Turning Grief To Medicine

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Mastodon have had the perfect rock’n’roll journey. By the time the Atlanta quartet released their debut album, 2002’s Remission, the underground music scene was already aflame with anticipation. Their prog-inspired twist on the sludge of High On Fire and Neurosis enthralled live audiences from the word go; it had even earned them a deal with Relapse Records, one-time home to avant-garde superstars Baroness, Amorphis and The Dillinger Escape Plan.

When follow-up Leviathan splashed in 2004, the band were instantly made men. Its progressive metal rampage was as brutal as it was forward-thinking. For every pulse-pounding, bullheaded riff (see: Blood And Thunder and Iron Tusk), there was an incalculable risk: the 13-minute behemoth Hearts Alive, twanging guitars honouring Mastodon’s Deep South roots; an album-long theme of retelling Moby Dick.

Underground acclaim morphed into mainstream adulation after fifth album embraced arena rock in 2011. Cue a decade of beloved albums and academy-level headline tours, with a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance thrown in along the way.