Review of Blood Mountain

With Slayer’s new one recently cracking the Top 10, and Lamb of God soon to follow, Mastodon can easily include themselves in this unholy trinity of the metal elite. Although they make no bones about their metal roots, it’s of course their trademark propensity for stop-on-a-dime prog that blows this record sky-high. Their constant push to take riffs to epic proportions is now perfectly honed, and for all their progressive tendencies, there isn’t a nanosecond of fluff here. Discharge-styled crustcore rests next to King Crimson time signatures (“The Wolf Is Loose”) while discordant, Voivod-esque arpeggios side with blast beats (“Bladecatcher”). Blood Mountain is a monster!

9/10