To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Mastodon’s breakthrough album Leviathan, Metal Hammer has teamed up with the band for this very special bundle you won’t find anywhere else.
Alongside the new issue of Metal Hammer magazine, which will include an exclusive commemorative Leviathan cover you can’t get in shops, the bundle comes with an exclusive Luke Preece (Metallica, Foo Fighters, Sleep Token) t-shirt design featuring a skeletal whale.
You can only order them via Metal Hammer – so get yours now!
Inside the issue, we speak to Mastodon about the making of Leviathan, a concept album based on Moby-Dick: Herman Melville’s 1851 novel about a character called Captain Ahab pursuing a white whale.
The band’s debut record, Remission, had been well received, but as they continued touring, they knew they needed to write something special to break out of the underground.
“I saw the similarities in what we did as a band,” says guitarist Bill Kelliher of Leviathan’s concept. “We were a bunch of dirty, stinky pirates jumping into the white van, leaving our families behind to row out to sea in search of this white whale.”
Released on August 31, 2004, Leviathan was a critical success. Metal Hammer writer John Doran awarded it 9/10, stating: “Mastodon have truly broken new ground with this release without straying anywhere near the arena of atonal noise or unlistenable complexity.”
“Everything really started happening after Leviathan came out,” says drummer Brann Dailor. “We got a manager, we got on the Slayer tour, the Slipknot tour, Ozzfest, we got on that Tony Hawk videogame [2005’s American Wasteland], Blood And Thunder started playing everywhere. It was a little bit of a slow burn. It took maybe a year, and then really levelled the band up. A big level-up.”
Also in the magazine, there are new interviews with Nightwish, Mimi Barks, Zeal & Ardor, Lordi, Kittie, Anthrax, Graphic Nature, Monster Magnet, Nothing More, Mushroomhead and more!
