MASTODON's 'Crack The Skye' Lands At No. 11 On BILLBOARD Chart

April 1, 2009

MASTODON's new album, "Crack The Skye", sold 41,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 11 on The Billboard 200 chart.

MASTODON's 2006 CD, "Blood Mountain", came in with just over 24,000 units — significantly more than the 8,000 first-week tally registered by its predecessor, 2004's "Leviathan" — which put it at No. 32.

Video footage of MASTODON's in-store performance on Tuesday, March 24 at Criminal Records in Atlanta can be viewed at The Silver Tongue.

"Divinations", the new video from MASTODON, is available below. The clip was helmed by director Roboshobo (a.k.a. Robert Schober; METALLICA's "All Nightmare Long"),who previously worked with MASTODON on the "Sleeping Giant" video, and it depicts the bandmembers on a rock 'n' roll mission, trudging through the frozen tundra. "We're climbing a mountain looking for a creature named Brent," guitarist Bill Kelliher told HeadbangersBlog.com. "We were mountaineers — explorers, like in John Carpenter's 'The Thing'."

"It's a really fun video," added guitarist and vocalist Brent Hinds. "I'm an old cavemen trapped in a block of ice. Explorers find me and they put the flying V [guitar] up to the ice and it melts me. I grab the guitar, do the solo and then I kill them."

MASTODON will embark on a spring U.S. headlining tour in support of "Crack The Skye". The band will perform the album in its entirety along with career-spanning surprises and plenty of visual stimulus in store. This first tour behind the groundbreaking new album will sweep across the U.S. and Canada, playing to smaller theaters and clubs to insure a maximum and up-close intimate environment in which to be exposed to brand new songs and old favorites for MASTODON fans. Support on the trek will come from KYLESA and INTRONAUT.

MASTODON guitarist Bill Kelliher told Billboard.com about the band's decision to play the new CD in its entirety, "there's something about ["Crack The Skye"] where it would be weird to leave a song out. We'll incorporate a whole stage show, which will hopefully make it even more exciting for kids to come see and more visually stimulating." The band is also hoping to make a short movie from all the songs, which Kelliher hopes will be MASTODON's version of "The Wall".

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).