Mastodon’s third album marked the Atlanta band’s major label debut, expanded its progressive metal vocabulary and introduced a cast of unexpected collaborators.
by Paul Cashmere
Mastodon’s Blood Mountain turns 20 on 12 September 2026, marking two decades since the Atlanta band released the album that became its major label debut through Reprise Records. Recorded in Seattle between December 2005 and April 2006, the 12-track album followed 2004’s Leviathan and established Mastodon as a significant force in progressive and extreme metal while broadening the group’s musical and conceptual ambitions.
Released in the UK and North America on 12 September 2006, Blood Mountain was Mastodon’s third full-length studio album. The record continued the conceptual approach of Leviathan, but replaced the nautical mythology of Herman Melville with a surreal mountain expedition involving a crystal skull, hallucinations, strange creatures and a one-eyed prophetic creature known as the Cysquatch.
Bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders described the story as a struggle involving a character attempting to climb Blood Mountain while becoming lost, starving, hallucinating and hunted. Guitarist Bill Kelliher associated the album with the element of earth, giving the record another layer to its broader conceptual framework.
Musically, Blood Mountain represented an important point in Mastodon’s development. The band retained the dense guitar work, complex rhythms and aggressive vocal performances associated with its earlier material while placing greater emphasis on clean and melodic singing. Producer Matt Bayles recorded the album at Robert Lang Studios, Studio Litho and EK Studios in Seattle, with Rich Costey responsible for the mix and Vlado Meller handling mastering.
The guest appearances also reflected the band’s expanding musical network. Neurosis vocalist Scott Kelly contributed to “Crystal Skull”, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme appeared on “Colony of Birchmen”, Cedric Bixler-Zavala of At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta contributed to “Siberian Divide”, and The Mars Volta keyboard player Isaiah “Ikey” Owens played on “Pendulous Skin”.
Homme’s involvement extended beyond the song itself. The original CD pressing of “Pendulous Skin” contains more than 16 minutes of silence before a hidden message from Homme, presented as a mock fan letter to Mastodon. The unusual addition became one of the album’s better-known curiosities and reflected the informal connections developing between musicians from different corners of the heavy and alternative rock communities.
Blood Mountain also demonstrated Mastodon’s willingness to draw from progressive rock history. “Colony of Birchmen” takes its title from “The Colony of Slippermen”, a song from Genesis’ 1974 concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The track later received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance, although Slayer won the category for “Eyes of the Insane”.
The album’s critical response was strong. It received an 82 score from Metacritic based on 24 reviews and was subsequently recognised in several 2006 year-end metal polls. The record was also significant commercially, entering the Billboard 200 at No. 32 with approximately 24,000 first-week US sales. By March 2009, US sales had reached 150,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.
In Australia, Blood Mountain reached No. 44 on the ARIA Albums Chart, becoming Mastodon’s first album to chart in the country. It was followed by Crack the Skye in 2009, The Hunter in 2011 and Once More ‘Round the Sun in 2014. Noise11 has previously documented the band’s continuing Australian chart presence and its evolution from underground metal act to one of the leading progressive metal groups of its generation.
The album also helped establish a template that Mastodon would continue to develop. Crack the Skye expanded the conceptual storytelling and progressive elements further, while later albums including The Hunter, Once More ‘Round the Sun and Emperor of Sand moved progressively between complex arrangements and more direct songwriting. Noise11 has described Blood Mountain as part of the sequence of landmark albums that established the group’s reputation for pushing beyond conventional metal structures.
Twenty years later, Blood Mountain occupies an important position in that catalogue. The record captured Mastodon at a point when the band was moving from the underground into a larger international audience, without abandoning the dense musicianship and elaborate ideas that defined its early work.
The anniversary also comes during another significant period for Mastodon. In 2026, the band released Marrow Deep, its first studio album following the departure and subsequent death of founding guitarist Brent Hinds. Josh Homme returned to the Mastodon catalogue for “Snakes For Dinner”, linking the new album directly to the Blood Mountain era.
Blood Mountain remains a record defined by that combination of ambition and experimentation. Its story begins with a climb up an imaginary mountain, but its lasting significance is found in how it helped Mastodon move from respected heavy music outsiders towards the broader progressive metal audience that would follow.
Tracklisting
The Wolf Is Loose
Crystal Skull
Sleeping Giant
Capillarian Crest
Circle of Cysquatch
Bladecatcher
Colony of Birchmen
Hunters of the Sky
Hand of Stone
This Mortal Soil
Siberian Divide
Pendulous Skin
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