| Blood Mountain | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Mastodon | ||||
| Released | September 11, 2006 | |||
| Recorded | December 2005 - April 2006 at Robert Lant Studios, Studio Litho, and EK Studios, Seattle, Washington | |||
| Genre | Sludge metal, progressive metal | |||
| Length | 68:09 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. Reprise |
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| Producer | Matt Bayles Mastodon |
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| Mastodon chronology | ||||
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Blood Mountain is the third full-length studio album by American metal band Mastodon. The recording of the album finished in April 2006 and it was released on 11 September in the UK and 12 September 2006 in North America. The album in full could be streamed at the band's MySpace page a few days prior to the release.
Like Mastodon's previous studio work Leviathan, Blood Mountain is 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", Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age on "Colony of Birchmen", as well as keyboard player Isaiah "Ikey" Owens and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta on "Pendulous Skin" and "Siberian Divide", respectively.
Music videos for "The Wolf Is Loose", "Colony of Birchmen", "Sleeping Giant" and "Capillarian Crest" have been made. Although the video for "Capillarian Crest" is made up of live footage, the studio version of the song is played.
Guitarist Bill Kelliher considers this album to represent the earth element.[2] At the time, bassist Troy Sanders called it "sonically the best album we have done."
The band's emphasis on clean, melodic vocals instead of the harsher vocals that the band used on their early work continues to grow on this album.
Blood Mountain entered the Billboard 200 best selling album charts at #32, with 24,000 sold copies, marking it the third highest debut in the band's career after Crack the Skye and The Hunter.[3] The album is also the band's highest selling effort to date. By December 2006, the album had sold more than 65,000 copies in the U.S. alone according to the band's website,[4] by March 2009, the album had sold 150,000 copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen Soundscan,[5] and by September 2010 it had sold 176,000 copies.[6]
Contents |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AbsolutePunk | (93%)[7] |
| Allmusic | [8] |
| The A.V. Club | (A)[9] |
| Blabbermouth.net | [10] |
| Drowned in Sound | [11] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.7/10)[12] |
| PopMatters | [13] |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Stylus | (B-)[14] |
Blood Mountain was released to high critical praise. Total Guitar magazine voted it its Number One album of 2006, and magazines such as Metal Hammer and Kerrang! thought it is every bit as good as the band's previous album Leviathan, if not better. The album has also charted in many websites and magazines 2006 countdowns. The band's first single from the album, "Capillarian Crest", was ranked #27 in Rolling Stone magazine Top 100 songs of 2006.[15] Blood Mountain was ranked 9th in the Rolling Stone Top 50 Albums of 2006,[16] and 42nd in Pitchfork Media's Top 50 Albums of 2006.[17]
Blood Mountain was voted the best album of 2006 in the UK Metal Hammer magazine end-of year polls, as well as top in Total Guitar magazine's top 50 albums of 2006. It was also rated the 17th greatest metal album of all time by a countdown recently carried out by gaming website IGN.[18] However, the album is not without its detractors; The Guardian felt that it was unorganized and seemed as if the tracks were far longer than they actually were, resulting in a 1/5 rating.
All songs written and composed by Mastodon.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 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. Josh 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 |
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Total length:
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68:09 | |
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." When asked about the message in a Pitchfork Media interview, Homme said, "I was just fucking with them. Then they asked if they could put that on the end of their record, and I was like, 'Yeah.' I did the vocal [for "Colony of Birchmen"] and sent it back to them, and that message was before the song started."[21] The song itself ends at 5:03, followed by over 15 minutes of silence, then Homme's message.
The title "Colony of Birchmen" is a homage to the song "The Colony of Slippermen" by progressive rock group Genesis, whom the band's drummer, Brann Dailor, has been known to appreciate.[22]
The track "Sleeping Giant" is available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and "Colony of Birchmen" is an on-disc track in Rock Band 2.
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | The Billboard 200 | 32 |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Colony of Birchmen | US Mainstream Rock | 32 |
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