Mastodon

About

Also known as: Mastadon, 마스토돈

Mastodon built their reputation on a string of ambitious concept albums that pushed heavy metal into genuinely strange and rewarding territory. Their 2004 record Leviathan, a loose retelling of Moby Dick, was named album of the year by both Kerrang! and Terrorizer and picked up serious praise from NPR, who called it the epitome of a phenomenal decade for metal. They kept the momentum going through Crack the Skye and The Hunter, the latter cracking the top ten of the Billboard 200 in 2011. Their 2017 effort Emperor of Sand earned them their first Grammy win with the track Sultan's Curse, and Show Yourself became their biggest charting song to date. The Atlanta four piece kept a remarkably stable lineup for over two decades, with Troy Sanders, Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher, and Brann Dailor holding things together since 2000. Their sound pulls from sludge metal, progressive metal, and classic heavy rock, a combination that influenced a generation of heavy bands. Hinds departed in early 2025 and passed away later that year. The band's most recent album, Marrow Deep, arrived in 2026.