Revolver are celebrating Mastodon’s 25th anniversary with a new collector’s issue dedicated to the band. To help us salute the mighty Atlanta outfit, we reached out to a number of famous fans to get their picks for their favorite Mastodon song — including Metalocalypse co-creator and Dethklok vocalist-guitarist Brendon Small.
In Metalocalypse — the ludicrously brutal animated program starring Dethklok — the world’s most popular and successful death-metal band are signed to Crystal Mountain Records.
Mastodon — the Atlanta-made foursome who would share a long history with Adult Swim, the channel that ran Metalocalypse — climbed new heights with their 2006 major-label debut and fantastically evocative concept album, Blood Mountain. For the cartoon show’s creator and IRL Dethklok vocalist-guitarist Brendon Small, Blood Mountain confirmed that Mastodon had a lot of range.
“There’s so much good music on Blood Mountain. Crazy energy. Insane worlds. Song explosions. Rage. Sci-fi. Lunacy. Then… a pop tune that sounded like it existed forever: ‘Colony of Birchmen.’”
There’s plenty to love about “Birchmen,” per Small. This includes it’s heaving 6/8 pace, and the way Mastodon’s varying vocal presences entwine with guest crooner Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. The punchy, pop-subversive pace of Blood Mountain’s third single was also a plus.
“Brent [Hinds] has a particular swagger, an almost Bob Dylan quality: sing-talking with big confidence,” Small elaborates of the track, which yielded Mastodon a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance in 2006.
“‘Birchmen’ will, maybe, not go down as their heaviest, most esoteric, inward journey, but who cares? There’s mastery in short songs that immediately inject their moods into our system altering emotional states.”
He continues: “Dethklok toured with Mastodon in 2009 [and] as I was getting to know Brent, I told him how much I liked ‘Birchmen.’ He said, ‘I shit that out’ — and made a drooping downward gesture with his hand. ‘However you did it, it’s a great song.’ Brent looked at me, serious expression, ‘I shit it out.’ I personally can’t take compliments, so I knew I liked him immediately.”
It’s been nearly 20 years since “Colony of Birchmen” found Mastodon combing the forests for ogres and dwarves. The tuneful battle anthem left a lasting impression on Small, and he’s been rallying behind his friends ever since.
“Watching Mastodon evolve has been joyful, especially since I like them all so much as individuals. So when they got a win, I feel like my team won, and when there’s a tragedy, goddamn it fucking sucks to the moon and back…
“Anyway, I still think it’s a good song.”
Revolver’s Mastodon collector’s issue is available to order with three limited-edition covers, and can be bundled with vinyl variants of five Mastodon albums now featuring reimagined artwork by Paul Romano. More info on the variant options and more exclusive Mastodon merch are up in our shop.