Mmm... The Other OTHER white meat

Mastodon's upcoming album, Crack The Skye, has one of the weirdest concepts to propel the music. I could try and sum it up, but the absurdity can only be taken seriously if coming from the mouth of a band member. Here is drummer Brann Dailor, and his explanation of what the album's concept is:

"There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his boyd because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But the end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down...there are some obstacles along the way."

...I really don't even know what to say to that (what are they on!?), but after hearing the released single, 'Divinations' and subsequently watching the newly released video, I am pumped to see what this craziness is all about. It can't get much cooler than a shredding cave man. With elements of prog and crunching metal like their previous releases, this look into Crack the Skye is very promising.

PS - The Crack the Skye track listing:

01. Oblivion

02. Divinations

03. Quintessence

04. The Czar

I. Usurper

II. Escape

III. Martyr

IV. Spiral

05. Ghost of Karelia

06. Crack The Skye

07. The Last Baron

I am actually really, really excited for this!