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Mastodon - Blood and Thunder - Guitar Tab

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Key E minor
Mastodon - Blood and Thunder guitar tab video
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Amp Settings

Classic Rock

Gain6
Bass6
Mid7
Treble6
Presence5
Master7
AI tone preset

AI-selected preset based on genre and era — adjust the knobs to taste.

Roll back the gain slightly and pick near the neck for a warmer, more open crunch.
Leviathan album cover
Leviathan
2004 3:49
Listen on Spotify
Mastodon Progressive Metal 2004 E minor
Capo Advisor 0 E minor · Original key

About Blood and Thunder

Drop D tuning is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in "Blood and Thunder," and that low dropped string is exactly where your attention should start. The main riff lives on the bottom two strings, using the open Drop D power chord shape hammered with a grinding, palm-muted attack that gives the track its crushing, rhythmic weight. Getting that right means your picking hand has to be tight and consistent, staying locked in with the 120 BPM pulse. Mastodon layer the riff with enough rhythmic complexity that sloppy muting becomes obvious fast, so isolate just the muted picking pattern with the Practice Toolbar before adding fretting-hand movement. The song also has moments where the rhythm opens up and breathes, so pay attention to where you release the palm mute versus clamp it down. This is a song in Progressive Metal where the feel of the groove matters as much as hitting the right notes.

  • The song is in Drop D tuning, which lets you barre power chords on the bottom two strings with a single finger, making fast riff transitions more manageable.
  • Palm muting consistency is the core technical challenge: the riff relies on a tight, controlled picking attack at 120 BPM to lock in with the drums.
  • Use the Practice Toolbar to loop and slow down the main riff entry, where the muted rhythm and open-string hits are easy to rush or fumble.

How to Play Blood and Thunder

Tuning: Drop D · Key: E minor · Tempo: 120 BPM

The drop D tuning lets you fret the low power chords with a single finger, which is central to the heavier riffing here.

Use the section loop to isolate a passage, drop the speed below 100%, and set the metronome to 120 BPM to build it up to tempo.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Brent Hinds occasionally deploys the Les Paul Standard for its thick neck profile and balanced humbucker response, allowing him to execute his signature bending-heavy lead style with controlled sustain across Mastodon's drop-tuned material.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

Hinds favors the Les Paul Custom for its thicker neck and refined hardware, pairing it with various pickups to achieve the complex midrange separation he blends across his dual-amp setup in Mastodon's layered guitar arrangements.

Gibson Flying V
Guitar

Gibson Flying V

Hinds' Epiphone Silverburst Flying V signature provides a distinctly aggressive platform for his lead work, with its offset body and fast neck enabling the psychedelic, octave-laden solos that define Mastodon's progressive metal approach.

Marshall JCM800
Amp

Marshall JCM800

Hinds channels the JCM800's raw tube saturation as part of his dual-amp blend, using its naturally compressed midrange to create one layer of Mastodon's thick, complex rhythm and lead tones without relying on excessive preamp gain.

Orange Rockerverb
Amp

Orange Rockerverb

Hinds pairs the Rockerverb's touch-responsive tube power section with his eclectic pedalboard to achieve Mastodon's crystalline clean tones and ambient passages while maintaining the organic saturation essential to their heavier sections.

Peavey 5150
Amp

Peavey 5150

Bill Kelliher's primary amp choice, the EVH 5150 III delivers the tight, articulate crunch he needs for palm-muted drop-tuned rhythms, with its high-gain channel set around 6-7 preventing flub while maintaining maximum clarity in Mastodon's dense arrangements.

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