In 2006, Mastodon entered the studio to record their third album and major-label debut, Blood Mountain. The follow-up to the breakthrough concept record Leviathan, the LP also delved into ambitious conceptual territory, imagining the scenario of climbing — and getting lost on — a perilous mountain, "starving, hallucinating, running into strange creatures," as bassist-vocalist Troy Sanders described the theme.
The album would prove to be as musically ambitious as it was in its storyline, taking the band further along their prog-rock evolution and pulling a host of guest artists in along the way: Neurosis' Scott Kelly ("Crystal Skull"), Queen of the Stone Age's Josh Homme ("Colony of Birchmen") and At the Drive-In/Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala ("Siberian Divide").
Also joining the Atlanta quartet on this journey was Revolver's own creative director Jimmy Hubbard, who documented the making of the album in the studio, day in and day out, with the band. Below, see some of his standout shots from the making of Blood Mountain.