Into The Ether with Mastodon
By Team JamBase Mar 26, 2009 • 7:55 pm PDT
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“I’ve never considered our band a standard metal band, and this record’s only going to take that further” says bassist/vocalist, Troy Sanders. “We have a wide range of music that we grew up on and love, and our inspirations range from Bach to Björk to Bad Religion.”
Mastodon has always been different. Their technical virtuosity has endeared them to fans of all types of music and led them to play crossover bills like Bonnaroo. But for many, the appeal washed away when the scream-core vocals came in. For the most part, Crack The Skye trades the guttural screaming for a far more melodic approach, with actual vocal harmonies and attention to enunciation. This is clearly Mastodon’s most ambitious effort and the results couldn’t have been achieved without the proper producer. Enter the legend: Brendan O’Brien.
“We wanted to create a classic rock feeling Mastodon album, and he [Brendan O’Brien] was able to do it,” says Sanders. “He was the rock guy that really was able to capture the sonic qualities that we wanted to capture as far as the sounds of the drums and the guitars, and he was also able to really bring out the best performances in us, musically, and especially vocally.”
O’Brien has helped everyone from AC/DC to Bob Dylan to Pearl Jam to Bruce Springsteen create masterpieces, now he’s touched his magic wand on Mastodon and he appears to have cracked the ceiling for them, putting Mastodon on course to join the legions of superstars he’s produced in the past.
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“I think it’s just the reflection of intensity,” explains Sanders. “You can just be one man and an acoustic guitar and have a very slow song, but if it’s coming from a deep and powerful place the overall effect that you’re going to feel is heavy. It’s about the effectiveness of a song, or just relaying a certain emotion. Something can be very slow and sad and deep, but it hits you like a ton of bricks, therefore being heavy.”
Instead of relying solely on speed and volume, here Mastodon is also focusing on song structure, intention and emotion. They’ve ramped up on patience, restraint, delicacy, tempo changes and melodic shifts without sacrificing their trademark power. No longer just for head-bangers, there’s a mean groove and layers upon layers of sonic indulgence. Crack The Skye is significantly different than anything they’ve ever done. It’s no longer just slamming you in the face, but warming your innards, making you think and moving your ass.
Continue reading for more on Mastodon…
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SPACE TRAVEL, WORMHOLES & RUSSIAN CZARS
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“We were able to tie [the album] into one bizarre yet wonderfully concocted story,” explains Sanders. “We deal with out-of-body experiences and astral travel. We always deal with topics that the four of us are fascinated with. The ideas and possibilities of time travel through wormholes, that just blows us away.”
Relaying the fantastical journey of the album’s protagonist, Sanders continues to passionately discuss stars, galaxies constellations and “the journey that Rasputin had from the snowy woods of Siberia all the way to befriending the tsarina and having godlike qualities to cure the tsarina’s son of hemophilia. His whole assassination of being dosed with cyanide, not killing him, being shot at, that not killing him, eventually drowning in a river.” He concluded his wild-eyed rambling by breaking it down, “[We like] dealing with divinations and tapping into séance and anything and all things supernatural.”
If all this sounds like a bit much, well, perhaps it is. But, that’s because it’s out of context. It’s like reading a movie script without any of the visuals. How would Tommy read on paper, or Ziggy Stardust or anything by The Mars Volta? Take Crack The Skye‘s plot and put it to the music and all of a sudden shit starts falling into place.
Consider the epic four-part centerpiece of the album, “The Czar.” Featuring multiple sections, voices, temperaments, tempos and journeys in its ten-minutes of life, it is quite simply, one of the best songs we will hear all year. It’s pure prog-rock genius with a midsection swell and spacious jam area. There are elements of Frank Zappa, Rush, Yes, ELP, Metallica and more. It’s the kind of song that if given the chance could unite hippies and hell’s children alike.
But even with the fresh melodic approach, symphonic tendencies, brilliant guitars, Moog runs and restrained attack, the storyline is still incredibly dense and difficult to puncture. And for some, it doesn’t matter how many mind-boggling guitar solos and insane drum rolls there are, they still won’t get their head around a concept album of this nature. That is, unless they dig just a little deeper. Like most art, this sci-fi journey is all metaphor and it’s deeply rooted in real-life tragedy.
THIS ONE IS PERSONAL
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“It is an extremely personal record” admits Sanders. “This record is a perfect reflection of our emotional past two years as a band. We were able to dig a little deeper and to come up with ultimately more spacious, melodic and sincere music.”
