This yr marks the twentieth anniversary of Mastodon’s breakthrough document, Leviathan. The album’s crushing tones would come to outline the Mastodon sound in subsequent years. It additionally marked the primary time the band experimented with the thought of doing an idea album. That idea loosely follows the story of Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, Moby Dick, which was impressed by the real-life tragedy of the sinking of a ship known as The Essex.

Whereas the album solely reached #139 on the Billboard 200 chart, Mastodon was by no means a band that sought mainstream attraction. They’ve at all times been fiercely loyal to their very own creative targets. This yr, the band broke ties with main labels and started their journey as an unbiased band.

The Songwriting

The songs on Leviathan got here collectively whereas the band was on an early tour with Clutch, as guitarist Invoice Kelliher defined, “The songs weren’t even recorded but, however we performed them on the best way on the market on the exhibits with Clutch. We simply sort of made up the lyrics, I feel, in the intervening time on stage. We simply sort of made stuff up as a result of we at all times provide you with the vocals final. I Am Ahab, we hadn’t even written that one but. That was one Brann and I put collectively in Bob Lang Studio the place we did the drums.”

The Guitar Gear

When Mastodon went in to document their album Leviathan, they’d not amassed the troves of substances that they at the moment use within the studio. Invoice Kelliher used fellow guitarist Brent Hinds’ Marshall JMP alongside together with his personal Marshall JCM800, which had been modded with 6550 tubes simply previous to the recording. Kelliher has owned that JCM800 since about 1991 and nonetheless owns it. He mentioned he additionally could have used a Laney head that they’d on the studio in Seattle, Washington, the place they recorded the album. As for Brent, he used his Marshall JMP, and he could have used a Sovtek as properly. The JMPs had been used along side a BK Butler tube driver. As for guitars, Kelliher used his 1982 Les Paul Customized and 1979 Les Paul Customized Silverburst.

The album was recorded primarily at Robert Lang Studio, a legendary studio beforehand utilized by Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Candlebox, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains. Mastodon would later tour with Alice in Chains, and that connection in the end result in Kelliher ditching his Marshalls for Friedmans, the place he later bought his personal signature amp. That signature amp is a giant a part of recreating the Leviathan tones on tour at present, as he defined,

“So, after I was on tour with Alice in Chains, I feel it was 2010 or 2011 or one thing, and the entire band didn’t have their amps on stage. Their amps had been backstage, with blankets over them, like [an ISO cabinet], with a microphone in entrance of the cupboard and a blanket over that, backstage. So, you stroll round backstage, and you’ll hear this muffled sound of Jerry Cantrell’s guitar. So I’d stroll over each evening, and I’d simply raise up the blanket, put my ear in there, and I’d fucking hearken to his tone, which is buttery, fucking easy. I imply, tone is within the fingers, sure, nevertheless it undoubtedly helps to have a very good amp.”

Kelliher continued, “Ultimately, I used to be like, ‘Jerry, what the fuck are you enjoying? You sound so fucking good and attractive and superior. I like it!’ He’s like, properly, I’m utilizing these Friedman Marshas; on the time, they had been known as Marshas; now they’re the Brown Eye. However he’s like, ‘I’ve an additional one if you wish to borrow it.’ I used to be like fuck yeah, and I put it in my rig, and it was prefer it was like evening and day with the Marshall.”

Cantrell additionally gave Kelliher a Motor Metropolis Pickup for his guitar that he instantly included into his sound. In the present day, when recreating the tones of the mighty Leviathan document, Kelliher trusts his personal signature ESP guitars – the Sparrowhawk, the Royal Shiva, the BK-600, and his personal model of the Eclipse. For amps, he depends on his signature amp, the Friedman Butterslax, in addition to the Tremendous Kraken and the Tremendous Duchess from Victory Amps. He makes use of the Line 6 Helix for almost all of results, together with the tube screamer that’s modelled there.

Let’s Speak About Tone

Kelliher is without doubt one of the most interesting riff masters of our era and his tone is a crucial a part of that, so I requested how he prefers to arrange his amps for rhythm guitar monitoring, to which he responded, “nearly each single amp that I plug into my EQ settings is just about the identical. The Low finish is nearly all the best way up, mids are within the center, and Treble is round three or 4 o’clock. I simply suppose Mids are crucial.”

For the previous two and a half many years, Mastodon has carried the flag for heavy music, and we count on that custom to proceed because the band continues to work on new materials. “I’m at all times writing,” Kelliher reveals. “I’m at all times compiling riffs, and songs concepts and monitoring them after which including harmonies, and including all of the elements on high, and layering. I prefer to make them thick and use completely different guitars and completely different amps, and experiment with completely different tones.”

Kelliher continued, sharing his particular strategy to layering tones to create these large riffs, “I’m normally recording three tracks without delay with three completely different amps after which doubling it with a Telecaster, for example, I exploit this Ronnie Wooden Telecaster that ESP gave me that fucking smokes. I imply, by itself, it’s not my factor, however once you put that within the combine with, like, a Les Paul Customized, it covers all of the bases of all of the frequencies that you just’d need in a rhythm tone. I’ve been utilizing that on the previous few information, for positive. I like it.”

The twentieth Anniversary model of Leviathan is out now.