1. Crack the Skye (2009)
Top three songs: “Oblivion,” “Crack the Skye,” “The Last Baron”
Archive for Mastodon
Mastodon’s Nine Studio LPs and Two Live Releases, Ranked (With Full Album Streams and Best Songs Noted)
Posted in Discographies, Lists with tags Bill Kelliher, Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Mastodon, Troy Sanders on 09/11/2026 by Kurt OrzeckAtlanta Natives Mastodon Sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ at Hometown Park
Posted in Videos with tags Brann Dailor, Mastodon on 09/10/2026 by Kurt OrzeckThe Grief Abides: A Very Long-Awaited (and Very Long) Conversation With Mastodon
Posted in Interviews with tags Bill Kelliher, Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Geezer Butler, Josh Homme, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age, Randy Blythe, Troy Sanders on 08/21/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Well folks, here it is: My interview with Mastodon (drummer Brann Dailor), 22 years in the waiting since I first saw them perform at the Knitting Factory on February 20, 2024, many months before the release of their second album, Leviathan. Not only is this feature probably my biggest story of the year, it’s kind of the ultimate Bad Penny read, as Dailor shares anecdotes involving many of my all-time favorite musicians: Dave Grohl, Randy Blythe and Lamb of God, System of a Down and more.
Continue readingMastodon’s Release of a Heart-Wrenching Video About the Death of Ex-Bandmate Brent Hinds Was a Tragic Mistake
Posted in Essays with tags Bill Kelliher, Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Mastodon, Troy Sanders on 07/19/2026 by Kurt Orzeck(I don’t typically break the third wall on The Bad Penny, because my grandmother taught me it was rude to use the word “I,” it creates distance with the reader, and the goal of this website is to focus on bands and not a hack journalist like me. But in this instance, as Mastodon are responsible for deeply enriching my love of heavy music – and because I don’t want to suggest the opinion I’m about to set forth is held by anyone other than myself – I’m breaking my rule.)
Mastodon are the most important heavy band of the 21st century. (Queens of the Stone Age ceded the throne with their softer, but no less righteous, “Matador trilogy.”) When I first saw them in concert – at Knitting Factory Hollywood in February 2004, in support of their Remission debut – the 300-person venue seemed on the verge of spontaneous combustion during their entire set. There was no need – or ability – to cut a rug; the floor was shaking with such force that those of us who didn’t intend to jump up and down in place didn’t have the option to do so.
Continue readingMastodon Guitarist Brent Hinds’ Top 10 Freakouts
Posted in Lists, Videos with tags Brent Hinds, Mastodon on 11/10/2025 by Kurt OrzeckArcadea’s ‘The Exodus of Gravity’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Arcadea's 'The Exodus of Gravity': Two Cent Review, Brann Dailor, Mastodon on 09/26/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Billed as “a futuristic synth-rock odyssey set five billion years in the future, in a world where gravity no longer holds us down — literally or metaphorically — but pulsing with the urgency of now,” Arcadea set the bar a little too high with The Exodus of Gravity. It would seem that the band put more thought into the conceptual sci-fi story they concocted, which alone isn’t enough to buoy the record. Read my Treble review.
RIP Brent Hinds of Mastodon (and, for a Fleeting Moment, ‘Game of Thrones’)
Posted in News with tags Brent Hinds, Game of Thrones, Mastodon on 08/20/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Pyramid Mass Reveal Influences Behind Their Sick New EP
Posted in Interviews, Lists with tags Colin Marston, Gravesend, Hella, Isis, Mastodon, Mortiferum, Plebeian Grandstand, Pyramid Mass, Robert Fripp, The Police on 03/25/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Earlier this month, Richmond, Virginia’s Pyramid Mass dipped a ladle into their cauldron of blackened sludge, progressive metal, thrash, black metal, hardcore, avant-garde—Jesus, need we go on?—and poured a heaping helping of their lethal stew into a bowl beautifully named Gargling Rot. The wretched EP, issued by Ossien Records, contains five songs that would make for great house music in Guantánamo Bay. In other words, it’s killer.
Mastered by the legendary James Plotkin of Khanate, Gargling Rot is the chaser to 2023’s Monolith, the debut by the band consisting of Matt Wild (drums/vocals), Nick Crider (guitar/vocals) and Joey Anderson (bass/vocals/synth). The EP commands strict attention from start to finish, even though no matter how hard you concentrate on what Pyramid Mass are doing, you won’t be able to make sense of it. What better way to guarantee repeat spins of a record.
Continue readingPJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, Mastodon, Lil Nas X, Orville Peck: Wacky Merch
Posted in Features, Mementos with tags Lil Nas X, Mastodon, Orville Peck, PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth on 01/11/2024 by Kurt Orzeck
Band patches, stickers and pins are so yesteryear. Check out artist merchandise running the gamut from the hilarious to the bizarre in my latest FLOOD feature.
The Bad Penny (beta) 