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FOUND: 3 - You Need To See This

“Putting out a concept album about Moby-Dick could be career suicide”: Mastodon explain why Leviathan is so obsessed with the white whale

Mastodon explain why 2004 classic Leviathan is so fascinated with Herman Melville’s classic novel in a new interview

Metal Hammer

“My mom would still be bugging me, like, ‘You need to go to college and get a real job.’ I’m in the van, getting baloney sandwiches on 100 bucks a night. And I’m 30!” Bill Kelliher and Mark Morton on how Leviathan and Ashes of the Wake changed everything

With two classic albums, both released on the same day, Lamb of God and Mastodon's fates have long been connected and now they're touring together, Kelliher and Morton reflect on a turning point for both bands

Guitar World

“I don’t mess with mescaline any more. I did enough acid back in the day”: how Mastodon made a psychedelic prog metal masterpiece with Blood Mountain

Mastodon’s third album Blood Mountain saw them going from underground favourites to metal’s brain-frying new heroes

Metal Hammer

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“We used to think, ‘Oh, there’s not enough craziness in this song; we need to add some stuff’ – but we learned that no, we don’t”: How Mastodon matured with Once More ‘Round The Sun

Sixth album was the moment they took stock of their previous achievements as they faced highest expectations to date

Louder

"If we moved on with another concept album about something super-crazy and psychedelic and ridiculous, and very hard to wrap your head around, it was going to do my head in": How Mastodon changed approach on Curl Of The Burl and The Hunter

"I’d rather write some songs, have a good time, play some kick-ass jams, drink some wine, have some weed… party, have a good time"

MusicRadar

“It was funny when I first met James Hetfield. I was like, ‘Thank you for teaching me how to play guitar. You paved the way for me’”: Mastodon's Bill Kelliher on how meeting his guitar heroes pushed him to improve his craft

Mastodon's Bill Kelliher also credits Slayer's Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman for changing his previously nonchalant attitude to warming up before a show

Guitar World

“I feel like your spirit lives on in another reality. I feel like it gets transferred to another dimension”: how Mastodon transcended death and tragedy to make Emperor Of Sand

The story of Mastodon’s 2017 album Emperor Of Sand, a yell of defiance in the face of death

Metal Hammer

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The essential new electric guitars you need to play in 2024

GEAR EXPO 2024: Classic ranges, major updates, all-new designs... and the Strat is 70

MusicRadar

“It’s heavy, thick and unique. It feels great, and the neck is incredible. And it’s heavy; but that’s okay because the weight of a guitar is very important to me. The thicker the better”: If you pick up Bill Kelliher’s new ESP guitar, you’ll know about it

The Mastodon guitarist – who aims to write simpler songs for the band's next album – had his favorite 9-string mapped and mutated into the LTD Silver Sunburst Royal Shiva

Guitar World

“I tried SGs and Flying Vs, and they might look cool, but it's like playing a piece of Styrofoam”: Bill Kelliher explains why he prefers his guitars to be as heavy as possible

Since around 2020, the Mastodon maestro has been wielding an extraordinarily thick ESP Custom Shop model, which was recently reissued as the LTD Royal Shiva – and both closely follow Kelliher’s ethos of “the thicker, the better”

Guitar World

NAMM 2024: 5 super hot electric guitars you need to check out from the ESP Guitars mega-launch

Featuring Bill Kelliher's hefty new double-cut, thrash legend Gary Holt's red on black GH SV-200, a Junior-inspired singlecut with an ESP-exclusive Seymour Duncan humbucker and more

MusicRadar

NAMM 2024: “It's heavy, thick, and unique. It feels great”: ESP brings Bill Kelliher’s long-awaited double-cut custom model to the masses with LTD Royal Shiva signature guitar

The Mastodon riff lord's latest signature model is based on his beastly Silver Sunburst six-string that was built in 2020, and receives an official release after much anticipation

Guitar World

“My dad didn’t believe in distortion”: Bill Kelliher took us through his unlikely guitar tone journey – while he cooked us lunch

We asked the Mastodon maestro to tell us about his lifelong search for perfect guitar tone, so he did – and gave us a killer culinary class while doing so

Guitar World

NAMM 2023: ESP meets fan demand with James Hetfield Olympic White Vulture and debuts 12 LTD signature guitars, including Gary Holt’s “very pointy” GH-SV

Bill Kelliher, Stephen Carpenter, Nergal, Lars Frederiksen and Javier Reyes all have at least one new guitar on the way from the LTD stable

Guitar World

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Metal Hammer

The tragic story behind Mastodon's Emperor Of Sand

Mastodon's 2017 album, Emperor Of Sand, continued the prog theme of Crack The Skye. But behind the heaviness, lay a family tragedy

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