Music by the doctrine of the four elements
Mastodon is an American metal-band, which combines inter alia progressive, sludge and hardcore. Long instrumental parts with demanding rhythms are typical for their songs, they are complex and hard to play, but an orgasm to our ears.
Current Lineup:
e-bass, vocals – Troy Sanders
guitar, vocals – Brent Hinds
guitar – Bill Kelliher
drum kit – Brann Dailor
The band’s name is also a term for an extinct group of elephant-like mammals. Large titans, grander than elephants – this definitely is a fitting name for a band like this, isn’t it? They came up with the idea when Brent Hinds discovered that Bill Kelliher has a tattoo of a mastodon; just as himself.
Their albums count as conceptual ones. They refer to the doctrine of the four elements. Each album is about an epochal story of adventures, the growth you experience when you accomplished assignments or the danger of nature. This is pure art!
Remission – Fire
Their first studio album, it doesn’t really deal with fire. Actually it’s not a real conceptual album, but it’s considered one.
Leviathan – Water
Their second studio album, it deals with the element water. This means that the sounds are powerful, fast and dynamic. It is based on the story of the white whale. I recommend “Blood and Thunder”, it’s really beautiful. The album tells about a fight between a man against a monster and the sea.
Blood Mountain – Earth
Their third studio album deals with the element earth. It tells the story of a wanderer, who wants to climb up the Blood Mountain, in order to find the Crystal Skull. That’s some kind of a portal to a parallel universe. On his way there, he encounters various creatures, hallucinates and suffers because of nature. The album teaches us that any victory involves a hard fight.
There’s a Hidden Track where Josh Homme reads out a letter.
Crack in the Sky – Aither
So, first of all, the aither is an element from the Greek doctrine, it’s placed between the atmosphere and cosmic space. A location predestinated for gods.
In this album Hinds comes to term with his coma experiences, for example the brawl with the bassist Shavo Odadjian, after getting drunk after a great concert in LA where the MTV Music-Awards were handed out. He needed to be medicated in hospital for some time.
The album tells a story of a paralyzed child, who travels spiritually and lands in Russia, 19th century. A sect puts his soul into the corps of Rasputin, who gets killed afterwards, so that the soul travels on, but then a rift in heaven soaks it up. The title song is a homage is attended to Brann Dailors sister Skye, who suicides at the age of 14.
That’s it with the 4-elementary-albums. By now they released another album “The hunter”, together with some live albums. Furthermore Mastodon played the song “Jonah Hex” for the Marvel film. There’s a next album in development… Can’t wait!
Copyright and Source http://www.thrashhits.com/2009/03/mastodon-interview1/
