A track by track review of one of my favorite albums

It has been just under 2 years since the Atlanta based progressive heavy metal transcendental acid rock band Mastodon released their fourth studio album, Crack the Skye.  Before the release I had seen them once and since then I have seen them again, where they played a number of tracks from Crack.  Critically acclaimed by both metal specific and mainstream music reviewers, Crack the Skye redefined the meaning of ambition and experience in the genre of rock opera.  As a short side note I am a fan of rock operas for what they represent: a well planned and highly nuanced series of movements that together almost create one long piece.  Rock operas tell a story with an album, but more than that, the individual tracks begin to blend and call and respond to one another as you travel through them.

If you've never listened to Tommy or Quadrophenia  by The Who, I would highly recommend either as a starter to the genre.  Rock operas have to grow on you as a listener.  One listen through an opera album will generally leave you bored and uninterested, but like most great albums, a few listens is required to develop a taste for the sounds and begin to pick out the intricacies.  If you are a fan of musicals, like me, you will almost certainly acquire a taste for the rock opera.  Bye Bye Birdie, Wicked, Grease and Jesus Christ Superstar are some of the most recognizable rock musicals.  While not the quite the same, as they typically accompany dialogue to carry the story, in terms of scope and coherence to theme, my reasons for loving a rock opera, the two are very similar.

Before I begin my track by track analysis I will echo here the thoughts of Joe Gross, reviewer for Decibel magazine:

 "Crack is clearly designed as a grower, not a shower, the sound of a band that grew tired of people not responding to their ground game, so they put the ball in the air. Who knows when it will come down?"

Mastodon certainly did just that, Crack the Skye will be one of those albums that stands the test of time for those loyal to the genre.  Each listen reveals so new sonic pathway not previously followed.  I go back to the album every few months and try to listen to all 50 minutes intently, and never have trouble finding something new I like.  Aside from the immense scope of the project, the album is performed flawlessly from start to finish, despite intricacies in time signature and constant peripheral sounds recorded, like everything else, acoustically in a studio.  I don't think many of the other albums on Time's 2009 top 10 list of best albums can boast that (Crack the Skye was #3).

A quadriplegic man, who travels the universe via astral projection, journeys too close to the sun and his golden umbilical cord is severed.  As a result he is plunged into a wormhole that sends him into a spirit world. He is able to converse with the spirits and convince them he is still alive on earth, so they send him to a Russian cult...

I can't make this up.  Oblivion, the first track, sets the stage for Crack.  Opening the album are the sludgy chords and drumming that sends you out on your own astral journey, only to bring you back when the time suddenly changes into a quick, chugging riff.  With the celestial journey interrupted, you can feel the fear and desperation of the child as he plummets toward the wormhole.  Listeners versed in mythology will recognize the purposeful reference to Icarus and his failure when the sun melts his wings and he is sent back to earth.  Seconds seem like hours as guitars trade solos during the slow decline into the spiritual realm.  After a hard landing, you reflect on the loss of your corporeal body, you are now lost in oblivion.

Mastodon's southern rock roots come out in the quick intro to Divinations.  While the Russian cult decides your fate, they argue angrily decide to help you in a sonic chaos.  Two distinct styles can be heard, one pleading and one declaring your fate.  However, not all is lost and the transfer to Rasputin's body is accomplished during the solo.  Now there is again no escape from your plight.

Quintessence is my favorite track, it moves through several style with a cool effortlessness, while never losing the driving rythmns Mastodon has perfected.  You can't help but travel with urgency through the different emotions felt, as the boy hovers above his body while still reflecting on his loss.  Finally, the pain of moving on and letting go of himself ends and he comes to rest.  Solos that reflect the previous tracks begin to call and answer one another with the constant brilliant drumming creating continuity between it all.  It gets pretty dark and sludgy at the end in the guitars and vocals, as you finally come to peace with yourself and fall asleep.

Awakened peacefully by the spacial intro of the Czar, a greyness comes over the terrestrial existence you have entered.  Unfortunately during your dream, you had failed to usurp the Czar's throne and now must run for your life at the bidding of Czarina.  Rasputin's accusatory spirit chastises you as you stumble through the filmy grey streets, escaping the guns out to get you.  When you finally regain consciousness at night, you escape and meet the devil.  Who holds you up on your escape.  Obviously he wants you to stay and die, but Rasputin's determination to return you to your body is enough to keep you moving through the black forests as a blistering pace.  Finally you and Rasputin's spirit escape through a crack in the sky and move back toward your body.  Returning to the astral movements of oblivion, though now more chaotic, you can feel the presence of someone else with you in your journeys.  I personally enjoy the meddlings in other types of music at the very end of this track.

Ghost of Karelia has an epic intro, which sort is supported by the rest of the song.  Probably the heaviest of all the tracks, Ghost stands alone better than any other selection on Crack.  Making the journey back into his original body, you and the boy experience the most epic part of the journey, falling through one hallucination after another.  Finally getting a contemporary view of Earth is comforting, but again time seems to separate and slow down immensely.  Like most of Crack, driving, heavily rhythmic drums sit behind slow vocals and guitar, occasionally morphing in and out of sections of ethereal floating across cymbals as you remain suspended watching the planet below you.

The title track opens with another airy, gloomy intro that makes way for the start and stop guitar riff and constant double kick to drive the song into a grungier sound.  Your journey with Rasputin in search of your corporeal self breaks the void of earth's atmosphere revealing an inconceivable blight.  With the vision of earth returns earthly pains.  Drummer Brann Dailor uses this track to come to peace with his sister's suicide, her name is skye, hence the spelling of the album.  Above all else this movement is about transcending pain and moving on with your life journey.

Deciding not to re-enter your body on Earth, you instead make the decision to stay an immortal spirit with Rasputin,  after the decision is made your pain is lifted but you do reclaim your mortal body and become linked with your traveling partner to become The Last Baron, the final arbiter of a dying planet.  Listen closely for the prog influences embedded in the end of the the final track.  They digress into a Rush-like solo verse that quickly composes itself, but lends to the drumming until the end.  Reaching the end of the journey, finally some light peeks through the ubiquitous clouds and your shared power is realized as you struggle to keep control of your new corpse.  A reprise to the beginning of the Last Baron ends it, your journey has become a never ending cycle of half-death in a magicked corpse animated with enough power to wreak havoc on Earth.