A major part of the emotional turmoil Sanders is referring to involves the massive head injuries suffered by lead guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds. Following the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas, Hinds was involved in an altercation with System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian and another musician named William Hudson. The brawl left Hinds in a coma with severe brain hemorrhaging, a broken nose, two black eyes and an uncertain future.
Just as the band was reaching a huge peak of Grammy nominations and “Best Of The Year” accolades, they had the rug pulled out from underneath them. Sanders, drummer Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher were aware that Hinds might never recover the ability to play guitar, or worse, he could die. But like the monster musician and man he is, Hinds rose from his bed hungry for more.
“I was so glad to be alive when it was all over, so glad to have my motor skills back and be able to function again” says Hinds. “I was laid up pretty hardcore for a couple of months. So when I finally started playing guitar again I was really into playing guitar. It was a creative outburst. Don’t know if it came from the accident or not, but when I found out I was okay I was really excited about playing guitar.”
Continue reading for more on Mastodon…
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That creative outburst led to Crack The Skye. Inspired by his miraculous recovery, Hinds wrote most of the music while he, Sanders and Dailor all worked on the lyrics. Moved by the beauty of the music and how deep Hinds was traveling into his own experiences, Dailor opened up a piece of himself he’d never done before: the tragic 1990 suicide of his sister.
Brann was 13 when his 14-year-old sister, Skye Dailor, took a handful of prescription narcotics. He says it was a teenage impulse that she never really comprehended, and it’s the type of event a family never fully recovers from – you just learn to deal. Dailor has long had Skye’s name tattooed across his neck, and now his band has immortalized her in Crack The Skye.
“On Brann’s behalf, 20 years later, he was willing to let it go [and put it into the music]. And you know, Brent’s second lease on life definitely affected him and he was willing to tap into that spiritually and create some of the most beautiful music he’s ever created,” offers Sanders. “Ultimately [Crack The Skye] is about the personal aspect of it, facing and conquering anything and all things personal and just diving into a more spiritual side of all this.”
So, while the plot inside Crack The Skye may feature a crippled man who travels through space and inhabits the body of Rasputin, we know these trials are really about Hinds overcoming his own physical injuries and Dailor battling his lifelong emotional scars. And it’s this personal touch that allowed the band to break through to a whole new level of music. Mastodon took the knife and cut so close to the bone, channeling such real, sincere personal pain and triumph, that they’ve created their best album yet, and when it’s all said and done, likely one of the best hard rock albums of the past decade.
POSITIVE ENERGY
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For some, it may be interesting to hear Sanders talk about Mastodon as a “positive” force. And it’s not the first time in our conversation he uses the word. He also explains, “Art needs to stem from a very authentic and personal place, and if you can share it with others and send out some positive energy then that’s [the extra bonus].”
Just because the music is heavy and it comes from guys with tattoos (on their face!) doesn’t mean it’s all doom and death and destruction. Even if the subject matter does dip toward Hades, the results can still be very positive. There is no denying the dark thoughts, aggressive urges and troubling visions many of us face, but if we can learn to channel those emotions in the same way Mastodon has we’ll live fuller, richer, more positive lives. Hinds could have come out of his coma like Tupac or Biggie and gone searching for Shavo Odadjian, and Dailor could have grown bitter and cold after loosing his sister, but they didn’t. They took their pain and created art – and isn’t that the source of all GREAT art?
Mastodon defies our expectations. They’re a doom metal band turned heavy rock icon, and they’ve made a classic rock album that will go down in history. They tour with Slayer and Metallica but also play Coachella and Bonnaroo. They’re music strikes fear in our hearts one minute and finds us pumping our fist and staring into the clouds the next. They are a force of nature live but also make incredible albums. They look like Hell’s Angels but are sweet, funny, intelligent guys you’d love to have a beer with. Don’t pigeonhole Mastodon or pass judgment before really listening and you might just find yourself with a new favorite band.
“We got together years ago with the idea that we were going to create a unique brand of heavy music,” says Sanders with pride. Congratulations boys, you appear to have done it. You’ve Cracked The Skye and there’s no telling where Mastodon will go from here.
For more on Mastodon check our exclusive video interview with Brann Dailor on JamBaseTV. You can also check our 2006 feature/interview with the band here.
Mastodon has a ton of tour dates across the globe, get details here.
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