Mastodon (band)

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Mastodon
Mastodon playing live at Heineken Jammin' Festival 2007 Left to right: Brent Hinds, Troy Sanders, Brann Dailor, Bill Kelliher
Mastodon playing live at Heineken Jammin' Festival 2007
Left to right: Brent Hinds, Troy Sanders, Brann Dailor, Bill Kelliher
Background information
Origin Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Genre(s) Progressive metal
Sludge metal
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
For the prehistoric animal, see Mastodon.

Mastodon is a Grammy-nominated[1] heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia and are one of the most notable bands in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.[2][3]

Mastodon's style includes heavy, down-tuned and frequently quite complex guitar riffs, jazz-influenced drumming, odd time signatures, and long, melodic instrumental interludes, which find them often categorized in the progressive metal genre. Their music also includes influences of doom metal, stoner rock, hardcore punk, and some thrash.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Formation and early years

Mastodon was formed in late 1999 when drummer Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher (former members of both Lethargy and Today is the Day), moved to Atlanta and met bass guitarist/singer Troy Sanders (formerly of False Face, Knuckle, Four Hour Fogger, and Social Infestation), and guitarist/singer Brent Hinds (formerly of Four Hour Fogger and Fiend Without A Face), at a High on Fire show. They discovered they had a mutual appreciation of sludge metal bands The Melvins and Neurosis and '70s hard-rockers Thin Lizzy, and shortly thereafter formed Mastodon.

They recorded a demo in 2000 which is generally referred to as the "9 Song Demo," which featured the band's first lead singer, Eric Saner on vocals. In early 2006, this recording was remastered and the vocals were re-recorded by the current members. Relapse Records released it under the title Call of the Mastodon. Eric Saner left the band for personal reasons after just a couple of months, and after recording a four song demo and a 7" picture disc on Reptilian Records, Mastodon landed a record deal with Relapse Records in 2001. 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." On all three of Mastodon's full-length albums, the last track of each relates to the Elephant Man.

[edit] Leviathan

Their album Leviathan was released in 2004 to critical acclaim;[4][5] the band won Album of the Year awards from the following magazines: Revolver, Kerrang!,[6][7] Metal Hammer and Terrorizer. Leviathan is a concept album loosely based on Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick.

One of the tracks from Leviathan, "Blood and Thunder," was featured in the soundtracks for the racing video games Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Project Gotham Racing 3, as well as Saints Row for the Xbox 360. It was also a license song in the Japanese arcade music games "Drummania V2 and Guitarfreaks V2". The track features Neil Fallon, of Clutch fame, on lead vocals during the last verse of the song. He is not featured in the music video. Mastodon opened for Clutch during several tours in the band's early career.

After the release of Leviathan, the band went on to play in The Unholy Alliance tour in 2004 in Europe with Slayer, Slipknot and Hatebreed.

On November 3, 2005, two forthcoming releases were announced: The Call of the Mastodon, a CD collection of early demos (the full Lifesblood EP plus extra songs), which was released on February 7, 2006, and The Workhorse Chronicles, a DVD of interviews and concert footage, including material from the band's early days as a five-piece, which was released on February 21, 2006. These are the last expected releases through their deal with Relapse.

In early 2006, Mastodon recorded a cover version of the Metallica song, "Orion". This was for a Kerrang! magazine special CD called Master of Puppets: Remastered. It was released on April 5, 2006, and was in honor of the 20-year anniversary of the release of the iconic Master of Puppets album by Metallica.

Mastodon is now signed to Warner Bros.. Their third studio album, titled Blood Mountain, was released on September 12, 2006.

In June-July 2006, before the release of Blood Mountain, Mastodon toured as part of the North American The Unholy Alliance tour with Slayer, Children of Bodom, Lamb of God and Thine Eyes Bleed (they were replaced by In Flames on the European leg of the tour). Mastodon and most of the European leg (along with bloodsimple) reunited to perform at Japan's Loud Park Festival in October of 2006.[8].

Blood Mountain was leaked online, albeit at a low recording quality, on August 6, 2006. On a hidden track on the album, but only in some leaked versions, there is a spoken-word piece from ex-Kyuss guitarist and current Queens of the Stone Age frontman Joshua M. Homme, claiming that he uploaded their new album on the internet. Homme also contributed vocals to the album and has publicly stated his admiration for the band.

