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Atlanta-based sludge/stoner/alternative metal outfit Mastodon formed in 1999 around the talents of guitarist Bill Kelliher, drummer Bränn Dailor, bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, and guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds. One of the more notable New Wave of American Heavy Metal acts, a genre spawned in the mid-'90s by bands like Pantera, Biohazard, and Machine Head, Mastodon's innovative, lyrically astute blend of progressive metal, grind core, and hardcore helped position the band as one of the preeminent metal acts of the early 21st century. Formed out of a mutual admiration for the Melvins, Black Sabbath, Neurosis, and Thin Lizzy, Mastodon signed with Relapse Records (Today Is the Day, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Coalesce, Burnt by the Sun) in 2001 on the strength of a four-song demo. The EP Lifesblood arrived that same year, followed by the group's full-length debut, Remission, in 2002. The album made positive waves in the metal community, but it wasn't until 2004's Leviathan that the band's eclectic brand of proto-metal began to enter the bloodstream of the entire music community. As polished and melodic as it was brutal and genre-defying, Leviathan, loosely based on author Herman Melville's Moby Dick, signaled a turning point in the band's career, appearing on critics' year-end Top Ten lists across the musical spectrum. Mastodon's newfound popularity eventually landed them a deal with Warner Bros., but not before fulfilling their contract with Relapse in 2006 by releasing Call of the Mastodon, a remastered version of the group's first two demo EPs, and Workhorse Chronicles, a DVD that chronicled the band's story thus far with interviews and concert footage. The band's third album, Blood Mountain, debuted at number 32 on the Billboard charts and received a Grammy nomination in the Best Metal Performance category for the song "Colony of Birchmen." Blood Mountain marked the band's highest chart peak, and set the stage for its long-awaited 2009 follow-up, Crack the Skye. In 2011, the band released the CD/DVD package Live at the Aragon, which was recorded in Chicago during the Crack the Skye tour. Mastodon followed quickly with new material, taking a step back from their more prog-oriented approach on their fifth studio album, The Hunter.
Suggested Listening
I have been to a handful of Mastodon live shows. The best one was being at Roo in 2008. Expect a high energy show from the crowd standpoint. Depending on where you are standing, you may be pushed around a bit. If you are on the fence about Mastodon because you are not generally into heavy music, I advise you check them out. They play a technical form of metal with loads of interesting and face melting material. All the guys in the band are super friendly and cool. Brann, the drummer, come and said hi to us after their set in 2008, he was cool enough to take pictures with us and gave my buddy a drumstick. So sorry for the fairly week page, It is finals week and I had to just throw this together! Happy Bonnaroo, can't wait to see you all there!
After their set at Roo in 08.
Here is Mastodons latest single, "High Road", new album due out in June. Hopefully we get a preview at Bonnaroo!
Here is where I borrowed the bio! (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mastodon-mn0000382565/biography) by James Christopher Monger.
"Sorry" for the weak write-up? You can't apologize to Mastodon, and that's who you're letting down, really. That, and me, and everyone else, everywhere. Go somewhere and think about what you've done, I hope you're goddamned ashamed. You filthy mongrel. But don't worry, I'm making a special guest appearance just to set shit straight. You're welcome "shootermcgavinroo." What the hell kind of username is that anyway? Why would you append "-roo" to the end of "Shooter McGavin?" I can only guess the answer to that question is "brain damage."
Now.
This is a mastodon:
Do you know what mastodons do (did)? They stomped and snorted and would charge the absolute fuck out of you if you got in their way. DO YOU SEE THOSE GODDAMN TUSKS, ASSHOLE? Those dickhead dinosaurs were strolling around all "oh shit, we've got this on lock," then it got a little cold and they were all "oh, we're fucked." Meanwhile, the mastodon was like "BOUT TO BE TURNT UP IN HERE" and just kept strolling, pimp style in some fur coats. It wasn't until a bunch of bitch-ass cavemen resorted to CHEAP SHOTS like using fire and spears that the mastodon had any trouble. Even then, it would take like 9 cavemen to take down every mastodon, and at least 8 of those cavemen would catch a nice goring.
