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Oct 2017 - p.34
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, Co-
alesce, 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.
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.
Official Website:
