Colony of Birchmen
The chiming, harmonized main riff from Mastodon's Blood Mountain single. Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds track dual guitars in D standard (D-G-C-F-A-D) — a whole step below concert — for the thick, ringing weight the riff hangs on. Kelliher's confirmed Blood Mountain amp was a Laney VH100R (later auctioned) driving an Orange 4x12, with a Tube Screamer tightening the front end; Hinds layers a Marshall JMP / Diezel side for width. Recorded by Matt Bayles at Studio Litho. The Marshall JCM800 Kerry King and Friedman signature heads came later — not this record.
Blood Mountain
What we checked
Computed by a program, on this recipe, every time this page is built. How this works
Preset files — 1 of 3 complete
- Helix builds complete — every block in the recipe is in the file
- Quad Cortex 4 blocks replaced with a stand-in model
Which ones
Replaced with a stand-in: Noise Gate, Studio Comp, Brit 2203, Room. These load cleanly but are not the model named above — the file will sound wrong here until we map them. Set these blocks by hand.
- Katana 1 block missing from the file; 4 blocks replaced with a stand-in model
Which ones
Not in the file: Reverb. The recipe calls for this block, but we have no verified model ID for it on this platform, so the preset is written without it. Add it by hand using the settings above.
Replaced with a stand-in: Brown, Noise Gate, Booster, Reverb. These load cleanly but are not the model named above — the file will sound wrong here until we map them. Set these blocks by hand.
What we didn't check
- Nobody played this through a real amp. There is no human listening test behind any number on this page.
- The settings are reasoned from the sources below, not measured off the record.
- No audio has been rendered for this recipe yet, so you cannot hear it before you load it.
- 3 platforms on this page (TONEX, Kemper, Fractal) get a model pointer, not a preset file — nothing was built or checked for them.
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