See that? SCIENTIFIC PROOF.
Why am I telling you this? Because never in the history of mankind has the name of a band more embodied the actual band. Like you might think to yourself "oh hold on Juggs, what about bands named after the actual guy in the band lololol" and no, you're still fucking wrong. Mastodon is more mastodon than Paul McCartney is Paul McCartney. So get that shit out of your heads. Also, stop listening to Dave Matthews.
What's that? You actually want background? Who really fucking cares? Fine, here. They're a sludge/doom/stoner/some other stupid subgenre metal band from Georgia, which is a place where you can find metal bands growing on trees or something since EVERY fucking metal band is from there. They formed after meeting at a High on Fire show, which is all kinds of awesome. They're better than every other band you hold near and dear. End of topic.
Now "Shootermcgavinroo" did an admirable job at "suggested listening." Understand that by "admirable job," I mean "slapped up the first four things he found on youtube and called it a day."
The easiest way to start with the BRUTAL MAJESTY of Mastodon is with their 2006 effort Blood Mountain. I don't think it's necessarily their finest effort (more on that in a bit), but it's probably the most accessible (with the possible exception of the Hunter, but again, more on that in a bit). Blood Mountain yielded the MONSTER HIT "Colony of Birchmen," which is probably Mastodon's best well-known song. (Fun fact: "Colony of Birchmen" is named after the Genesis song "Colony of Slippermen," like for real, because Genesis is secretly metal as fuck.) Anyway, "Birchmen" has a monster riff and is just generally awesome, so listen to it right fucking now:
For what it's worth, even though "Colony of Birchmen" is where (the uninitiated) should start, it's not even close to the best song on the album. That honor goes to either "Circle of Cysquatch" (a "cysquatch" is a cross between a cyclops and a sasquatch, and it's a real thing. Look it up.) or "This Mortal Soil." (Honorable mention goes to "Capillarian Crest" and "The Wolf Is Loose." Sometimes Troy does this thing where he'll make a circle with one hand and cross a single finger over that circle, and you know they're doing "Circle" and people fucking lose their shit. He doesn't do anything for "This Mortal Soil" because they never play it anymore which is a shame because it fucking owns.
As I mentioned, Blood Mountain isn't Mastodon's finest effort. That honor goes to Leviathan, which is supposedly in some way an interpretation of Moby Dick but who honestly knows or cares. It's just a fucking bad-as-fuck metal album with the sickest cover ever. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT GODDAMN WHALE:
I honestly don't know where to start with Leviathan. So fuck it, let's start at the beginning. Cue up (or queue up, if you want to get in line for some reason) opening track "Blood and Thunder" and just fucking lose your goddamned mind.
Here are some sample lyrics:
"No man of the flesh could ever stop me The fight for this fish is a fight to the death"
SO METAL. The chorus is "White whale! Holy grail!" OH MY GOD LET'S GO HARPOONING.
Really, just start with "Blood and Thunder" and listen to the whole album. You'll be glad you did. Some other truly choice cuts are "Iron Tusk" and "Aqua Dementia," but really, it's all great. There is nothing wrong with this album at all.
The only problem with Leviathan is that it made Pitchfork take notice and this lead to Mastodon being anointed as "okay, I guess, whatever, meh" by clueless hipster dickholes, so that's a problem. But whatever.
Some people might tell you that Crack the Skye, Mastodon's 2009 concept record (seriously, they're all concept records I guess, but this one's about the astral plane and ancient Russian czars and shit that makes no fucking sense) is their best effort. It's drawn out and less heavy and "proggy" and blah blah blah. Those people are absolutely wrong. Every single one of them. Because it's a Mastodon, it's still a great album, but it's really just like a 10/10 instead of an 11/10 like everything else they've done. You say you can't get an 11 out of 10, that it's a mathematical impossibility like the old cliche of giving 110%? Well do me a favor and get 110% the fuck out of here because you're the worst.
