Just like the themes of Emperor of Sand, these are obviously very difficult, and very personal, matters to talk about. When Crack the Skye was released, Brann Dailor acknowledged that it was a way to pay tribute to his late sister, Skye, who committed suicide in 1990. Talking about personal tragedies is not new to Mastodon. So, the band decided they were going to talk about it – with heavy metaphors. Bill Kelliher says in a Rolling Stone article that themes like death and time slipping away were the “elephant in the room”. Kelliher and Dailor would get together, talk about how cancer was affecting their lives, and then start demoing song ideas. The band’s drummer, Brann Dailor, also had to deal with this awful disease as his mom was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Kelliher contributed the bulk of the songwriting on this album – and he came up with his riffs as he was visiting his mother, whom he later lost, frequently while she received treatment.

Shortly before the band started writing new material for the album, guitarist Bill Kelliher found out his mom had been diagnosed with brain cancer. The record itself is a metaphor for cancer – a disease that affected the band members significantly. But there’s a reason this dark concept was explored by the band. The concepts explored throughout the album are dark time slipping away and one’s inability to change that. And he ponders the question: what do you do with your time if you know it’s about to end? He starts becoming more aware of time slowly slipping away. The desert wanderer, with the sentence looming above his head, drifts through this massive wasteland. The Emperor of Sand enforces a death sentence upon our protagonist. We have another concept album and our story here is of a desert wanderer who is hit by a curse. But upon listening to the quartet’s newest effort, Emperor of Sand, multiple times a day since I got it ( short period of extreme obsession), I must say I’m blown away! In my view, it’s right up there with my other two favorites.Įmperor of Sand… So much to talk about with this one. While they offer great tracks, and show a different side of Mastodon with each song, I could never get into them the way I did with Mountain and Skye. I especially love Crack the Skye (2009) – which is another huge fan favorite.Īfter Crack the Skye, Mastodon released The Hunter in 2011 and Once More ‘Round the Sun in 2014.

Evolving – but never really changing their music’s essence. They released four more studio albums since then and I think they are all excellent albums with Mastodon trying new ideas with each one. And it was also my introduction to Mastodon. Blood Mountain is one of those albums for me. They are just so good, from start to finish, that you go through a short period of extreme obsession and listen to the entire record every day for a few weeks straight. I figured I’d start with their newest and go back from there.īefore I get into anything – a quick word about Blood Mountain… There are certain albums that will forever have a special place for you. So, I purchased Blood Mountain – the band’s 2006 album that was also their newest at the time. So much buzz – and an overwhelming amount of positive reviews. I wanted to hear what this band was about. I was always interested in discovering new bands – ones that were at least “new” to me – and Mastodon was getting an increasing volume of attention from rock and metal magazines. I don’t remember exactly when I discovered Mastodon.

Clandestiny now drum