The Skye Is Crying

Just heard a very rough rip of the new Mastodon album 'Crack The Skye.' It is very far from what I expected, far more progressive, experimental and ambient than any of their previous works. There are still a few driving riffs here and there, but it's hugely removed from the likes of Mother Puncher and Slick Leg.
> The first track (Oblivion) is sublime, proggy and full of solos, the kind of shit you wish Mastodon would do full time...well, me at least. It took a while for me to even realsie that it was actually Mastodon, I thought I'd been had and that this was just a random (although good) band.
> Track 2, Divinations, is very Mastodonesque. As such it feels somewhat of a let down; the riffs and techniques on show sound so familiar it's as if this song could have come straight from 'Remission', 'Leviathan' or even 'Blood Mountain'...be that a good or bad thing.
> Quintessence is the third offering from the album. Yet again we have some very familiar sounding riffs here, the hammer ons/pull offs just seem to come from another Mastodon track somewhere. It does continue the ambient/mellow feel though, there's even some synth or synth guitar on there as far as I can tell.
> Next up, The Czar....even more proggy goodness! The intro even bears some resemblance to the Space Rock of Zombi and the post-rock ambiance I've come to admire over the last few years. Evidence of even more keyboards/synths. Being a near 10 minute track there are obviously musical twists and turns that I could waste much time explaining...but I won't, suffice to say there's even a Grand Magus 'Iron Will' sounding riff just as the intro breaks....

I could spend even more of my not so valuable time reviewing the album (well, the 6 of the 7 tracks I heard) but I shan't, as I'm trying to sort out uploading some Bootsy Collins shit. I urge all of you to check the album out as soon as it's released (I'm definitely buying this one!) as I think it's one of the most mature releases of Mastodon's career. A huge leap away from the 'Life's Blood' EP material, this is progressive, experimental, ambient and heavy rock all rolled in to one. There seem less and less straight metal passages here, but I for one am not sad. I want more Pink Floyd loving solos, more chilled out riffing and some of whatever these guys are drinking!

I haven't uploaded what I've got for a few reasons:
1) It seems that most uploads are being pulled quite quickly by the label
2) A few blogspots have been sent not so pleasent e-mails about it from the record label
3) It will probably be on a crap load of other sites for you to check out, so it would be a waste of my time, especially in the incomplete state I have it
4) I know 1 and 3 seem to contradict themselves, but fuck you and you're Miss Marple investigations!
5) I'm sorting out some P-Funk for yo asses, so I can't be bothered with it
6) Buy it when it comes out! Seriously, this album is 'wikkid kool hommies'