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Mastodon
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)	Heavy metal Groove metal 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

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 1 Biography 1.1 Leviathan 1.2 Blood Mountain 1.3 Aqua Teen Hunger Force 1.4 Recent News 2 Discography 2.1 Studio albums 2.2 Soundtracks 3 Charted Songs 3.1 Other Releases 4 Line-up 4.1 Former members 5 Notes 6 External links

Mastodon was formed in late 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," 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 3 of Mastodon's full-length albums, the last track is an instrumental with a title relating to the Elephant Man.

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 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 V and Guitarfreaks V". 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 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 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.

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 ^[6][7]. Also #6 on PopMatters' Best Albums of 2006 ^[7][8] and #1 on The Best Metal Albums of 2006 ^[7][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 ^[8][10].

An extensive list of Blood Mountain reviews from various publications worldwide can be found at Metacritic.com ^[9][11]. 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^[10][12]. A promotional Blood Mountain computer game was made, which is available at the Reprise website ^[11][13].

The band was named Artist Of The Month for March 2007 at Gametap.com ^[12][14], as well as being given the 2007 Doobie Award for Best Hard Rock Band by High Times magazine.

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. The song is meant to be a humor piece in which they threaten violence against anyone who disobeys movie theatre etiquette.

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 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.

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 of having a severe head injury. Blabbermouth.net initially reported that it was a result of a brutal assault ^[13] but a police report later suggested that an inebriated Hinds initiated a conflict with System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian and musician William Hudson.^[14] Hinds suffered brain hemorrhaging, a broken nose and two black eyes but is expected to make 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^[15].

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

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"

Saw III soundtrack Released: October 24, 2006 Chart Positions: U.S. Sales: Label(s): Warcon Records Song: "The Wolf is Loose"

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.

• 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)

• Brann Dailor - Drums, Vocals
• Brent Hinds - Guitar, Vocals
• Bill Kelliher - Guitar, Vocals
• Troy Sanders - Bass, Vocals

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

• 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

v • d • e Mastodon
Brann Dailor · Brent Hinds · Bill Kelliher · Troy Sanders Eric Saner
Studio albums	Remission · Leviathan · Blood Mountain
Extended plays	Lifesblood
Compilations	Call of the Mastodon
DVDs	The Workhorse Chronicles
Songs	"The Wolf is Loose" · "Colony of Birchmen" · "Cut You up with a Linoleum Knife"