Revolver Magazine6/10/2026
Fan poll: Top 5 MASTODON live songsFrom the early basement days, to their Aughts-era tours with Slayer, to their own arena-topping treks of the present day, Mastodon have stomped their way into fans’ hearts as a must-see live act. Pop into any of the Georgia-formed group’s concert appearances, and you’re bound to experience sweat, blood and thunder pouring out of the act as they explore eight albums and counting of sludge, prog and heavy psych sounds. While they’ve delivered plenty of fan favorites over the decades, what’s the single song the faithful are desperate for Mastodon to crack into onstage? We asked out readers this very question, and these were the picks that mother-punched their way to the top of the list. Ghost of Karelia The fans get stoked whenever “Ghost of Karelia” materializes in the setlist. While shorter than most other cuts off Crack the Skye, “Ghost of Karelia” is no less of an epic journey — the song playing out as a kaleidoscopically battering anthem of perma-pounding drums and fuchsia-psychedlic walls off distortion. It’s got a gloom-boomed mid-section, to boot. How long has it been since Mastodon flew through the shadows with “Ghost of Karelia”? Not very, they still hit this onstage regularly. Megalodon One of many siren songs to have beckoned fans Mastodon’s way, “Megalodon” bares its teeth and gnashes at crowds with jagged, technical fury, double-barreled drum punishment and more. It’s the kind of energetic cut that will awaken any slumbering kraken in the crowd, and it’ll get the blood-thirstiest audience members circling the pit ASAP. Savage? Unquestionably. It’s a brutal masterclass in prog-twisted heaviness, a “hideous creation” beloved by the fanbase. Blood and Thunder Led by a hulking but herky-jerky riff, a staggeringly opening drum fill from Brann Dailor, and ominous lyricism, “Blood and Thunder” is indeed a thunderous force of nature. The song isn’t exactly a holy grail moment in a Mastodon setlist — it’s a song they’ve played more than 800 times over the past couple decades. And in a 2024 talk with Guitar World, Bill Kelliher likened Leviathan’s opening crush-out to Motörhead’ “Ace of Spades,” further describing it as the “kind of song that we have to play every night, whether we want to or not.” While mandatory, this Leviathan treasure still kills every time. The Czar This is what you wanted. Crack the Skye is one of Mastodon’s most celebrated feats, writ large, and this week our readers doubled-down on their love by selecting one of the record’s most towering achievements, the time-and-space-portaling mid-album suite known as “The Czar.” A chill hypnotism throbs through the first half of the track, but a mid-song pivot ushers in big chugging riffs, monster-metal grooves, classically ripping solos and a proggy reprise. While excellent to catch in concert — something that hasn t happened since 2024 — the transcendent wizardry of “The Czar” may find your essence leaving the material world, no less the venue, behind. Hearts Alive Though Mastodon have dropped jaws since their inception, few songs in their mighty songbook get the fandom’s blood pumpin’ quite like Leviathan’s penultimate, near-14-minute epic, “Hearts Alive.” Indeed, it s a Masto-classic that has topped a number of our fan polls in the past. The ebb and flow is masterful, moving from saltwater-woozy arpeggiation towards a prog-sludged waltz about the beastly whale insidiously lurking through the choppiest of waters. And then came Brent Hinds god-mode solo, a hickory-seasoned shred-fest playing with elements of country rock, metal, blues and everything in between. It’s a song Mastodon haven’t played since the tail end of 2024 — before Hinds’ exit from the band and his untimely passing — but for those who caught it up close, seeing “Hearts Alive” in-concert was revolutionary.
