“Blood and Thunder” by Mastodon

"Blood and Thunder" comes crashing out of Mastodon's 2004 album Leviathan like a landslide with a backbeat. Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher lock their guitars into riffs that churn and heave, Troy Sanders' bass digs in underneath, and Brann Dailor drums as if the kit owes him money, all fills and fury without ever dropping the groove. The vocals get passed around, too, with Dailor, Hinds and Sanders all taking a turn and Neil Fallon dropping in as a guest to rough things up even further.

The band wrote it together and co-produced it with Matt Bayles, who also recorded and mixed the track, and the sound is huge but never mushy: every hammering note lands where you can feel it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.