Mastodon

Mastodon are modern metal's most ambitious band, building concept albums of progressive complexity on a foundation of sludge-metal heaviness. Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds form one of metal's great guitar partnerships: Kelliher's crushing, down-tuned rhythm work — achieved through Gibson Explorers and Silverburst Les Pauls through Marshall JCM800s — provides the seismic foundation, while Hinds's lead work draws from Southern rock, country, and psychedelia as much as metal, giving the band a melodic range unusual for their weight class. Brann Dailor's drumming, a torrent of fills and polyrhythmic complexity, drives the compositions forward with jazz-influenced unpredictability. Their early albums traced the classical elements: Remission (fire), Leviathan (water, based on Moby-Dick), Blood Mountain (earth), and Crack the Skye (aether/air) — each more progressive and melodically sophisticated than the last. Crack the Skye, a concept album about astral projection, wormholes, and Rasputin, demonstrated that extreme metal could accommodate genuine narrative ambition and musical sophistication without compromising its essential heaviness.