7.4 Crack

In 1976 Rolling Stone called prog-rock pioneers Crack The Sky “one of year’s most impressive debuts.” Today, 40+ years later, the band releases a new studio album entitled Tribes, due out early 2021. The title track speaks volumes about modern society’s perpetual cultural divide, wherein each side believes its inalienable right to champion the only opinion that matters.

15th Anniversary Deluxe Limited Edition of Mastodon's fourth studio album, Crack the Skye, on 2CD. Disc 1 is the original album remastered while Disc 2, Crack the Skye: The Score, features instrumental versions of each track.
First off, a warning: the best way to encounter Mastodon's Crack the Skye for the first time is with headphones. Reported to be a mystical - if crunchy - concept record about Tsarist Russia, this is actually the most involved set of tracks, both in terms of music and production, the band has ever recorded. "Ambitious" is a word that regularly greets Mastodon - after all, they did an entire album based on Moby Dick - but until now, that adjective may have been an understatement. There is so much going on in these seven tracks that it's difficult to get it all in a listen or two (one of the reasons that close encounters of the headphone kind are recommended)…