This is part four in a ten-part series. Here are part one, part two and part three.

Crack the Skye, Mastodon’s fourth record, was so perfectly executed and fortuitously timed that it sounds like some sort of clarion announcement: “Greetings from the New Wave of American heavy metal! All are welcome here.” Brent Hinds’ commanding vocals have enough curve and swing to them to appeal to mainstream metal fans, but the textural complexity and adventurousness in the intertwined guitar lines of Hinds and Bill Kelliher are the stuff devotees of so-called progressive metal geek hard for. Hell, they even made a banjo sound bad-ass on the second track, “Divinations”. View the official video over here.