Has it really been three years since we heard new material from Mastodon? It seems so, but the burly metal beast is bridging the gap between 2011’s The Hunter with the release of new album Once More ‘Round The Sun later this year.
The first riff-toting cut from Mastodon’s newest has surfaced in the form of ‘High Road’, which shows their enviable knack for matching brains with brawn has diminished none.
Stamping outward on ferocious low-end guitars and muscular drum fills, ‘High Road’ is closer in sound to The Hunter’s brand of heavy rock than it is the band’s early speed metal days.
“I wrote that on a day off while we were on tour in Luxembourg,” guitarist Bill Kelliher says of the new track.
“I was sitting in this rainy city on a Sunday, and nothing was open. I felt like I needed to write something to reflect how I was feeling. I started banging on a guitar. I was thinking Neurosis and The Melvins low-tuned with a little more pop sensibility for the chorus.”
As a first taste of Mastodon’s new record, the band’s Troy Sanders has described the new hour-long LP as both “pure, authentic Mastodon” and “a large slab of granite… A lot of people ask us if it kicks off where The Hunter left off. And to a large degree, I suppose yes,” says the bassist/vocalist.