[edit] Blood Mountain

At the end of 2006 Mastodon went on tour supporting the Blood Mountain album and supported Tool on a hugely successful tour of Europe. The band supported Slayer in Australia and New Zealand in May 2007.

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, 2006, their first appearance on network television. [2] Mastodon toured with Converge in late 2006 and early 2007, with the The Bronx opening for the first half and Priestess the other.

The band's first single off Blood Mountain, "Capillarian Crest" was ranked #27 in Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 100 Songs of 2006[9][3]. The album itself was ranked 9th in the magazine's best albums of the year chart [9][4]. The UK's Metal Hammer voted it the best album of 2006 in its end of year critic's poll and further stated that not only was it the outright winner, but that it came so far ahead of the second album in the list (Slayer's Christ Illusion) as to be completely unprecedented. In a survey by the UK branch of HMV from 25 end-of-year 2006 album lists from various music magazines, the album came in at #3. The album was voted in at #5 by Kerrang! in their end of year list [10][5]. Also #6 on PopMatters' Best Albums of 2006 [11][6] and #1 on The Best Metal Albums of 2006 [11][7]. Blood Mountain also got named the best album of 2006 in the 10th anniversary birthday edition (issue 119) of Bizarre. No.1 Top 20 Heavy Metal CDs Of 2006 in about.com [12][8].It also came in at #2 on Revolver magazine's list of the top albums of 2006.

An extensive list of Blood Mountain reviews from various publications worldwide can be found at Metacritic.com [13][9]. The album was voted best guitar album of 2006 in Total Guitar magazine.

On November 1, 2006 Mastodon performed "Colony of Birchmen" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien an American television program with a viewing audience of around 2.4 million people, as stated by Blabbermouth.net[14][10]. A promotional Blood Mountain computer game was made, which is available at the Reprise website [15][11].

The band was named Artist Of The Month for March 2007 at Gametap.com [16][12], as well as being given the 2007 Doobie Award for Best Hard Rock Band by High Times magazine.

[edit] Aqua Teen Hunger Force

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". In the movie, the band members are animated as an icecaps candy box (bass guitarist), a pretzel (lead guitarist), a container of nachos (drummer), and a green DOTS gumdrop candy singing vocals. The song is meant to be a humor piece in which they threaten violence against anyone who disobeys movie theatre etiquette, instructing them to leave any children brought to the film out in the street, so they can be run over after the show, and informing the audience that the money they paid to see the film will be spent on drugs.

[edit] Recent news

In May 2007, 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. On May 10, 2007, the band canceled a show in Milwaukee, WI due to illness on the part of Brent Hinds. In June 2007, Mastodon played at the Hove Festival in Norway, as well as on the Main Stage of the Download Festival on June 10, 2007. In July 2007, Mastodon performed at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, sharing the bill with artists such as Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, and Stephen Malkmus. Later that month and into July, the band opened for Metallica on the Sick of the Studio tour.

On September 9, 2007, the band performed "Colony of Birchmen" live with Josh Homme at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. 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 [17] 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.[18] Hinds suffered brain hemorrhaging, a broken nose and two black eyes but has made a full recovery.

A recent message from Brent to a fan site states that he is back on his feet and to his old ways. The band will now proceed to write new material for their upcoming album, expected sometime in 2008[19].

Brent sings on The Dillinger Escape Plan's new album Ire Works on the track "Horse Hunter".

"Sleeping Giant" was made available for download on the PS3 and Xbox360 versions of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Mastodon is on the 2008 lineup for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee.

Mastodon has recently recorded a cover version of Harry Nilsson's "One", for the video game Army of Two advertisement campaign. The song and ad can be found on YouTube.

As of January 2008, according to interview footage at metalkult.com, the band have finished writing 7-8 songs for their yet-to-be-released fourth full-length album. The only song title to have been confirmed for the album so far is "The Ghost of Karilla". In the series of videos, Troy Sanders also says that the band would like to begin recording around April 1, while Brann Dailor said it would "probably [be] March" depending on how long it took the band to finish writing it.

