Mastodon
Mastodon playing live at Heineken Jammin' Festival 2007 Left to right: Brent Hinds, Troy Sanders, Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher
Background information
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genre(s)	Progressive metal[1][2][3] Sludge metal[4][5][6]
Years active	1999-present
Label(s)	Warner Bros., Reprise, Relapse
Website	www.mastodonrocks.com
Members
Brann Dailor Brent Hinds Bill Kelliher Troy Sanders
Former members
Eric Saner

Mastodon is a Grammy-nominated^[7] heavy metal band and are one of the most notable bands in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.^[8][9] Formed in 1999 in Atlanta, Georgia by Brann Dailor, Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders, and Brent Hinds. They have released three full-length albums, finding acclaim and mainstream success with the latest two, and have toured worldwide.

Biography

Formation and early years

Mastodon was formed in late 1999 when drummer Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher moved to Atlanta and met bass bassist/singer Troy Sanders and guitarist/singer Brent Hinds at a High on Fire show.^[10] They discovered they had a mutual appreciation of sludge metal bands Melvins and Neurosis and '70s hard-rockers Thin Lizzy, and shortly thereafter formed Mastodon.

They recorded a demo in 2000, which featured the band's first lead singer, Eric Saner on vocals.^[10] Saner left the band for personal reasons after just a couple of months. After recording a four song demo and a 7-inch picture disc through Reptilian Records, Mastodon landed a record deal with Relapse Records in 2001.^[10] They released an EP, Lifesblood in 2001 and their first full-length album, Remission, was released in 2002, with the single "March of the Fire Ants."^[10] On all three of Mastodon's full-length albums, the last track of each relates to the Elephant Man.

Leviathan

Their album Leviathan was released in 2004 to critical acclaim; the band won Album of the Year awards from Kerrang!,^[11] Terrorizer^[12] and was named second best by Metal Hammer.^[13] Leviathan was also rated 3rd best album in the last 20 years by Metal Hammer. Leviathan is a concept album loosely based on Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick.^[14] After the release of Leviathan, the band went on to play in The Unholy Alliance tour in 2004 in Europe with Slayer, Slipknot.^[15]

One of the tracks from Leviathan, "Blood and Thunder," was featured in the soundtracks for the racing video games Need for Speed: Most Wanted,^[16] Project Gotham Racing 3^[17] and Saints Row.^[18] It was also a license song in the Japanese arcade music games "Drummania V2 and Guitarfreaks V2".^[19] The track features Neil Fallon, of the band Clutch, on lead vocals during the last verse of the song, though he was not featured in the music video. Mastodon had previously toured with Clutch in 2002 and 2003.^[20]

Two releases followed Leviathan: The Call of the Mastodon, a remastering and remixing of the band's first nine songs, and The Workhorse Chronicles, a DVD of interviews and concert footage, including material from the band's early days as a five-piece. These two releases were Mastodon's last for Relapse records, they would go on to sign with Warner Bros..^[21] Before the release of their next album, Mastodon recorded a cover version of the Metallica song, "Orion". This was for a Kerrang! magazine special CD called Master of Puppets: Remastered honoring the 20-year anniversary of the release of the album Master of Puppets by Metallica.^[22]

Blood Mountain

Their third studio album, was eventually released on September 12, 2006 followed by the band going on tour to support the album, touring with Tool in Europe^[23] and Slayer in Australia and New Zealand.^[24] Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme contributed vocals for the song "Colony of Birchmen" and in a hidden track on the album contains a spoken-word piece from him, claiming to be a big fan and that he uploaded their new album on the internet. Before the release of Blood Mountain, Mastodon was a part of the North American Unholy Alliance tour. An online promotional Blood Mountain computer game was even made available.^[25]

The song "Colony of Birchmen" was nominated for Best Metal Performance in the 49th Annual Grammy Awards but lost to Slayer's "Eyes of the Insane" from their album Christ Illusion. In addition, the band performed the song on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien on November 1, their first appearance on network television, to a viewing audience of around 2.4 million people.^[26]