Anyway, Crack the Skye. It has it's moments, and if you're some hopeless goon who gets frightened by anything even remotely aggressive you'll probably think it's the best. I think stoners like this one too, so if lying around worthless all day because you smoked too much rope is your thing, then put this on and I'm sure you'll think it's "groovy" or whatever, you fucking deadbeat. Get a job and contribute to society.
My personal favorites on here are "Divinations" and "Crack the Skye," both of which also make their way into live setlists much more often than the rest, so give these a listen and then just forget about it. Also, it bears mentioning that when they were doing Crack the Skye live, they had this really cool/weird movie/visual projection that played behind them, it had disembodied old Russian dudes and guys with light coming out of their mouths and eyes like motherfucking Lo Pan. If you don't know what that's in reference to, then too bad. I'm not explaining myself to you.
The flip side of Crack the Skye is the Hunter, their 2011 tour de force.
What I mean by that is, it's a common dickheaded reaction to be all "oh, Mastodon went soft on the Hunter, it doesn't rock enough, it's too mainstream, it's blah blah blah I'm a whiny puss with zero ability to think for myself so I'm just going to say things like this in an effort to appear contrarian and cool when really I'm just parroting the same bullshit other idiots say and I have zero self-awareness and I probably wear cargo shorts." In short, get fucked, the Hunter is fucking awesome. It's also a little more on the "hard rock" side, so if you're one of those people who don't love "metal voice" vocals, you might be in luck.
Now, there's no telling what kind of setlist they'll play this year, because they've got a new album coming out in June (which will undoubtedly be the album of the year, particularly as the year sucks for recorded music thus far, just FYI there are like three decent albums and the rest have all been shitty), but it's a fair guess that you'll get plenty of the Hunter. Which is great, because these songs are way louder and more brutal live, so pat yourself on the back, you lucky so-and-so.
Here's the video for "Dry Bone Valley," which is both an awesome video and a killer track:
Fuck it, "Curl of the Burl" is equally awesome. It starts off with the line "I killed a man 'cuz he killed my goat," which is exactly the type of thing I would hope Mastodon would endorse.
Also keep yourself familiar with "Black Tongue" (which they play live constantly, and which is better than any song ever written by anyone else on the lineup, seriously, fuck Elton John) and "Blasteroid," which is a real name for a song that exists. BLASTEROID.
CHANGE YOUR HAIR CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES I'LL REARRANGE YOUR FACE FOR YOU.
Remission is Mastodon's first full-length, and it's goddamn amazing. I'm putting it last (well, sort of last) because it's probably the least representative of where they are now, but it's still awesome and contains some of the fucking hardest shit. They still play lots of these live, so you've got a good chance for at least one of "March of the Fire Ants," "Mother Puncher" (MOTHER PUNCHER), "Crusher Destroyer" (oh my god these song titles) or maybe even "Where Strides the Behemoth" or something.
That about covers the studio albums. They've got two live albums available, Live at the Aragon and Live at Brixton. Of the two, go with Brixton, it's from the Hunter tour and is really really awesome. I'm not going to link to it because if you're going to use Youtube to listen to an entire album I don't really want to assist you because it's really sad that you're doing that. Jesus.
If you want to really dig deep, they've got all kinds of awesomely perfect alternate cuts and b-sides and random shit. Like here, they did the "movie etiquette" opening to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, which is something people like I guess:
Then, just watch the video for "Deathbound," because it's better than wasting your time caring about things like Fitz and the Tantrums or whatever terrible band you're listening to:
They also covered "Spoonful Weighs a Ton," which I feel hesitant recommending because Wayne Coyne is a racist, bullying piece of shit, but whatever.
(This is extra funny because Mastodon put out that "Happy Thanksgiving" shirt which had a pioneer pointing a gun at a busty female Native American, and people got temporarily up in arms because people are stupid, and didn't realize that the whole shirt was a commentary on how we've made a holiday out of what is essentially a celebration of the massacre of an entire population in furtherance of our stupid white people things. Meanwhile, Wayne fired his drummer because Kliph had the balls to say "hey, stupid vacuous white cunt, you're using something spiritual and traditional as a prop for your terrifically shitty indie pop band, knock it the fuck off already.")
