'White whale! Holy Grail!': How the epic tale of Moby-Dick inspired Mastodon's greatest album
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On March 7 it was announced that Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds has left the band my mutual consent.
Mastodon formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 2000, and Hinds was there right from the start.
The band's statement refers to '25 monumental years together'.
And out of the eight albums they've made over the years, perhaps the most monumental of them all is the one released in 2004 - Leviathan.
As UK journalist Paul Brannigan wrote: 'In truth, Mastodon have always been too quirky, too warped, too cerebral and too damn idiosyncratic to have genuinely stood a chance of cracking the mainstream.
'But the Atlanta quartet have created a remarkable body of work, forever pushing forward, constantly refining their craft. And it was their relentless, questing pursuit of excellence which inspired their finest artistic achievement.
'Leviathan, the band's second long-player, stands as both a conceptual piece themed around American writer Herman Melville's 1851 epic masterpiece Moby-Dick and an allegory for Mastodon's own career.'
As Mastodon's vocalist/bassist Troy Sanders explained in 2005. 'The story of Moby-Dick paralleled the lives of the four dudes in Mastodon so much, [that] it was too easy for us to pick and pull similarities to Captain Ahab's character and the pursuit of the whale, and the dedication, persistence and sacrifice.
'The longevity of his trip was almost like what we've done in our band for the past five years.'
In the same interview, Sanders nominated five musical artists who signposted the way for Mastodon's emergence: Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Neurosis, The Melvins and These Jesus Lizard.
According to Paul Brannigan: 'Elements of all five bands can be detected in Leviathan, but dissecting the beast is counter-productive, as this is an artefact that works best in its totality as an immersive experience.
'With Clutch frontman Neil Fallon supplying the voice of obsessive whale hunter Captain Ahab, opening track Blood And Thunder instantly sinks a harpoon into the listener, with a fabulously insistent riff and a chorus – 'White Whale! Holy Grail!' – that could hardly be more immediate.'
Drummer Brann Dailor described Blood And Thunder as 'the ivory leg [Leviathan] stood on.'
Another key track on the album, Aqua Dementia, features another cameo, from long-time collaborator Scott Kelly of Neurosis, while Megalodon is a spectacular showcase of all four band members instrumental virtuosity.
But if any one single track on Leviathan marked out Mastodon as one of the most important metal bands of their generation, it's Hearts Alive, a majestic 13-minute prog-metal epic with echoes of Metallica's 1984 classic The Call Of Ktulu.
Paul Brannigan described Hearts Alive as ' emphatic proof that Mastodon were more than just riff-monsters… a masterpiece of dynamics, structure and pacing, ebbing and surging like with its own riveting tale from topographic oceans.'
In 2004, Leviathan was voted Album Of The Year in Kerrang!, Revolver and Terrorizer magazines.
More than two decades on, it remains Mastodon's greatest achievement.
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