According to Rolling Stone, the lyrics on the upcoming album explore topics relating to Czarist Russia[20]

According to blabbermouth.net the new album will be produced by Brendan O'Brien, who has previously produced albums by Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Stone Temple Pilots and Bruce Springsteen.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

Album Title
Lifesblood
  • Released: 2001
  • Chart Positions:
  • U.S. Sales:
  • Label(s): Relapse Records
  • Singles:
Remission
  • Released: 2002
  • Chart Positions:
  • U.S. Sales:
  • Label(s): Relapse Records
  • Singles: March of the Fire Ants
Leviathan
  • Released: August 31, 2004
  • Chart Positions: #139 (U.S.), #110 (U.K)
  • U.S. Sales: 103,000+
  • Label(s): Relapse Records
  • Singles: Iron Tusk, Blood and Thunder, Seabeast
Call of the Mastodon
Blood Mountain

[edit] Soundtracks

Album Title
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Colon the Soundtrack
Saw III soundtrack

[edit] Charted Songs

Year Title Chart Positions Album
US Modern Rock US Mainstream Rock UK Singles Chart UK Rock Chart
2002 "March of the Fire Ants" - - - - Remission
2004 "Iron Tusk" - - - - Leviathan
2004 "Blood and Thunder" Leviathan
2006 "Seabeast" - - - - Leviathan
2006 "Capillarian Crest" - - 102 20 * Blood Mountain
2006 "The Wolf is Loose" - - 122 14 * Blood Mountain
2007 "Colony of Birchmen" - 33 - - Blood Mountain
2007 "Sleeping Giant" - - - - Blood Mountain

(*) Chart positions on January 21, 2007. Positions may have been higher when they were originally released.

[edit] Other Releases

  • Mastodon Demo (2000, self-released)
  • Slick Leg (EP, 2001, Reptilian Records)
  • March of the Fire Ants (EP, 2002, Relapse Records)
  • Emerald Split 7" (Split EP with American Heritage, Delboy Records)
  • Crystal Skull 7" (single, 2006, Relapse Records)
  • The Workhorse Chronicles (DVD, 2006, Relapse Records)

[edit] Line-up

[edit] Former members

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

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Blabbermouth.net. Mastodon Grammy nomination news story [1].
  2. ^ Adrien Begrand. BLOOD AND THUNDER: Regeneration. Popmatters. Retrieved on 2008-05-14.
  3. ^ James Edward. The Ghosts of Glam Metal Past. Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Retrieved on April 27, 2008.
  4. ^ Relapse Records. Leviathan's Critical Acclaim [2].
  5. ^ Mastodon - Official Relapse Records Band Page
  6. ^ Kerrang Magazine. Mastodon in Kerrang end of year lists [3].
  7. ^ Kerrang! End of year lists
  8. ^ Loud Park Festival. Unholy Alliance at Loud Park 2006 [4].
  9. ^ a b Rolling Stone Magazine. Top 100 songs of 2006 [5] & Top 50 albums of 2006 [6].
  10. ^ Kerrang Magazine. Mastodon in Kerrang end of year lists [7].
  11. ^ a b PopMatters.com. Best Albums of 2006 [8] & Best Metal Albums of 2006 [9].
  12. ^ about.com. Top 20 Heavy Metal CDs Of 2006.
  13. ^ Metacritic.com. Numerous Blood Mountain album reviews [10].
  14. ^ Blabbermouth.net. Mastodon on Conan O'Brien show news story [11].
  15. ^ Reprise Records. The Blood Mountain game [12].
  16. ^ Gametap.com. Mastodon named Artist Of The Month for March at Gametap.com [14].
  17. ^ BLABBERMOUTH.NET - MASTODON's BRENT HINDS Hospitalized With 'Severe Head Injury'
  18. ^ ::Las Vegas Weekly::. The Intersection Of Arts // Entertainment // Culture + Everything Else That Matters  : Post-Vma Headbanging
  19. ^ mastodonaustralia.com | official mastodon fansite
  20. ^ [1]

[edit] External links

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Mastodon
Brann Dailor · Brent Hinds · Bill Kelliher · Troy Sanders
Eric Saner
Studio albums
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Songs