On a happier note, they also CRUSHED this cover of ZZ Top's "Just Got Paid." ZZ Top, as far as I know, has never fired a band member for speaking out publicly against some dunderheaded racist bullshit perpetrated by some skank that Wayne Coyne was trying to nail.
OH MY GOD THAT'S SO GOOD. That's America, people. I want to drink like a dozen Bud heavies in a fucking tanktop while blasting that on repeat. I want my daughter to walk down the aisle to that at her wedding.
So there. Do yourself a favor and listen to Mastodon exclusively from now until Bonnaroo because you'll be better for it. Plus, this way when you pretend to totally like Mastodon since like forever, because you're totes hardcore and can't wait for the fucking pit bros, let me at it, oh shit that pit's actually pretty legit and I don't want to get punched, I'll just stand back here and observe and then tell people later that I was in the pit, yeah that's the ticket, Christ it's pathetic the effort I go to in an attempt to seem like a MUSIC SUPERFAN, I need help.
This special guest post has been brought to you by the Original Juggernaut. If you need me, I'll be posting as "Festival Snob" over on the Coachella boards.
Just kidding, big cat. You know I love you. Winks and hugs and snuggles.
"Sorry" for the weak write-up? You can't apologize to Mastodon, and that's who you're letting down, really. That, and me, and everyone else, everywhere. Go somewhere and think about what you've done, I hope you're goddamned ashamed. You filthy mongrel. But don't worry, I'm making a special guest appearance just to set shit straight. You're welcome "shootermcgavinroo." What the hell kind of username is that anyway? Why would you append "-roo" to the end of "Shooter McGavin?" I can only guess the answer to that question is "brain damage."
Now.
This is a mastodon:
Do you know what mastodons do (did)? They stomped and snorted and would charge the absolute fuck out of you if you got in their way. DO YOU SEE THOSE GODDAMN TUSKS, ASSHOLE? Those dickhead dinosaurs were strolling around all "oh shit, we've got this on lock," then it got a little cold and they were all "oh, we're fucked." Meanwhile, the mastodon was like "BOUT TO BE TURNT UP IN HERE" and just kept strolling, pimp style in some fur coats. It wasn't until a bunch of bitch-ass cavemen resorted to CHEAP SHOTS like using fire and spears that the mastodon had any trouble. Even then, it would take like 9 cavemen to take down every mastodon, and at least 8 of those cavemen would catch a nice goring.
See that? SCIENTIFIC PROOF.
Why am I telling you this? Because never in the history of mankind has the name of a band more embodied the actual band. Like you might think to yourself "oh hold on Juggs, what about bands named after the actual guy in the band lololol" and no, you're still fucking wrong. Mastodon is more mastodon than Paul McCartney is Paul McCartney. So get that shit out of your heads. Also, stop listening to Dave Matthews.
What's that? You actually want background? Who really fucking cares? Fine, here. They're a sludge/doom/stoner/some other stupid subgenre metal band from Georgia, which is a place where you can find metal bands growing on trees or something since EVERY fucking metal band is from there. They formed after meeting at a High on Fire show, which is all kinds of awesome. They're better than every other band you hold near and dear. End of topic.
Now "Shootermcgavinroo" did an admirable job at "suggested listening." Understand that by "admirable job," I mean "slapped up the first four things he found on youtube and called it a day."
