MASTODON (BAND)

'Mastodon' is a Grammy-nominated^[1] band from Atlanta, Georgia. They are usually classified as a heavy metal group, but there have been debates on what specific sub-genre they belong to. There is also a clear hardcore influence on the band, unsurprising as several of its members previously played in hardcore bands.
Mastodon's style includes heavy (and sometimes quite complex and technical) guitar riffs, complex, jazz-influenced drumming, odd time signatures, and long, melodic instrumental interludes, which are all common aspects of the progressive rock genre. The band's fans have humorously dubbed the genre 'Whalecore', in reference to their 2004 album Leviathan.

Contents

Biography

Leviathan

Blood Mountain

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Recent News

Discography

Studio albums

Soundtracks

Charted Songs

Other Releases

Line-up

Former members

Notes

External links

Biography

Mastodon was formed in 1999 when Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher, former members of both Lethargy and Today is the Day, moved to Atlanta and met Troy Sanders, formerly of Knuckle, Four Hour Fogger, and Social Infestation, and Brent Hinds, formerly of Four Hour Fogger and Fiend Without A Face, at a High on Fire show where they discovered they had a mutual appreciation of psychedelic metal bands the Melvins and Neurosis and '70s hard-rockers Thin Lizzy. They recorded a demo in 2000 which is generally referred to as the ''9 Song Demo''. This CD-R was sold at shows, and the recordings had 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 one more demo and recording 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 3 of Mastodon's full-length albums, the last track is an instrumental with a title relating to the Elephant Man.

Leviathan

Their album ''Leviathan'' was released in 2004 to critical acclaim^[2][1]; the band won Album of the Year awards from four magazines: Revolver, Kerrang!^[3][2], 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 '' and ''Project Gotham Racing 3'', as well as ''Saints Row'' for the Xbox 360. 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 took part in the 2004 The Unholy Alliance tour 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 ''. 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 are now signed to Warner Bros.. Their third studio album, titled ''Blood Mountain'', was released on September 12, 2006. Blood Mountain was originally planned as one large piece of music; however, the album evolved into a collection of individual songs rather than a single continuous work.
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.^[4][3].
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 Joshua M. Homme, the vocalist from Queens of the Stone Age, claiming that he uploaded their new album on the internet. Homme also contributed vocals to the album.

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. [4] 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^[5][5]. The album itself was ranked 9th in the magazine's best albums of the year chart ^[5][6].
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 ^[7][7]. Also #6 on PopMatters' Best Albums of 2006 ^[8][8] and #1 on The Best Metal Albums of 2006 ^[9][9]. 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 ^[10][10].
An extensive list of Blood Mountain reviews from various publications worldwide can be found at Metacritic.com ^[11][11].
Voted best guitar album of 2006 in Total Guitar magazine

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 a pretzel (guitarist), an icecaps candy box (bass guitarist), a container of nachos (drummer), and a green DOTS gumdrop candy singing vocals.

Recent News

In May of 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 cancelled 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.
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^[12][12]. The program was aired again on March 28, 2007. A Blood Mountain computer game was made, which is available at the Reprise website ^[13][13].
The band was named Artist Of The Month for March 2007 at Gametap.com ^[14][14], as well as being given the 2007 Doobie Award for Best Hard Rock Band by High Times magazine. On June 14, 2007 the band performed live at the Heineken Jammin' Festival near Venice. On June 28, 2007, Mastodon performed in Lisbon's Super Bock Super Rock festival, which also featured Stone Sour and Metallica. Their performance was the most intense of the night, leading to drummer Brann Dailor describing it as one of the band's best shows ever.

Discography

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''' ★ Released: ''February 7, 2006'' ★ Chart Positions:'' ★ U.S. Sales: ★ Label(s): ''Relapse Records'' ★ Singles:

'''Blood Mountain''' ★ Released: ''September 12, 2006'' ★ Chart Positions: ''#32 (U.S.)'', ''#46 (U.K)'' ★ U.S. Sales: '' 96,000+ ★ Label(s): ''Warner Brothers'' ★ Singles: ''The Wolf Is Loose, Crystal Skull, Capillarian Crest, Colony of Birchmen, Sleeping Giant''

Soundtracks

'Album Title'

'''Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Colon the Soundtrack''' ★ Released: ''April 10, 2007'' ★ Chart Positions:''#126 (Billboard 200)'', ''#6 (Top Soundtracks)'', ''#11 (Top Independent Albums)'' ★ U.S. Sales: ★ Label(s): ''Williams Street'', ''Alternative Distribution Alliance'' ★ Song: ''"Cut You Up With A Linoleum Knife"''

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 21st January 2007. May Have Been Higher When Originally Released.

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)

★ ''The Workhorse Chronicles'' (DVD, 2006, Relapse Records)

Line-up

★ Brann Dailor - Drums, Vocals

★ Brent Hinds - Guitar, Vocals

★ Bill Kelliher - Guitar, Vocals

★ Troy Sanders - Bass, Lead vocals

Former members

★ Eric Saner - Lead vocals (''a few months during 2000'')

Notes

1. Blabbermouth.net
2. Relapse Records
3. Kerrang Magazine
4. Loud Park Festival
5. Rolling Stone Magazine
6. Rolling Stone Magazine
7. Kerrang Magazine
8. PopMatters.com
9. PopMatters.com
10. about.com
11. Metacritic.com
12. Blabbermouth.net
13. Reprise Records
14. Gametap.com

External links

★ Official Mastodon website

★ Mastodon's official MySpace

★ Relapse Records

★ Mastodon on Encyclopaedia Metallum (Metal Archives)

★ JamBase.com Article

★ Mastodon Australia fan site

★ Mastodon on Stereokiller

★ Mastodon First Act