Artist

Mastodon

Atlanta, United States · Formed 2000

Mastodon is a music group from Atlanta, United States, active since 2000. Their discography on Gatefold includes 24 records.

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Albums tracked

496

In collections

2000

Since

Biography

Matt Bayles ran them ragged at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle while tracking Leviathan in 2004, demanding take after take of Brann Dailor's impossible jazz-fusion fills and Brent Hinds' chicken-pickin' leads until the tapes practically melted. That grueling discipline took an unhinged Atlanta sludge outfit and turned them into a machine capable of writing high-concept metal that actually breathed. They did not start as prog royalty. They were four guys who bonded in a High on Fire basement show, scraped together gas money in a broke-down van, and survived on cheap beer while hammering out riffs in Drop A tuning. Then major-label money arrived via Warner Bros., and with it came Brendan O'Brien, soaring vocal hooks, and arena tours with Alice in Chains. The purists bailed around The Hunter when the riffs shrunk down to four-minute radio chunks and the sprawling conceptual suites vanished, but the musicianship never decayed. Troy Sanders' roar got traded for a three-part vocal attack that was rough around the edges live, but on record, it kept them from rotting into another mid-2000s relic.

Bio from The Clerk

The Arc of Mastodon

The pivots — what forced Mastodon to reinvent.

The Elements and The Relapse Sludge Era
Between 2002 and 2004, the band teamed with producer Matt Bayles to forge Remission and Leviathan, grounding their sound in brutal four-element mythology and jaw-dropping technicality. Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds locked down frantic, dissonant guitar runs while Dailor played drums like a lead instrument across every single bar. It was punishing, relentless sludge metal filtered through classical ambition, culminating in a Melville-themed beast of a record that put Relapse Records squarely on the mainstream map. You hear it in the frantic snare rolls, gut-wrenching screams, and sheer physical violence of 'Blood and Thunder'.
The Prog-Metal Ascension
Signing to Reprise Records in 2006 pushed them into sprawling, 1970s-informed progressive rock territory on Blood Mountain and 2009's Crack the Skye. Bringing in Brendan O'Brien to produce Crack the Skye forced them to trade raw aggression for keyboards, Mellotrons, and Hinds' deeply emotional, soaring solos dealing with personal grief and astral travel. The harsh growls took a backseat to Dailor and Sanders developing clean vocal leads that carried complex, multi-movement suites. The result was a monumental, labyrinthine record that completely redefined what American metal could pull off without sounding cheesy.
The Streamlined Hard-Rock Shift
Following personal tragedies and the sheer exhaustion of performing complex prog live, the band ditched overarching concept records for 2011's The Hunter and 2014's Once More 'Round the Sun. Working with pop and rock producers like Mike Elizondo and Nick Raskulinecz, they trimmed the fat down to punchy verses, accessible choruses, and direct riffing. It alienated old-school heads who demanded ten-minute epics, but it delivered massive radio singles like 'Curl of the Burl' that filled amphitheaters. You hear the shift instantly in the tighter drum grooves and four-on-the-floor stomps replacing the polyrhythmic chaos.
The Double-Album Mourning
The sudden loss of longtime manager Nick John in 2018 hit the band hard and pushed them into the most ambitious, somber writing sessions of their lives. Teaming with David Bottrill at West End Sound in Atlanta, they cut 2021's Hushed and Grim, stretching grief across an expansive double album filled with moody synths from touring keyboardist João Nogueira. The frantic speed of their youth gave way to massive, doom-laden atmospheres, intricate layered vocal harmonies, and some of Hinds' most expressive lead work on record. It proved they could still deliver monumental weight by slowing down and letting the sorrow take up space.

Influences

Neurosis — Mastodon toured with them early on, and vocalist Scott Kelly famously contributed guest vocals to six consecutive Mastodon albums from Leviathan through Emperor of Sand. You hear their DNA in the crushing low-end sludge, atmospheric build-ups, and apocalyptic themes that define Mastodon's foundational tone. Without Neurosis breaking ground for cinematic heavy music in the 1990s, the blueprint for Remission simply does not exist.
Thin Lizzy — Mastodon cut a direct cover of 'The Emerald' for the deluxe edition of Blood Mountain and consistently cite Phil Lynott's crew as their gold standard for dual guitars. The twin-lead harmony interplay between Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds on tracks like 'Oblivion' is straight out of the Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson playbook. They took Irish hard-rock swagger and shoved it into Drop C tuning.
Rush — Brann Dailor has repeatedly cited Neil Peart as his absolute hero behind the kit, even performing at Peart tribute events. You hear Peart's exact vocabulary in Dailor's restless ride-cymbal patterns, hyper-melodic tom rolls, and odd-time accents throughout Crack the Skye. They took the Canadian trio's complex conceptual storytelling and gave it teeth.
King Crimson — Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher have constantly pointed to Robert Fripp's dissonant, angular riffing on albums like Red and Lark's Tongues in Aspic as a core influence. The dizzying, arpeggiated guitar lines in songs like 'Capillarian Crest' and 'Bladecatcher' are direct descendants of Fripp's complex math-rock phrasing. It is the secret weapon that kept them from sounding like standard pentatonic metal.
Melvins — Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover set the entire template for heavy, downtuned, unconventional groove music that Mastodon soaked up during their formative years. You hear that sludgy, syncopated crawl on early tracks like 'Crusher Destroyer' and 'Workhorse'. Melvins proved you could play monstrously heavy riffs without being trapped in generic thrash tempos.