Mastodon

"Our next guests are a Grammy-nominated rock and roll band from Atlanta and, I won't lie to you, I'm frightened."

—David Letterman

Mastodon are an American Progressive Metal band from the state of Georgia, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Brent Hinds, bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist Bill Kelliher, and drummer and vocalist Brann Dailor.

In 2002, they released their first full-length album, Remission. This contained such tracks as "March of the Fire Ants" and "Crusher Destroyer" which was featured in Tony Hawk's Underground. Their real breakout came in 2004 with the release of Leviathan, a concept album based on Moby Dick that catapulted them into the mainstream. It includes their most popular song, "Blood And Thunder."

Two years later, they released Blood Mountain, which many critics called the best metal album of 2006. In 2009, they completed their fourth studio album, Crack The Skye, continuing their string of well-received albums. It featured a slightly softer feel, but it was even more complex and progressive than their previous albums. A fifth album, The Hunter was released in September 2011, once again to strong critical reception.

Interestingly, all their albums have also been themed around the classical elements. Remission is Fire, Leviathan is Water, Blood Mountain is Earth, Crack The Skye is Aether and The Hunter is wood. Additionally, the last song on each of their first three albums has to do with Joseph Merrick, also known as the Elephant Man. All four members sing live.

Mastodon's discography:

Remission (2002)
Leviathan (2004)
Blood Mountain (2006)
Crack the Skye (2009)
The Hunter (2011)

Mastodon provides examples of the following tropes:

All Myths Are True: Blood Mountain is this.
All of the Other Reindeer: Creature Lives.
Astral Projection: The protagonist of Crack the Skye can use this.
Concept Album: All but Remission and The Hunter.
- Leviathan is based off of Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick.
- Blood Mountain is about a man journeying to the top of a mountain and meeting mythical creatures on the way.
- Crack The Skye has a storyline combining art aesthetics of Tsarist Russia, astral travel, out of body experiences, and Stephen Hawking's theories on wormholes.
Careful with That Axe: Bladecatcher may be the single best example of this ever.
- Even more awesome when you consider that it's a guitar making those noises.
Crap Saccharine World: Magicland, in the "Deathbound" music video. Played for Laughs.
Dead Little Sister: Brann Dailor's sister committed suicide at the age of 14, inspiring the title for Crack the Skye.
Doomed by Canon: Rasputin. But he Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence afterward to help the hero of Crack the Skye.
Epic Rocking: "Hearts Alive" and "The Last Baron" are both over 13 minutes long. "The Czar" is just under 11 minutes.
Face of the Band: Troy and Brann.
Garfunkel: Bill. He is the only member to perform only backing vocal parts, plays fewer guitar leads than Brent, and writes none of the lyrics. However, he is responsible for much of the direction that the band takes and the band was named after a tattoo on his arm, possibly making him The Chick.
Handicapped Badass: The hero of Crack the Skye is a paraplegic with the power of Astral Projection.
Indecipherable Lyrics: Due to Brent Hinds' unique voice, many of their songs have this. Especially "Pendulous Skin".
- "Pendulous Skin" is actually an instrumental according to the official site.
  - It's obviously not an instrumental; there are clearly audible vocals, although they may not actually have any words to them. The lyrics to "Bladecatcher" do not appear in the liner notes to the album either, and are even more indecipherable than the ones to "Pendulous Skin".
Heavy Mithril:
- A whole album about Moby Dick.
- Crack the Skye is an album that tells an epic story.
- Blood Mountain, in the regard of its many mythical creatures.
Historical Hero Upgrade: Shockingly, Crack the Skye is probably the only example in which the Mad Monk, Grigori Rasputin, becomes a hero. He is prone to being portrayed as a Villain.
Intercourse with You: "Stargasm".
Involuntary Shapeshifting: The main character of Blood Mountain seeks the Crystal Skull to cure it.
Lighter and Softer: Crack the Skye. Not by much though.
Instrumentals: "Elephant Man", "Joseph Merrick", "Bladecatcher"
- Crack The Skye technically has no instrumentals on it, but they released an instrumental version of the full album.
Metal Scream: Used quite liberally in most of their pre-Crack the Skye work.
Moh's Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Prior to Crack the Skye, most of their songs were 7-8, with a few that got up to 9. Crack the Skye features mostly 6-7.
New Sound Album: They shifted away from sludge metal and towards lighter, psychedelic progressive metal with every album from Leviathan onward, culminating in the full-on Progressive Metal album Crack the Skye. The Hunter seems to be a reversal of this trend, though.
One of Us: Bill is a major Star Wars nerd. He has an entire room of his house filled with various Star Wars stuff. He also has tattoos of Boba Fett's emblem, Leia in the gold bikini, and all of the bounty hunters on his left arm.
Our Wormholes Are Different: "Divinations." It sends the hero back in time to WW 1 in Russia.
The Power of Rock: The band uses it on an enemy Neanderthal in the "Divinations" music video. Then they give him a guitar and they all rock out for a bit...only to be killed and eaten by the Neanderthal afterward.
Rasputinian Death: Happens to...Rasputin, who puts up a huge fight but dies in the conclusion of "The Czar."
Satan: The final villain in Crack the Skye.
- In "Cut You Up With a Linoleum Knife," He will also "rain down your throat with hot acid and dissolve your testicles and turn your guts into snakes" if you get caught downloading movies.
Sex in Space: Stargasm.
Subverted Kids Show / Sugar Apocalypse: The music video for "Deathbound".
Surreal Music Video: "Curl of the Burl", which starts with a guy living in a small travel trailer/drug lab who chops down a forbidden tree and snorts the wood to get high. It gets stranger from there.
Throwing Off the Disability: The conclusion of Crack the Skye. The hero gets back to his body and can walk.
Total Eclipse of the Plot: The idea behind "Deathbound" music video: an eclipse compels the residents of Magicland to go Ax Crazy, monsters are summoned, aliens invade, and the world is destroyed, and all the puppets are Dying Like Animals. And it's all played for laughs.
Zero-G Spot: "Stargasm"