AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Guitarist and vocalist Brent Hinds of the heavy metal band Mastodon died this week. He was 51 and was involved in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta. For more than two decades, Hinds and his bandmates became known within the metal scene for complicated riffs and epic storytelling. NPR's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento has this appreciation.
ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: Before he ever picked up a guitar, William Brent Hinds played the banjo.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BRENT HINDS: I grew up in Helena, Alabama, and I was a - just a normal kid that liked to wear capes and ride bikes, you know?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That's Hinds speaking on FRET12's "The Sound And Story" (ph) series. The young Hinds also studied classical guitar at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. After that, he moved to Atlanta and co-founded Mastodon. His hybrid picking guitar style meshed with the band's penchant for very heavy riffs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MARCH OF THE FIRE ANTS")
MASTODON: (Singing) As passion...
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: As Hinds told FRET12...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HINDS: I got a certain feeling when we played the music that I'd never gotten from any other band, that this band was, like, locked in. It was tighter.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEABEAST")
MASTODON: (Singing) If I stand around and I watch them drown in a pool of gray.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: The band was also known for narrative concept albums on mythic subjects. Their 2004 album, "Leviathan," was based on Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." As Mastodon's rhythm guitarist Bill Kelliher told NPR in 2007...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
BILL KELLIHER: Imagery and storytelling and the art of the whole thing is just interesting to us to write about that stuff and have the artwork on the cover and just the mystique of it all, you know.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That devotion to elaborate storytelling and ferocious music won them fans in high places. The band appeared on the HBO series "Game Of Thrones" and recorded a song inspired by the show.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHITE WALKER")
MASTODON: (Singing) We heard tale White Walker. We heard them all dead.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Hinds parted from Mastodon earlier this year. He continued playing with his band Fiend Without A Face this summer.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHITE WALKER")
MASTODON: (Singing) Hide away your children, then hide away yourselves. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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