I am not a fan of metal. Not so much because of the music but because of the metal heads who try to push their music on me as being “so much better than mine.” Still, the furious screaming and guitars so fast they makes your head spin turn me away from the genre. I had never listened to Mastodon before, and quite frankly, I was scared to. Having little knowledge about the metal genre, I didn’t know what to expect. Their new album Crack the Skye is not as frightening as I expected. Actually, it’s quite the opposite.

Their style of music is much more than melting off your face with screaming guitar riffs. The songs are carefully put together and not the headache that is expected. This is something I could even play with my mom in the car. The singer has a very Ozzy-esque voice (before the excessive drugs and muttering set in). Upon that, they went back to their metal roots, the album sounding like pioneers Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. There is minimal screaming and you can actually understand the words. They also add progressive elements and sound effects, much like Canadian rock band Rush.

Although this album only has seven songs on it, it is refreshing because the tunes are much longer than the “three-minute gotta make this a single” bullshit. Sometimes long songs just make you wish they’d be over already. These aren’t like that, and though you realize you are still listening to the same song, you feel perfectly content.

My favorite song on the album is “The Czar,” which clocks in at nearly a whopping ten minutes. It starts out with a slow, trudging tempo and picks up about halfway in. The lyrics are original and creative, such as “Spiraling up through the crack in the sky / Leaving material world behind / I see your face in constellations / The martyr is ending his life for mine,” which are apparently about the killing of Rasputin.

“Crack the Skye” is another great song. There are a few lines of screaming in this song that are slow and just sound badass. “The Last Baron” offers some of the same sounds that went into “The Czar” but at a slower tempo. Being the last song on the album, it has the best effect because it sticks in your head after listening to it.

This album is chill worthy without getting boring by the help of some exciting guitar solos. It effortlessly flows through each song and before you know it, you’re at the end of the album. It also adds interesting elements including eerie The Doors-like keyboards and even banjos.