BRANN Came Up With That

Mastodon has a ton of great songs, but “Blood And Thunder” will very likely be their calling card for the rest of their career. The song kicks off Mastodon‘s classic 2004 album Leviathan, and is apparently thanks (at least in part) to drummer Brann Dailor.

In an interview with Guitar World, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher said Dailor was actually the one that coined the iconic opening riff of the song. Kelliher noted that the beauty of Dailor penning the riff was how he as a drummer conceptualizes rhythm.

“That’s our ‘Ace of Spades’ kind of song that we have to play every night, whether we want to or not,” said Kelliher. “It’s interesting you ask about that riff, though. Brann came up with that. He doesn’t play guitar, and he’s about as good at guitar as I am on drums – which is to say, terrible – but he comes up with a lot of riffs, and puts them into my hands.

“The thing is, he thinks of rhythms differently than I would. He was playing the beat to it [after explaining the riff], but we kept getting off time. He was like, ‘No, dude, it doesn’t go ‘ban-na, ban-na, ban-na’ it goes ‘BANT, ban-na, ban-na.’ That simple little change… It was like learning new math.

“This was jagged, angular and weird, but all of a sudden it clicked. That song just exploded. It got onto Guitar Hero back in the day. It’s the very first song on Leviathan, [but] when we do our live shows it’s usually the last song, because it’s a headbanger and kind of our most popular song.”

Despite the popularity of the song, it’s actually not Mastodon‘s most played song – that title belongs to “Crystal Skull”, according to Setlist.FM.