I looked for a previous post about this and couldn't find one (if there was one-I apologize I just couldn't find one, but I looked), so I'm just putting this up to let people know that this is easily one of the most kick-ass albums you will ever hear. It is mind-blowing and amazing, and truly killer. I'm shocked there was no post about this before, although we were discussing it in the Here And Gone section, but I don't know how to get each post over here, so I'll put a few.
I implore you-if you dig Metal, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Southern Rock and Prog-this is awesome! Even the stuffy Philadelphia Inquirer gave it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars in today's Sunday paper.

Standard Edition

Product Description
Mastodon has taken hold of the leadership of the New Wave of Progressive Heavy Metal. The band's 2006 major-label debut Blood Mountain spun off a Grammy nomination and earned Top 5 Best Album Of The Year nods from Kerrang!, Revolver, and Metal Hammer, and a Top 10 at Rolling Stone. Now Crack The Skye, its fourth original studio album, mines subject matter from czarist Russia and astral travel to out-of-body experiences and Stephen Hawking's theories on wormholes for an unrepentantly heavy aural assault that will shake the heavens.

1 Oblivion
2 Divinations
3 Quintessence
4 The Czar: I Usurper/II Escape/III Martyr/IV Spiral
5 Ghost Of Karelia
6 Crack The Skye
7 The Last Baron

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001R4MEYI/?tag=imwan-20

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Deluxe Edition

Product Description
Deluxe Edition contains a bonus DVD featuring the making of Crack The Skye. Mastodon has taken hold of the leadership of the New Wave of Progressive Heavy Metal. The band's 2006 major-label debut Blood Mountain spun off a Grammy nomination and earned Top 5 Best Album Of The Year nods from Kerrang!, Revolver, and Metal Hammer, and a Top 10 at Rolling Stone. Now Crack The Skye, its fourth original studio album, mines subject matter from czarist Russia and astral travel to out-of-body experiences and Stephen Hawking's theories on wormholes for an unrepentantly heavy aural assault that will shake the heavens.

CD
1 Oblivion
2 Divinations
3 Quintessence
4 The Czar: I Usurper/II Escape/III Martyr/IV Spiral
5 Ghost Of Karelia
6 Crack The Skye
7 The Last Baron

DVD
1 Making Of Crack The Skye
2 Oblivion (Track Commentary Video)
3 Divinations (Track Commentary Video)
4 Quintessence (Track Commentary Video)
5 The Czar (Track Commentary Video)
6 Ghost Of Karelia (Track Commentary Video)
7 Crack The Skye (Track Commentary Video)
8 Last Baron (Track Commentary Video)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001R4MEYS/?tag=imwan-20

And, here's some testimony from NoURider!


P.S.
I think I said it sounded like King Crimson, Tool, Black Sabbath and Prog-Rock and Southern Rock-something like that. It really is amazing and is their best yet. They have come miles from their Hardcore beginnings!

Funny, IP - this a.m. I started clipping your quotes from the same thread, with the same idea as you (to start a thread in New Releases)...then got distracted and deleted the notepad I was working on. Funny.

For a band I knew nothing about, and it is early in the year, this is a contender for a top ten of mine...I am confident it will be the top heavy album to my ears this year.