Albums like Crack the Skye are very troubling. They aren’t good, so you won’t get the satisfaction of hearing a new masterpiece by one of you favorite bands, but they also aren’t bad for any easily identifiable reason. You can’t just say “they sold out” or “their new drummer sucks.” You have no choice but to maybe, just maybe, acknowledge that somebody’s run out of ideas.

That’s the feeling I get from Mastodon’s new album. Either that or they’ve decided to play to all of their weaknesses. I mean, why else would they pull the ages-old “let’s go prog” card? Why else would they decide to sing rather than scream on nearly every track when their sung vocals are probably the weakest part of their sonic array? Why would they swap out veteran metalcore producer Matt Bayles for Brendan O’Brien, the king of radio-friendly butt-rock?

All of these elements combine to make an album that is overstuffed, self-indulgent and boring. It’s got extended keyboard intros, 13 minute songs, banjo intros and ridiculous lyrics about Rasputin, all of which may have been forgivable had the songs been interesting. Unfortunately, they’re not. Most of the songs are either sloppy collages of generic Mastodon riffs or, even worse, generic “rock” songs with hardcore flourishes tacked on because, hey, it’s a MASTODON record!

O’Brien’s production really only makes things that much worse because it turns the melodic portions of the songs into radio-rock messes that lack the crunch and power of Mastodon’s other records. The fact that most of the choruses on the album sound like they were ripped straight from 93X’s top ten is a big problem.

Of course, it’s not just about Mastodon going more melodic or wanting to write songs instead of riff. No, they’ve done that before on Blood Mountain and with fantastic results. The difference is that those songs felt like metal songs infused with good melodic ideas while the songs on Crack the Skye feel like mediocre songs infused with metal ideas. And lots of bad singing. Can’t forget that.