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,
grindcore, 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, Mastodon
released the CD/DVD package Live at the Aragon, which was recorded in Chicago
during the Crack the Skye tour.
(Overview AllMusic)