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While Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher’s pancreatitis forced the band to postpone a date and play one with Baroness members filling in for him last month, the show has, for the most part, gone on. The guitarist has been healthy enough to finish out the remainder of the tour, with reports from concertgoers saying the band sounds great. However, pancreatitis, even if treated, can have severe consequences, and as a result, the band has decided to take the Summer off, canceling their festival appearances at Europe’s Sonisphere shows. Warner Bros. has released a statement officially cancelling the tour:
Mastodon regret to inform their fans that their upcoming Summer tour of Europe originally set to begin June 5, in Germany and ending July 3, in Finland has been cancelled. Guitarist Bill Kelliher who has been diagnosed with Pancreatitis has been advised by doctors to continue further medical treatment. Bill’s medical team are optimistic and expect a full recovery in the weeks ahead as the band looks forward to being part of BlackDiamondSkye also featuring Alice In Chains, Deftones, slated to begin Sep. 16, in Chicago.
Whether it’s Kelliher’s medical problem or something else a little darker, it’s a good thing the band is taking a little time off to recharge their batteries. They’ve been touring nonstop for over a year, playing the same album in its entirety over and over again. If Kelliher’s condition is indeed caused (like pancreatitis can be) by drinking, then time off with his family might be exactly what he needs. I think we can all agree that there’s been enough illness and death in the metal community this past month. And while everyone in metal knows who Mastodon are at this point in time, the Deftones/Alice In Chains tour could bring them to a completely new audience, so to say that the Fall tour is important is an understatement. We wish the band the best.
Metalsucks reports that despite Mastodon canceling their show on Tuesday, April 27 in Rochester due to Bill Kelliher’s illness, yesterday’s show in Grand Rapids, MI went on as scheduled despite Kelliher’s absence with a little help from opening band and fellow Georgians Baroness.
MS readers Matt Gaipa and Jared Lucas reported that both Peter Adams and John Baizley from Baroness each performed two songs with the band — “Oblivion” and “Divinations,” then “Quintessence” and “The Czar,” respectively — after which Mastodon finished out Crack the Skye without the assistance of a second guitar player.
It appears that Kelliher suffered a flare-up of the pancreatitis that sidelined him in November of 2008 while on tour with Slayer in Europe. He told Metal Insider via text message that he’s in the hospital still, but hopefully getting out later today. The fact that the band were able to play yesterday is both a testament to Mastodon’s work ethic and Baroness’ musicianship. Kelliher recently spoke to Kerrang! about the temptation to drink following his earlier bout with pancreatitis and the possibility of leaving the band.
The doctor told me I can’t drink alcohol anymore. The partying has calmed down a lot. It really needs to totally stop but it’s not that easy when everybody around you is drinking, partying and having a good time. It’s definitely a disease, alcoholism, and I’m not cured of it yet. I’m still in the phase of trying to deal with it myself and get out of that phase but I don’t know if that means I’d have to leave the band or what. It never really crossed my mind (to the leave the band) ’til recently but talking to my wife back home, she’s really upset that’d I’d risk my life just for beer or alcohol. When I’m home it’s a lot easier to regulate it. Just recently I’ve been feeling like I don’t know what I’m going to do.
Mastodon is way too great a band and Kelliher too talented a guitarist for us to consider the fact that this could happen. He’s really the glue that holds the band together as far as we’re concerned. But the band has certainly been known for their on the road excesses, and it could be a tough road ahead for him. It goes without saying that we with him the best.
In case you weren’t paying attention, last year Mastodon unveiled Crack the Skye, an album so cohesive that they’ve been playing it in its entirety for their last few tours. Now a lot of the secondary markets that didn’t get to see them perform it live will get a chance to, and they’ve lined up some pretty stellar openers as well. Starting on April 16, Mastodon will be joined by Between the Buried and Me, Baroness, and Valient Thorr for a month-long tour. Dates will be listed below.
Also, while the lineup for the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival has yet to be announced, the tour’s 4/23 stop at the Palladium in Worcester means that the Fest has its Friday night headliners lined up.
In other news, if you’ve been holding off on picking up Mastodon vinyl, April is your chance to make up for it. They’ll be offering a new limited tour-only color vinyl of Crack the Skye, and on National Record Store Day (April 17 this year), they’ll be reissuing vinyl editions of Blood Mountain in both standard and deluxe editions. The deluxe will be pressed on double 45 RPM discs on 180 gram vinyl in a gatefold sleeve featuring new custom art from Paul Romano. Dates after the jump.
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We’re a little ridiculous with our not-too-hidden worship respect for Mastodon at Metal Insider, but it turns out we’re not alone. National Public Radio news show All Things Considered made some headlines earlier this week with their 50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade, chosen by staff of the long running show, as well as listeners. Predictably, a decent amount of the list is the type of indie rock of the ilk that’s heard on NPR stations when they’re playing music. But Mastodon’s Leviathan was chosen as the sole metal album on the list.
Mastodon’s rise as metal’s great sword-bearer can, in a sense, be likened to Metallica’s meteoric ascent in 1991: Both bands dramatically poured on the production values and polished the rough edges of past albums. But that’s where the comparisons end. Pardon the pun, but 2004′s Leviathan has oceanic depth, riding a progressive path that epitomized a phenomenal decade for metal.
