Crack the Skye!

So Mastodon released their fourth album, "Crack the Skye," today, and guess what? It fucking rules. Seriously, I love their last three albums, but none of them have grown on me as quickly as this one. Improved production values, crazy technical instrumentation, and great lyrics make this easily one of the year's best releases, putting it up with Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavillion" as a favorite for album of the year. The album's premise is crazy (awesome), but I can't really explain it all that well. Here's how bassist/lead vocalist Troy Sanders explained it:

"There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way"


So, basically, fucking amazing.

Best Tracks: The Czar, Divinations, Oblivion

Score: 9.7/10


Teddy Roosevelt/Bruce Campbell
Divinations Video/Crack the Skye
Kate Micucci
High Fidelity
Samuel L. Jackson
Radiohead
Watchmen (Book)
Joy of Painting
Seinfeld
Tokyo Police Club
Aviator Sunglasses
Google
The Sims
Watchmen (Movie)
Season 2 of LOST
Under the Influence of Giants
Cells phones
Jet's "Are you gonna be my girl"
High School Musical
Across the Universe