forced to pick a favorite I’d pick ‘The Czar,’ which is probably the coolest song you’ll hear all year, that or ‘The Last Baron,’ which has some beautiful acoustic moments, some lead epic guitar moments and an awesome section that seems like a cheeky tribute to ’21st Century Schizoid Man,’ over all the song is like a bizarre cross between ‘Trampled Under Hoof,’ with ‘This Mortal Soil,’ and the drumming is just so impressive. Overall; Although at first the album may seem like a departure, repeat listens will reveal moments that could fit at the end of ‘Hearts Alive,’ or fit into the middle of ‘Mother Puncher.’ In fact the first single ‘Divinations,’ sounds like it could fit well on the Blood Mountain album.