It’s a pretty balanced look at the album, and if there’s one representative of metal for the decade on the list, we’re psyched it’s Mastodon. There are a number of higher-selling, or more metallic bands that could represent the decade, but Mastodon is that rare band that has gone from completely underground metal band to a quartet that even people that don’t like metal can appreciate. It helps that there’s a literary reference (Herman Melvile’s Moby Dick, duh) for the more elitist hipstery types can appreciate, but the music is undeniable. The rest of the list is pretty solid, encompassing what you’d expect (Wilco, The Decemberists) to what you might not (Britney Spears, Beyonce, Green Day). Check the whole list out here.
Seriously, what the fuck, Mastodon? I already spent $40 plus shipping on the “tunnel book” edition of Crack the Skye. Now you’re taking pre-orders on a “Royal Edition” (I have no idea why it’s called that) in brand new gold-stamped packaging and artwork with a cool warthog lithograph, all designed by the incomparable Paul Romano. It looks hawt.
I want it so bad, but can’t bring myself to spend another $40 on the same album for another deluxe packaging edition. Come on, loyal Insiders, buy Uncle Dan one of these for the holidays. I’ll trade you…((shuffles through prize closet))… a Tony Robbins self-help DVD! Why do we have this?
In the past two months, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has done a great job of repping metal on national TV, with Shadows Fall, Megadeth and last night, Mastodon. Having already performed “Oblivion” on Late Show With David Letterman earlier this year, the band performed “Divinations” last night. As you can see, they were joined onstage by a Yeti towards the end of the song (actually, bassist Troy’s Sanders brother, Bloodsimple bassist Kyle Sanders).
While the performance is below, it wasn’t the only time Mastodon was mentioned on the show. Carrie Fisher was the first guest, promoting her book and one-woman play Wishful Drinking. Best known for her role as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, she met her match in uberfan, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher. As soon as she took the couch, she opened by saying ”Mastodon have me tattooed on them.” Sure enough, Kelliher has her likeness tattooed on the inside of his upper arm. Afterwards, second guest Sam Rockwell said he was looking forward to seeing them as well. After their performance, the band headed 25 blocks south to play the Hammerstein Ballroom, and a good time was had by all.
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![jonah-hex[1]](http://www.metalinsider.net/site/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/jonah-hex11-202x300.jpg "jonah-hex[1]")
According to Ain’t It Cool News, Mastodon is working on scoring their first movie, Jonah Hex, an adapation of the DC Comics horror western. To this, we can only say “amazing!” The band has gotten more atmospheric with every album, and instrumentally, they’re an interesting enough band that Crack the Skye even came in a special edition without vocals. And if there’s one metal band that should be able to pull if off, it’s Mastodon. You just have to listen to the chicken pickin’ that Bill Kelliher does in “Megalodon” and the surf tones of the first half of the solo on “Diviniations” to know that they’ll be able to tackle some country-ish atmospheres. The movie, scheduled to come out in 2010, stars Josh Brolin and Megan Fox.
There’s nothing wrong with a good remix. Lamb of God producer Machine first got on the map by remixing White Zombie, and bands like Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and even Pantera (by way of Justin Broadrick) have had their tracks tweaked. So when an alert Metal Insider reader (thanks Gray Blue!) sent us the Troublemaker remix of Mastodon’s “Oblivion,” we were intrigued and cautiously optimistic.
Upon a listen or two, much less so. It’s not that it’s terrible – it’s just not particularly good. It’s slow, plodding, and has all the edge of an episode of According to Jim. Other than a line or two of vocals, a guitar sample, and the acoustic bridge, it has almost no resemblance to the original, which I guess is the point. But the end result sounds like something you would expect to hear while shopping at a store that Mastodon wouldn’t set foot in. Feel free to tell us we’re wrong – we’re not Electronic Music Insider after all – but we’re pretty sure we’re on point here.
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Mastodon have crafted four albums of premium metal, and when they played Germany’s Sonisphere Festival on the 4th of July, they were greeted with their own premium crafted beer.
Stephan Michel of German brewery Mahr’s Brau made a limited run of only 200 bottles of Mastodon Premium Lager and gifted the band and their crew with it upon their arrival to the fest (which also featured Down and Metallica, among others).
There’s absolutely no truth to the rumor that the band’s Brent Hinds drank 197 of the bottles.
[Sonisphere, via Metal Hammer]
While Mastodon’s fourth album, Crack the Skye, hasn’t been made into a movie yet, that doesn’t mean you can’t see some hints of what the movie would look like. A teaser trailer for the second video from the album, “Oblivion,” has just been released. The song is about floating in space, and from the teaser trailer, we see the band, um, floating in space. From the preview, this looks more like a Major Tom-esque astronaut catastrophe than the literal meaning of the song on the album, but it should be interesting to see how the full video turns out.
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=58678292
Posted by Bram Teitelman on Tue, May 25, 2010 at 10:14 am
Mastodon Insider, Touring