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Bill Kelliher | |
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 Kelliher performing in 2022 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | William Breen Kelliher |
| Born | March 23, 1971 Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Guitarist |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Member of | Mastodon |
| Website | mastodonrocks |
William Breen Kelliher (born March 23, 1971) is an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist of heavy metal band Mastodon, and being the only band member who doesn't share the lead vocal duty (excluding some live performances).
Kelliher is an Irish citizen; he holds dual citizenship with the United States and Ireland. His father is an Irish immigrant who, in his teenage years, moved to the U.S. from Killorglin, County Kerry, Ireland.
Kelliher performs a number of different roles within Mastodon. These include backing vocals during live performances, complex guitar parts and occasional lead guitar. He is also running the samples and ambiance in between and during songs. He shares guitar duties with Brent Hinds, playing mainly complex rhythm parts, although Kelliher occasionally plays solos, such as on "Sleeping Giant", and harmonized dual leads with Hinds, such as on "Black Tongue". [1]
On June 12, 2007, Hinds and Kelliher won the Metal Hammer Golden Gods award for best shredders, [2] Mastodon's first ever award. Mastodon won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for the song "Sultan's Curse" in 2018.
Kelliher, along with Brann Dailor and Brent Hinds, portrayed "wildlings" on season 5, episode 8 of Game of Thrones , which was filmed in Belfast in Northern Ireland. As previously reported, the band's original song "White Walker" is featured on the Game of Thrones mixtape Catch the Throne Vol. 2, but in the instance of their physical appearance, a press release from Reprise Records reports that the band was personally invited to participate in the show by Game of Thrones executive producer Dan Weiss, who is a fan of the band. [3]
Kelliher uses several guitars in Mastodon: his main guitar for a long time was a Gibson Les Paul Custom in a Silverburst finish. He used other Les Paul Customs in Ebony and Alpine White during the band's 2009 tour with Dethklok. He has also used several Gibson Explorers, including a vintage Explorer CMT in tobacco burst. Kelliher has also used two custom Yamaha SBGs and a First Act custom 9-string Silverburst DC Lola, which was used particularly on the title track for Crack the Skye . [4] [5] In 2013, Kelliher got a signature Gibson Explorer, named "The Golden Axe". It has a mahogany body and neck, rosewood fretboard with figured acrylic trapezoid inlays, a gold burst finish and Lace Nitro Hemi humbucker pickups. [6] In 2014, Gibson released a signature Bill Kelliher “Halcyon” Les Paul, with Lace Dissonant Aggressor pickups. [7]
In June 2016, ESP Guitars announced that Kelliher had started endorsing their guitars and that they would be releasing 2 signature models for him, the high end ESP Bill Kelliher and the more affordable LTD BK-600. The guitars are both of the Eclipse body style with full thickness mahogany bodies with no waist cut, 3 piece mahogany set through necks with 22 fret ebony fretboards and 24.75 scale lengths. They feature locking tuners and Tone Pros tunomatic and stoptail locking bridges, and Kelliher's signature Lace Dissonant Aggressor pickups. They are available in Military Green Sunburst Satin finishes with bound bodies and headstocks and ESP flag inlays. [8]
Kelliher previously used Laney amplification (specifically, the VH100R head). Subsequently, he played a Marshall JCM 800 Kerry King signature. Since 2010, Kelliher and his bandmate Brent Hinds performed live with Orange Thunderverb series amplifiers. Kelliher's pedal board includes A Line 6 HELIX and a Digitech Jamman Looper Pedal. Kelliher also uses an Audiotech Guitar Products Source Selector 1X6 Rack Mount Audio Switcher. In 2013 Kelliher collaborated with Lace Pickups on his own signature guitar pickups, the "Dissonant Aggressors". [9] At NAMM 2016, Friedman Amplification launched a signature amp for Kelliher called the Butterslax. [10]
Like his bandmate Hinds, Kelliher also uses three tunings in Mastodon: D Standard on the Les Paul (E Standard down one whole step, D G C F A D), Drop C on the Yamaha SBG (Drop D down one whole step, C G C F A D), and another tuning similar to D standard, but with the sixth string tuned down to A (A G C F A D), on the Explorer.
Kelliher is married and the father of two boys. His wife is an epidemiologist. [11] [12]
In a 2017 appearance on Loudwire's YouTube show Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?, Kelliher expressed incredulity of ever providing any lead vocals on any of Mastodon's studio albums. [13]
Scott Ian is an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist, lyricist and co-founder of the thrash metal band Anthrax, of which he is the sole continuous member. Ian is also the guitarist, lyricist, and a founding member of the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death, and is the rhythm guitarist for the metal bands the Damned Things and Mr. Bungle. He has hosted The Rock Show on VH1 and has appeared on VH1's I Love the... series, Heavy: The Story of Metal, and SuperGroup.
Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia. Formed in 2000, the band's lineup of Troy Sanders (bass/vocals), Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher and Brann Dailor (drums/vocals) has remained unchanged since 2001. Mastodon has released eight studio albums, as well as a number of other releases. The band's 2002 debut album, Remission, garnered significant critical acclaim for its unique sound. Mastodon's second full-length release, Leviathan, is a concept album based on the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Three magazines awarded the record "Album of the Year" in 2004: Revolver, Kerrang! and Terrorizer.
The Gibson Flying V is an electric guitar model that was originally introduced by Gibson in 1958. The Flying V offered a brand new, radical, "futuristic" body design, much like its siblings: the Explorer, which was released the same year, and the Moderne, which was designed in 1957 but not released until 1982. The initial run of guitars used a distinctive wood of the Limba tree marketed by Gibson under the trade name "korina"; later models used more conventional woods.
Leviathan is the second album by American heavy metal band Mastodon, released in 2004 on Relapse Records. It is Mastodon's first concept album, loosely based on the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. The songs "Iron Tusk," "Naked Burn," and "Blood and Thunder" were released as promotional singles, and music videos were created for "Iron Tusk," "Blood and Thunder," and "Seabeast". Three magazines awarded the album Album of the Year in 2004: Revolver, Kerrang! and Terrorizer. In 2009 and 2015 MetalSucks named Leviathan the best metal album of the 21st century.
Brann Timothy Dailor is an American musician, best known as a member of heavy metal band Mastodon, in which he is the drummer and one of three vocalists.
Remission is the debut album by American heavy metal band Mastodon. It was released on May 28, 2002 through Relapse Records. A deluxe edition was released on October 21, 2003.
Call of the Mastodon is a compilation album of early recordings from the American metal band Mastodon. It was released on February 7, 2006, by Relapse Records.
Björn Gelotte is a Swedish guitarist and songwriter, best known as the lead guitarist for melodic death metal band In Flames. He originally joined the band as the drummer in 1995, and continued in this position during The Jester Race (1996) and Whoracle (1997). He switched to his current position on lead guitar after Glenn Ljungström left the band and played solely guitars since Colony (1999), sharing lead/rhythm guitar work with former In Flames guitarist Jesper Strömblad.
The Gibson Les Paul Custom is a higher-end variation of the Gibson Les Paul guitar. It was developed in 1953 after Gibson had introduced the Les Paul model in 1952.
William Brent Hinds is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the Atlanta, Georgia metal band Mastodon, in which he shares guitar duties with Bill Kelliher and vocal duties with Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor.
The Gibson Nighthawk was a family of electric guitars manufactured by Gibson. Introduced in 1993, the Nighthawk represented a radical change from traditional Gibson designs. While its maple-capped mahogany body and set neck were reminiscent of the classic Gibson Les Paul, the Nighthawk incorporated a number of characteristics more commonly associated with Fender guitars. The Nighthawk was not a commercial success; production of all models was discontinued in 1998 after only five years.
"Colony of Birchmen" is a single by American heavy metal band Mastodon. It was featured on the group's third album, Blood Mountain. The song features backing vocals from Josh Homme, lead singer of the alternative rock band Queens of the Stone Age and former guitarist of Kyuss.
Oblivion is the second single from Crack the Skye by American progressive metal band Mastodon. It is their second-most successful single and song from Crack the Skye, reaching #30 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart; however, it has since been surpassed by "Curl of the Burl," which peaked at #16. It is the opening track on the band's live album Live At The Aragon.
Oblivion EP is an EP by American heavy metal band Mastodon. It was released via the Internet on November 4, 2009, and is only for sale in digital format. The song "The Bit" is a Melvins cover.
Live at the Aragon is a live CD/DVD by the metal band Mastodon. It was released on March 15, 2011. It was filmed on October 17, 2009 during a Mastodon live show in the historic Aragon Ballroom of Chicago, part of their world tour to support their fourth album, Crack the Skye. It features Crack the Skye at its entirety as well as other Mastodon songs from Remission, Leviathan and Blood Mountain, their first, second and third records respectively. To promote the album the band released the live versions of "Oblivion", "Ghost of Karelia" and "Crack the Skye" on YouTube. The DVD also features the Crack the Skye film, which is the album in video format, in its entirety.
"High Road" is a single by American heavy metal band Mastodon. The song was released as the debut single from their sixth album, Once More 'Round the Sun. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, but lost to Tenacious D's cover of Dio's "The Last in Line."
"The Motherload" is a song by American progressive metal band Mastodon. The song was released as the third and final single from the band's sixth studio album, Once More 'Round the Sun.
Live at Brixton is the second live album by metal band Mastodon. It was released in December 2013 as a digital only release, and on April 19, 2014, as a Record Store Day exclusive Vinyl.
"Show Yourself" is a single by American progressive metal band Mastodon, off of their studio album Emperor of Sand. It peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart in 2017, making it their highest-charting song to date.
"Steambreather" is a song by American heavy metal band Mastodon. It was the second single off of their album Emperor of Sand, the follow-up to first single "Show Yourself". As of October 2017, it had peaked at number 18 on the Billboard US Mainstream Rock Songs chart.
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