It’s been a long, successful road for Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders–the original members of Mastodon, who first started playing music together in Atlanta in 1999. Since then Mastodon has marked themselves as being one of the top metal bands in music, melding alternative and sludge metal with hardcore and progressive rock (especially heard on their later albums, which showcases a “cleaner” vocal compared to their earlier, much harder sound).

The band first came together over a mutual passion for bands like Thin Lizzy and Neurosis, and quickly released their first full-length album Remission after recording an EP and landing a record deal on Relapse Records. But it was their sophomore album Leviathan (based on the novel Moby Dick) that really put Mastodon on a supreme level in the world of metal. The band later signed with Warner Bros., toured with bands like Slayer, Metallica and Lamb of God, and the song “Colony of Birchmen” off Blood Mountain was nominated for Best Metal Performance in 2007 at the Grammy’s–a vocal that Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age contributed on.

Mastodon continues to impress listeners by stretching the genre of metal as a whole, showcasing just how versatile they can be. And they just want to keep getting better.

Hammerstein Ballroom

5/11

7 p.m.

w/ Eagles of Death Metal, Russian Circles

$42+

Ticketmaster.com