Mastodon

mkay. everyone should hear mastodon. theyre from america, and are doing the unholy alliance tour (except, sadly, for europe.) and also supporting tool in the UK. okay. now to the nitty-gritty. they have three albums. the first was remission, an underground success. the second was leviathan, a concept album based on the story of "moby dick" that won the kerrang critics' award for best album in 2004 (yes, that was the year american idiot was released) and album of the year in terrorizer and revolver. it got 5Ks in kerrang and either 9 or 10 out of ten in metal hammer (sorry im a bit sketchy on the details). their latest album Blood Mountain is a sort of concept album and more prog-orientated than the previous two (though still metal as hell), with the album in itself being about the travel up a mountain. this was awarded 4Ks by kerrang (though no fault was found. WHERES THE OTHER K!), 10/10 by metal hammer and 9/10 by total guitar who wrote "why buy? because this is one of two albums to make the TG staff cry with joy". and its incredible. the band are also a ferocious live act, and in my personal opinion Brann Dailor is one of the most underrated drummers ever. celebrity fans of the band (just so you know) include Josh Homme of queens of the stone age (who guests on the last track of the album reading some obscure letter, which i am unsure of its seriousness), Kerry King of Slayer, Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Elijah Wood (who played Frodo in the lord of therings films) and Bjork. yes, Bjork.

www.mastodonrocks.com

my personal favourite tracks are blood and thunder (best riff ever!), bladecatcher and colony of birchmen.

..They're okay.

Not heard anything from them.