Mastodon

Mastodon formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999, when bassist Troy Sanders, guitarists Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher and drummer Brann Dailor came together around a shared appetite for sludge, hardcore and 1970s progressive rock. After the 2001 EP Lifesblood on Relapse Records, the quartet released its debut album Remission in 2002, introducing a sound built on serpentine riffs, odd meters and Dailor's hyperactive, lead-melodic drumming. The band's reputation rests largely on a loosely conceived elemental cycle of concept albums. Remission (2002) was aligned with fire; Leviathan (2004), a retelling of Moby-Dick, with water; Blood Mountain (2006), their major-label debut for Reprise and a mountain-climbing vision quest, with earth; and Crack the Skye (2009), a story of astral projection, tsarist Russia and Rasputin written in the shadow of the death of Dailor's sister, with aether. Leviathan and Crack the Skye in particular are routinely cited among the most important metal albums of the 2000s. A defining trait is the band's shared vocal approach: rather than a single frontman, Sanders, Hinds and Dailor all take lead vocals, frequently trading and stacking parts within a single song, with Kelliher contributing backing harmonies. Sanders' roar, Hinds' Southern-tinged wail and Dailor's clean melodic tenor gave the band an unusually wide expressive range. Later records moved toward tighter songwriting: The Hunter (2011), Once More 'Round the Sun (2014), Emperor of Sand (2017) and the double album Hushed and Grim (2021), the last a meditation on grief following the death of longtime manager Nick John. Mastodon received five Grammy nominations and won Best Metal Performance at the 2018 ceremony for "Sultan's Curse". In March 2025 the band announced it had mutually decided to part ways with Brent Hinds, ending his 26-year tenure; the split was publicly acrimonious. On 20 August 2025 Hinds was killed in a motorcycle collision in Atlanta at the age of 51, and the surviving members have since spoken openly about grieving a bandmate with whom they never reconciled. Mastodon continues as a reconfigured unit, with guitarist Nick Johnston and keyboardist João Nogueira joining the recording lineup for the ninth studio album Marrow Deep, produced by Patrik Berger and Kurt Ballou and announced for 28 August 2026, led by the single "Snakes for Dinner" featuring Josh Homme. Nearly three decades in, the band remains one of the most influential and critically respected acts in modern heavy music.