Mastodon: Emporer of Sand. The band had a tough time with family when making this album. I think a lot of people don't like this album, but it's one of my favorites from them.

>Three out of the four members of Mastodon were directly affected by the disease [cancer] while making Emperor of Sand. Dailor's mom has been undergoing chemotherapy for a while, guitarist Bill Kelliher's mom died of a brain tumor while the band was making the record and bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders had to miss early writing sessions while his wife received treatment for breast cancer (she seems to be recovering well).

I have my own story to relate to this album. I had just put my dog of 15 years to sleep when I stumbled across the making of this album on YouTube. I wasn't much into Mastodon aside from Leviathan. But the video hit me and I liked the songs. Then learning the backstory of them making the album helped me cope with the loss of my furry best friend as I listened to this album over and over. There's even one song that almost makes me cry nearly 5 years later because it just hits a certain emotion and memory for some reason.

More info from Brann, the drummer, in this Revolver article from where I pulled the quote.