Leviathan by Mastodon

Leviathan, Mastodon's second album, came out on Relapse in 2004, and it's the record that turned the Atlanta four-piece's cult into a crowd. It's a concept album built on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, and it sounds the part: huge, churning riffs from Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders and Hinds hollering over the swell, and Brann Dailor drumming like a man trying to harpoon the whole ocean. Matt Bayles produced, and Kelliher has described it as the band's water record, one piece of an elemental cycle running through their first four albums.

"Blood and Thunder" is the opening broadside, with "Iron Tusk" and "Naked Burn" going out as promotional singles and "Seabeast" getting a video of its own. Three magazines crowned it album of the year, and by September 2006 it had sold 106,000 copies.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.