Blood Mountain (album)

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Blood Mountain
Blood Mountain cover
Studio album by Mastodon
Released September 12, 2006
Recorded December 2005 - April 2006
Genre Sludge metal
Progressive metal
Length 68:09
Label Warner Bros. Records
Reprise Records
Producer(s) Matt Bayles
Mastodon
Professional reviews
Mastodon chronology
Call of the Mastodon
(2006)		 Blood Mountain
(2006)		 ...


Blood Mountain is the third full length studio album by metal band Mastodon. The recording of the album finished in April 2006 and it was released on September 11 in the UK and September 12, 2006 in North America.

Like Mastodon's previous studio work Leviathan, Blood Mountain is also a concept album. According to bassist Troy Sanders, "It's about climbing up a mountain and the different things that can happen to you when you're stranded on a mountain, in the woods, and you're lost. You're starving, hallucinating, running into strange creatures. You're being hunted. It's about that whole struggle." [1]

The album includes guest appearances by Scott Kelly of Neurosis on "Crystal Skull", Joshua Homme of Queens of the Stone Age on "Colony of Birchmen", as well as keyboardist Isaiah "Ikey" Owens and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta on "Pendulous Skin" and "Siberian Divide", respectively.

The first video "The Wolf is Loose", has been released on YouTube.

The second video "Colony Of Birchmen", was exclusively released on mp3.com as of Tuesday, October 24, 2006. It is now circulating the web and is on Youtube. The song received a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 49th annual Grammy Awards.[1] Colony of Birchmen became the band's first hit song on the radio, reaching #33 on the Mainstream Rock Charts. [2]

The first single "Crystal Skull" can be heard on the band's official website [3] and along with the album track, "Capillarian Crest" on their MySpace page [4]. Its status as the second single, or a single at all, has yet to be confirmed. "Crystal Skull" was also recently included on a "Best of 2006" compilation CD given away free with issue 1122 of Kerrang! magazine, branded as an exclusive on the back cover.

Guitarist Bill Kelliher considers this album to represent the earth element.

The album leaked in full on August 6, 2006 at P2P networks. The album in full could be streamed at the band's MySpace page a few days prior to the release.

Blood Mountain debuted on #32 spot in Billboard 200 best selling album charts, marking the highest debut in the band's career. By December 2006, the album had sold more than 65,000 copies in the U.S. alone according to the website www.mastodonrocks.com.

The band's first single off the album, "Capillarian Crest" was ranked #27 in Rolling Stone magazine Top 100 songs of 2006 [2]. Blood Mountain was ranked 9th in Rolling Stone Top 50 Albums of 2006 [5], and 42nd in Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2006. [6] Blood Mountain was voted the best album of 2006 in the UK Metal Hammer magazine end-of year polls. It was also rated the 17th greatest metal album of all time by a countdown recently done by gaming website IGN [7].



Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "The Wolf Is Loose" – 3:34
  2. "Crystal Skull" (Feat. Scott Kelly) – 3:27
  3. "Sleeping Giant" – 5:36
  4. "Capillarian Crest" – 4:25
  5. "Circle of Cysquatch" – 3:19
  6. "Bladecatcher" – 3:20
  7. "Colony of Birchmen" (Feat. Joshua Homme) – 4:19
  8. "Hunters of the Sky" – 3:52
  9. "Hand of Stone" – 3:30
  10. "This Mortal Soil" – 5:00
  11. "Siberian Divide" (Feat. Cedric Bixler-Zavala) – 5:32
  12. "Pendulous Skin" (Feat. Isaiah "Ikey" Owens) – 22:15

Story Notes:

  • The main character is in search of the Crystal Skull which he hopes to place at the top of Blood Mountain.
  • In an interview with bassist Troy Sanders it was revealed that a Cysquatch is "a one-eyed Sasquatch that can see into the future."
  • In an interview with bassist Troy Sanders it was revealed that in "Siberian Divide" the main character is "caught in a blizzard where [he] becomes frostbitten and frozen and [he's] starving and starts to hallucinate. [Then] this snow queen appears before him and tells him it's OK to start eating his own flesh. And then he starts to do that. Then an aurora borealis appears, and he thinks it's God, and it starts affecting this crystal skull he's been toting up the mountain, and it starts to warm his body. That, coupled with the knowledge of the aurora borealis being God, gives him the strength to start to carry on again."

[edit] Miscellanea

  • The album's last song, "Pendulous Skin", contains a secret "fan letter" from Josh Homme, who provided guest vocals on the album. At 21:25, He says: "Dear Mastodon, my name is Joshua, I'm a big fan from Southern Cal. Really diggin' on your new scene. That's why I hope you don't mind when I got your new demos for your new CD, I had to sing parts on them and send them to you as a tribute. I hope you're not mad about me also uploading them onto the Internet. But hell, it seems like you guys are so cool that you might dig something just like that. Sincerely, your fan, Joshua M. Homme. P.S., Keep it real...REAL (studio effects are used)....*laughter*....REAL."
  • Vocalist/bassist Troy Sanders calls this "sonically the best album we have done."
  • The title "Colony of Birchmen" is an homage to the song "The Colony of Slippermen" by progressive rock group Genesis, a band Brann Dailor has been known to appreciate.
  • A sort of "blooper" exists within the "Colony of Birchmen" video: shots of vocalist Brent Hinds him using two different types of microphones.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Billboard charts

[edit] Album

Year Chart Position
2006 The Billboard 200 32

[edit] Singles

Year Single Chart Position
2006 Colony of Birchmen US Mainstream Rock 32

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Blabbermouth.net. "SLAYER, LAMB OF GOD, STONE SOUR Among GRAMMY Nominees", December 7, 2006, at Blabbermouth.net; last accessed December 7, 2006.
  2. ^ Rolling Stone Magazine. Top 100 songs of 2006.
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