The easiest way to start with the BRUTAL MAJESTY of Mastodon is with their 2006 effort Blood Mountain. I don't think it's necessarily their finest effort (more on that in a bit), but it's probably the most accessible (with the possible exception of the Hunter, but again, more on that in a bit). Blood Mountain yielded the MONSTER HIT "Colony of Birchmen," which is probably Mastodon's best well-known song. (Fun fact: "Colony of Birchmen" is named after the Genesis song "Colony of Slippermen," like for real, because Genesis is secretly metal as fuck.) Anyway, "Birchmen" has a monster riff and is just generally awesome, so listen to it right fucking now:
For what it's worth, even though "Colony of Birchmen" is where (the uninitiated) should start, it's not even close to the best song on the album. That honor goes to either "Circle of Cysquatch" (a "cysquatch" is a cross between a cyclops and a sasquatch, and it's a real thing. Look it up.) or "This Mortal Soil." (Honorable mention goes to "Capillarian Crest" and "The Wolf Is Loose." Sometimes Troy does this thing where he'll make a circle with one hand and cross a single finger over that circle, and you know they're doing "Circle" and people fucking lose their shit. He doesn't do anything for "This Mortal Soil" because they never play it anymore which is a shame because it fucking owns.
As I mentioned, Blood Mountain isn't Mastodon's finest effort. That honor goes to Leviathan, which is supposedly in some way an interpretation of Moby Dick but who honestly knows or cares. It's just a fucking bad-as-fuck metal album with the sickest cover ever. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT GODDAMN WHALE:
I honestly don't know where to start with Leviathan. So fuck it, let's start at the beginning. Cue up (or queue up, if you want to get in line for some reason) opening track "Blood and Thunder" and just fucking lose your goddamned mind.
Here are some sample lyrics:
"No man of the flesh could ever stop me The fight for this fish is a fight to the death"
SO METAL. The chorus is "White whale! Holy grail!" OH MY GOD LET'S GO HARPOONING.
Really, just start with "Blood and Thunder" and listen to the whole album. You'll be glad you did. Some other truly choice cuts are "Iron Tusk" and "Aqua Dementia," but really, it's all great. There is nothing wrong with this album at all.
The only problem with Leviathan is that it made Pitchfork take notice and this lead to Mastodon being anointed as "okay, I guess, whatever, meh" by clueless hipster dickholes, so that's a problem. But whatever.
Some people might tell you that Crack the Skye, Mastodon's 2009 concept record (seriously, they're all concept records I guess, but this one's about the astral plane and ancient Russian czars and shit that makes no fucking sense) is their best effort. It's drawn out and less heavy and "proggy" and blah blah blah. Those people are absolutely wrong. Every single one of them. Because it's a Mastodon, it's still a great album, but it's really just like a 10/10 instead of an 11/10 like everything else they've done. You say you can't get an 11 out of 10, that it's a mathematical impossibility like the old cliche of giving 110%? Well do me a favor and get 110% the fuck out of here because you're the worst.
Anyway, Crack the Skye. It has it's moments, and if you're some hopeless goon who gets frightened by anything even remotely aggressive you'll probably think it's the best. I think stoners like this one too, so if lying around worthless all day because you smoked too much rope is your thing, then put this on and I'm sure you'll think it's "groovy" or whatever, you fucking deadbeat. Get a job and contribute to society.
My personal favorites on here are "Divinations" and "Crack the Skye," both of which also make their way into live setlists much more often than the rest, so give these a listen and then just forget about it. Also, it bears mentioning that when they were doing Crack the Skye live, they had this really cool/weird movie/visual projection that played behind them, it had disembodied old Russian dudes and guys with light coming out of their mouths and eyes like motherfucking Lo Pan. If you don't know what that's in reference to, then too bad. I'm not explaining myself to you.
The flip side of Crack the Skye is the Hunter, their 2011 tour de force.
What I mean by that is, it's a common dickheaded reaction to be all "oh, Mastodon went soft on the Hunter, it doesn't rock enough, it's too mainstream, it's blah blah blah I'm a whiny puss with zero ability to think for myself so I'm just going to say things like this in an effort to appear contrarian and cool when really I'm just parroting the same bullshit other idiots say and I have zero self-awareness and I probably wear cargo shorts." In short, get fucked, the Hunter is fucking awesome. It's also a little more on the "hard rock" side, so if you're one of those people who don't love "metal voice" vocals, you might be in luck.
Now, there's no telling what kind of setlist they'll play this year, because they've got a new album coming out in June (which will undoubtedly be the album of the year, particularly as the year sucks for recorded music thus far, just FYI there are like three decent albums and the rest have all been shitty), but it's a fair guess that you'll get plenty of the Hunter. Which is great, because these songs are way louder and more brutal live, so pat yourself on the back, you lucky so-and-so.