The band's first single off Blood Mountain, "Capillarian Crest" was ranked #27 in Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 100 Songs of 2006.^[27] The album itself was ranked 9th in the magazine's best albums of the year chart ^[28] The UK's Metal Hammer voted it the best album of 2006 in its end of year critic's poll.^[29] The album was voted in at #5 by Kerrang! in their end of year list.^[30] Also #6 on PopMatters' Best Albums of 2006^[31] and #1 on The Best Metal Albums of 2006.^[32] About.com rated it the top metal album of 2006.^[33] Blood Mountain also got named the best album of 2006 in the 10th anniversary birthday edition (issue 119) of Bizarre. It also came in at #2 on Revolver magazine's list of the top albums of 2006. The band was named Artist Of The Month for March 2007 at Gametap.com.^[34]

2007 and onwards

Mastodon has gained additional mainstream exposure with the explosion of rhythm-based home video games. "Sleeping Giant" was made available as a downloadable song for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and "Colony of Birchmen" was included on Harmonix's Rock Band 2. "Blood and Thunder" will also be part of Guitar Hero: Metallica. Mastodon also contributed a cover version of Harry Nilsson's "One" for the video game Army of Two's advertisement campaign. The band members are fans of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and in 2007, Mastodon performed the opening song of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, "Cut You Up with a Linoleum Knife".^[35]

Touring

The band has been touring and playing numerous show during this time. Mastodon joined Against Me!, and Cursive for a North American tour, with Planes Mistaken for Stars opening for one leg and These Arms Are Snakes the other.^[36] A performance in Milwaukee had to be canceled due to illness on the part of Brent Hinds.^[37] Mastodon would play the Hove Festival in Norway as well as on the Main Stage of the Download Festival and then the Pitchfork Music Festival. During this time the band opened for Metallica on the Sick of the Studio tour. The band also played at the 2007 Dubai Desert Rock,^[38] the 2008 Bonnaroo Music festivals,^[39] and the inaugural Mayhem Festival. They are currently playing The Unholy Alliance tour 2008.^[40]

The band performed "Colony of Birchmen" at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards live with Josh Homme. After the televised performance, member Brent Hinds was reported to have sustained a severe head injury. Blabbermouth.net initially reported that it was the result of a brutal assault^[41] but the police report later suggested that an inebriated Hinds had started a fight with System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian and musician William Hudson.^[42] Hinds suffered brain hemorrhaging, a broken nose and two black eyes but has made a full recovery.

It was announced that Mastodon would support Metallica on their 2009 Death Magnetic Summer tour.

Crack the Skye

Mastodon are working with producer Brendan O'Brien on their next album^[43] while Scott Kelly will return as a guest musician on the title-track.^[44] While the lyrics have been reported to explore topics relating to Czarist Russia,^[45] the band has denied that the album will be about Grigori Rasputin. These rumors started after a drawing of Rasputin was featured in merchandise.^[46] Besides dismissing the rumors the band has also stated not to expect a new release until next January at the earliest.^[47] The band debuted three new tracks at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, but are not playing anymore live until the album's release, due to fears of internet distribution and wanting to play them to the right audience.^[48] In a MusicRadar interview, guitarist Bill Kelliher confirmed the album would have seven tracks, with an approximate total length of 50 minutes. The title of the next album has been confirmed as Crack the Skye.^[49] It will be about an "out of body experience," and looks at the concepts of astral travel, wormholes, Stephen Hawking's theories and the spiritual realm.

Discography

Main article: Mastodon discography

• Remission (2002)
• Leviathan (2004)
• Blood Mountain (2006)
• Crack the Skye (2009)

Band members

Current members

• Brann Dailor - drums
• Brent Hinds - guitar, lead vocals
• Bill Kelliher - guitar, vocals
• Troy Sanders - bass, lead vocals

Former members

• Eric Saner - lead vocals (a few months during 2000)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mastodon

• Official Mastodon website
• Mastodon's official MySpace
• Relapse Records