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Mastodon is an Atlanta, Georgia-based heavy metal band formed in 1999 by guitarists Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher, bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders, and drummer Brann Dailor. Their discography consists of four studio albums, one live album, two compilation albums, three extended plays, ten singles, two video albums, nine music videos, and one demo album.
In 2001, Mastodon released their debut album (an EP), Lifesblood, followed by the first full-length album in 2002, Remission; which were all released by Relapse Records. After a tour promoting the album Remission, they released their second full-length Leviathan, issued in Aug
Mastodon is an Atlanta, Georgia-based heavy metal band formed in 1999 by guitarists Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher, bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders, and drummer Brann Dailor. Their discography consists of four studio albums, one live album, two compilation albums, three extended plays, ten singles, two video albums, nine music videos, and one demo album.
In 2001, Mastodon released their debut album (an EP), Lifesblood, followed by the first full-length album in 2002, Remission; which were all released by Relapse Records. After a tour promoting the album Remission, they released their second full-length Leviathan, issued in August 2004. In February 2006, Mastodon released two records first, a compilation of their early recordings, titled Call of the Mastodon and shortly after, the DVD The Workhorse Chronicles. This same year marked the band's debut on a major label. They released Blood Mountain through Warner Bros., peaking at number 32 on the Billboard 200 charts. In 2009 they released Crack the Skye, their most commercially successful album to date, peaking at number 11.
Remission is the first full-length debut album by American sludge metal band Mastodon. It was released on May 28, 2002 through Relapse Records and was re-released on October 21, 2003.
The album was re-released on October 21, 2003, coinciding with a music video for "March of the Fire Ants". It had significant airplay on both Uranium and Headbangers Ball and featured dark elements such as a man being dug up and placed in a throne.
A deluxe edition of the album, folded in digipak, contained a bonus DVD with a professionally filmed nine song live set recorded at The Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 1, 2002, along with previously unreleased material. Another additional feature is a covered song, "Emerald", by Thin Lizzy, which appears as a bonus track on the CD.
Leviathan is a concept album by sludge metal band Mastodon, released in 2004 by Relapse Records. The album is loosely based on the Herman Melville novel Moby-Dick, with the songs: "Iron Tusk", "Blood and Thunder", "I Am Ahab" and "Seabeast" released as singles. Three magazines awarded it Album of the Year in 2004: Revolver, Kerrang! and Terrorizer.
Leviathan was also released with an Audio DVD in a limited edition set with a black and gold slipcase. The album brought Mastodon great critical acclaim and, thanks to the ensuing tour, a considerably larger fan base. Leviathan had sold 103,000 copies by September, 2006. Guitarist Bill Kelliher considers this album to represent the water element.
Blood Mountain is the third full-length studio album by sludge metal band Mastodon. The recording of the album finished in April 2006 and it was released on 11 September in the UK and 12 September 2006 in North America. The album in full could be streamed at the band's MySpace page a few days prior to the release.
Like Mastodon's previous studio work Leviathan, Blood Mountain is a concept album. According to bassist Troy Sanders, "It's about climbing up a mountain and the different things that can happen to you when you're stranded on a mountain, in the woods, and you're lost. You're starving, hallucinating, running into strange creatures. You're being hunted. It's about that whole struggle."
The album includes guest appearances by Scott Kelly of Neurosis on "Crystal Skull", Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age on "Colony of Birchmen", as well as keyboard player Isaiah "Ikey" Owens and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta on "Pendulous Skin" and "Siberian Divide", respectively.
Music videos for "The Wolf Is Loose", "Colony of Birchmen", "Sleeping Giant" and "Capillarian Crest" have been made. Although the video for "Capillarian Crest" is made up of live footage, the studio version of the song is played.
Guitarist Bill Kelliher considers this album to represent the earth element. At the time, bassist Troy Sanders called it "sonically the best album we have done."
The band's emphasis on clean, melodic vocals instead of the harsher vocals that the band used on their early work continues to grow on this album.
Blood Mountain entered the Billboard 200 best selling album charts at #32, with 24,000 sold copies, marking it the second highest debut in the band's career after Crack the Skye. The album is also the band's highest selling effort to date. By December 2006, the album had sold more than 65,000 copies in the U.S. alone according to the band's website, by March 2009, the album had sold 150,000 copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen Soundscan, and by September 2010 it had sold 176,000 copies.
Crack the Skye is the fourth studio album by American sludge metal band Mastodon, released on March 24, 2009 through Reprise Records. It features seven tracks and runs at 50 minutes and 6 seconds. The album debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200, selling 41,000 copies in its first week. In Australia, the album debuted at number 19. It had sold 200,000 copies in the US as of September 2010, making it one of their highest selling albums to date.
According to an interview on the DVD The Making of Crack the Skye, this album represents the element of aether, which is represented by the souls and spirits of all things, a theme closely related to the context of the album. Because the elements of fire, water and earth have already represented by the band's first three albums Remission, Leviathan and Blood Mountain, respectively, the element of air is the only classical element which has yet to be represented by a Mastodon album.
The Hunter is the fifth studio album by the American sludge metal band Mastodon. Released through Roadrunner Records on September 26, 2011 in the UK and one day later in the US via Reprise Records The Hunter is their first release with producer Mike Elizondo (whose credits include Fiona Apple, 50 Cent, Alanis Morissette, Avenged Sevenfold and Maroon 5).
AllMusic reviewed the album giving it a score of 4 out of 5, saying "Mastodon's increasingly accessible sound may not land them a hit anytime soon, but cuts like “Black Tongue,” “Curl of the Burl,” and “Blasteroid,” all of which arrive in sequence at the front of the set, show a willingness to write within the parameters of 21st century pop music’s dark side."
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Tags: Rock (1), Amazing (1), Metal (1), Technical (1), Heavy (1), Band (1), Awesome (1), Progressive Metal (1), American (1), Death Metal (1), Technical Death Metal (1), Sludge Metal (1), Baroness Like (1), Killer Drums (1)
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