Something about Mastodons first two albums just dont click for me. Blood Mountain is hit or miss, some good stuff here and there. Yet Crack the Skye I love every song. My pattern of what I like from them tends to follow their progression of albums, where with each album it seems they slowly stray away from that "sludgy" metal sound, and becoming more progressive. Brent Hinds even said in a interview that Crack the Skye was the sound he was looking for since day one of Mastodon...

Ill re-listen to their other stuff though, its been a long time. Since I adore Crack the Skye so much, ill probably show a little more appreciation for their earlier work.

Thanks for The Sword link, not too shabby. Ill look more into them. They too were clearly influenced by old school metal, which is always interesting hearing new bands pull that sound off.