Mastodon have opened up on the inspiration behind their forthcoming eighth studio release “Hushed And Grim” in a new feature with Kerrang!. Unfortunately once again beset upon by grief, much of the inspiration behind the David Bottrill (Tool, Stone Sour) produced double-album is drawn from the death of the band’s manager Nick John, who passed away in 2018 follow a battle with pancreatic cancer.
According to the group, the album will explore the experiences of grief and processing it, with drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor offering:
“‘Hushed And Grim‘ is a mood. It’s about grief, about guilt, about all those fun feelings. It’s awful seeing your friend suffer like that and knowing there’s nothing that you can do. If you know, you know…”
Bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders later added:
“It’s about taking the factual, brutal darkness of a life’s moment, then really trying to navigate through and beyond it. Writing and recording this record was like grief counselling for me: started out feeling horrific, came out feeling fantastic. Even if we wanted to write a happier record, we couldn’t. Our band doesn’t work that way. We can’t just shovel all of the darkness aside and say that everything was great.”
Elsewhere in the chat it was revealed that several guests will grace the opus. Among them are Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil on the track “Had It All“, which also finds the mother of Troy Sanders guesting on French horn. Blues guitarist Marcus King guests on the song “The Beast“, while Municipal Waste, etc. drummer Dave Witte appears on the track “Dagger“. João Nogueira is credited with contributing keyboards and synth throughout the record, while the daughter of engineer Tom Tapley guests on “Sickle And Peace“. It was not mentioned if Neurosis‘ Scott Kelly will once again lend his talents.
On an interesting side note, a number of song ideas described by guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds as being in the vein of “proggy punk-rock songs” and “long Sabbathy-sounding shit” have been held over from this release and may surface in the future. You can read a lot more about “Hushed And Grim” over at Kerrang!.
If you missed it, the song “Pushing The Tides” was launched as the first single from the double-album last week and is available here. You can catch the band out supporting the record this fall on the below co-headlining tour with Opeth, which will find Zeal & Ardor opening:
11/16 Asheville, NC – ExploreAsheville.com Arena
11/18 Boston, MA – The Wang Theatre
11/19 Albany, NY – Palace Theatre
11/20 New York City – Hammerstein Ballroom
11/21 Washington, DC – The Anthem
11/23 Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
11/24 Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
11/26 Austin, TX – ACL Live at the Moody Theater
11/27 Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
11/28 Sugar Land, TX – Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land
11/30 Mesa, AZ – Mesa Amphitheatre
12/01 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
12/02 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
12/04 Salt Lake City, UT – The Union
12/05 Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom
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