Colony of Birchmen

Gotta disagree with you on that one jek. I really don't think Homme contributes much to this song. All he really does is sing a couple of words as backup. And to be honest, I couldn't really tell it was him until someone told me. Would of been cooler if he got a slightly bigger part though.

As for the meaning, everyone seems to be right saying that this song is about a bunch of tree people, but I'm more interested in the end. If you look at the lyrics in the first track, "The Wolf is Loose," it points out that the main protagonist is a werewolf, and that part of the reason he's climbing Blood Mountain is to rid himself of that curse. There's some references to that, especially the line:

"Carve my teeth out ripping through the sheep's head curse."

That could also explain the whole, "My heart's gone away," thing. I think he turns into the werewolf form again in this song. I don't really know, just trying to put the whole story together.

WOW! this album kicks fucking ass

"This forest is growing faster than I can tell."

epic first line

Its about the lone protagonist making his way through a colony of tree-men

Homme's vox really add a lot to this song

very great song.

i too agree with silersun rapture on the whole MTV thing. im getting pissed off seeing how in the past few months theyve been trying to make metal mainstream by playing killswitch engage, shadows falls, and now mastodon on their channel. they should keep those great bands on MTV2 on headbangers ball. that way those songs and bands get listened to by people who actually like them.

besides all that ranting the song itself is wicked good. this and blood and thunder are my two favorites.

The best one in the album, and Homme's really adds a lot!

i dont know if any of you guys know this but blood mountain is an actual mountain in georga wich is where the bands from

No the birchmen are a race of tree people, hence "birch" (a type of tree) and "men" (they are half human), they are also mentioned in the bit with weird vocals in circle of cysquatch, and Brent even mentions them in the making of documentary. Though i remember reading an article that Brann wrote that said that the intro to crystal skull was inspired by Peter's Jackson's version of king kong, and this song always reminds me of the bit in the canyon with the giant bugs. It has that same atmosphere that the characters are on the verge of dying in a terrible place where no human has survived.