"He expressed, 'The very last thing I want is for you all to appear on David Letterman with the drummer belting out vocals.' This is how Mastodon transitioned from sludge metal to cosmic prog metal with their album Oblivion."

The last person who wanted Mastodon’s Brann Dailor to sing on Oblivion was Brann Dailor. Actually, that’s not quite true. The Atlanta band’s big-shot new producer, Brendan O’Brien, didn’t want him to sing on the opening track and second single from their fourth album, 2009’s Crack The Skye, either. 

“Brendan believed it would be the standout track on the album,” Brann shares today from his Atlanta residence, with his dog barking nearby. “He mentioned, ‘There’s no chance I’m letting the drummer be the first voice you hear on this record. The last thing I want is for you guys to appear on [Late Show With] David Letterman and have the drummer singing.’ I replied, ‘I completely agree with you.’” 

In the end, the freakin’ drummer did sing on Oblivion – only his second-ever lead vocal, albeit one that was shared with bassist Troy Sanders and guitarist Brent Hinds. But in every other respect, Brendan’s instincts were right. 

Crack The Skye marked a vibe shift for Mastodon, a key staging post in their transformation from darlings of the sludge metal underground into a bona fide crossover success story. And Oblivion, in all its shapeshifting yet weirdly commercial glory, was the spearhead for this new direction. 

“The thing is, Oblivion almost didn’t make the record,” reveals Brann. “It was the last thing we put together. If it wasn’t for Brendan, it wouldn’t have been on there.”

Even before Crack The Skye, Mastodon had never wanted for acclaim. Their 2002 debut album, Remission, and 2004’s follow-up, Leviathan, were showered with critical plaudits, even though they were both too abrasive to trouble the mainstream. That needle began to move with 2006’s major label debut, Blood Mountain, the four-piece’s headmelting prog metal coming-out party. Much was expected of the follow-up, even if the band themselves weren’t thinking of it in commercial terms. 

“We were uncertain about our direction,” Brann remembers. “There was no concrete plan in place. The most important factor was that Brent was recovering from a serious head injury he had experienced.” 

In September 2007, Mastodon took the stage at the MTV Music Awards held in Las Vegas. Following their performance, Brent found himself in a drunken confrontation with Shavo Odadjian, the bassist of System Of A Down, along with musician William Hudson, which resulted in Brent being hospitalized due to a brain hemorrhage. This injury occurred after he was struck and fell, hitting his head on the pavement. Although he did recover, the incident left him suffering from intense vertigo. 

Brann remarks, “Finding time to practice was a challenge for him. He often found himself at home with his acoustic guitar. The struggle of waking up and managing his vertigo made his playing a bit more subdued, yet he incorporated these intricate chord progressions. There was an undeniable emotional richness in his music that I could sense emanating from Brent.”

While they might not have been focused on their standings on the charts, that didn’t imply they weren’t prepared to excel in other aspects. Brendan O’Brien was a top-tier producer with an impressive resume, having worked with renowned artists such as Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, Pearl Jam, and Korn. Although he was also located in Atlanta like Mastodon, the band believed they were too low on the industry ladder to capture his attention. 

Brann shares, “We assumed he wouldn’t be interested in collaborating with a humble metal band. However, when we met him, he was actually excited about it.” 

Mastodon gathered at their rehearsal space to play Brendan the songs they’d written so far. Oblivion wasn’t among them – it was more an unfinished collection of ideas that an actual song. But they ran through it anyway.

Brann recalls, “He asked, ‘What’s that?’ So I began to sing the vocals I had prepared for the verse, while Brent harmonized with the guitar melody for the chorus. Then Brendan exclaimed, ‘Whatever that is, we have to head straight to the studio and capture it! The rest is good, but that’s the track we need!’” 

Starting in the spring of 2008, Mastodon began working on Crack The Skye in the producer