Here's the video for "Dry Bone Valley," which is both an awesome video and a killer track:
Fuck it, "Curl of the Burl" is equally awesome. It starts off with the line "I killed a man 'cuz he killed my goat," which is exactly the type of thing I would hope Mastodon would endorse.
Also keep yourself familiar with "Black Tongue" (which they play live constantly, and which is better than any song ever written by anyone else on the lineup, seriously, fuck Elton John) and "Blasteroid," which is a real name for a song that exists. BLASTEROID.
CHANGE YOUR HAIR CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES I'LL REARRANGE YOUR FACE FOR YOU.
Remission is Mastodon's first full-length, and it's goddamn amazing. I'm putting it last (well, sort of last) because it's probably the least representative of where they are now, but it's still awesome and contains some of the fucking hardest shit. They still play lots of these live, so you've got a good chance for at least one of "March of the Fire Ants," "Mother Puncher" (MOTHER PUNCHER), "Crusher Destroyer" (oh my god these song titles) or maybe even "Where Strides the Behemoth" or something.
That about covers the studio albums. They've got two live albums available, Live at the Aragon and Live at Brixton. Of the two, go with Brixton, it's from the Hunter tour and is really really awesome. I'm not going to link to it because if you're going to use Youtube to listen to an entire album I don't really want to assist you because it's really sad that you're doing that. Jesus.
If you want to really dig deep, they've got all kinds of awesomely perfect alternate cuts and b-sides and random shit. Like here, they did the "movie etiquette" opening to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, which is something people like I guess:
Then, just watch the video for "Deathbound," because it's better than wasting your time caring about things like Fitz and the Tantrums or whatever terrible band you're listening to:
They also covered "Spoonful Weighs a Ton," which I feel hesitant recommending because Wayne Coyne is a racist, bullying piece of shit, but whatever.
(This is extra funny because Mastodon put out that "Happy Thanksgiving" shirt which had a pioneer pointing a gun at a busty female Native American, and people got temporarily up in arms because people are stupid, and didn't realize that the whole shirt was a commentary on how we've made a holiday out of what is essentially a celebration of the massacre of an entire population in furtherance of our stupid white people things. Meanwhile, Wayne fired his drummer because Kliph had the balls to say "hey, stupid vacuous white cunt, you're using something spiritual and traditional as a prop for your terrifically shitty indie pop band, knock it the fuck off already.")
On a happier note, they also CRUSHED this cover of ZZ Top's "Just Got Paid." ZZ Top, as far as I know, has never fired a band member for speaking out publicly against some dunderheaded racist bullshit perpetrated by some skank that Wayne Coyne was trying to nail.
OH MY GOD THAT'S SO GOOD. That's America, people. I want to drink like a dozen Bud heavies in a fucking tanktop while blasting that on repeat. I want my daughter to walk down the aisle to that at her wedding.
So there. Do yourself a favor and listen to Mastodon exclusively from now until Bonnaroo because you'll be better for it. Plus, this way when you pretend to totally like Mastodon since like forever, because you're totes hardcore and can't wait for the fucking pit bros, let me at it, oh shit that pit's actually pretty legit and I don't want to get punched, I'll just stand back here and observe and then tell people later that I was in the pit, yeah that's the ticket, Christ it's pathetic the effort I go to in an attempt to seem like a MUSIC SUPERFAN, I need help.
This special guest post has been brought to you by the Original Juggernaut. If you need me, I'll be posting as "Festival Snob" over on the Coachella boards.
Just kidding, big cat. You know I love you. Winks and hugs and snuggles.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Juggs
Post of the year. All wannabe Juggs please take notes. On second thought, don't do that. Give that shit up.
Now that's how you do Band A Day. Juggs speaks the truth here. Except for Curl Of The Burl. I still don't really care for Curl Of The Burl, even thought I've listened to it (along with the rest of The Hunter) more times than I can recall.
