Mastodon will release their next album, Marrow Deep, on August 28, and have dropped a new single, Snakes for Dinner, which features Josh Homme.
Marrow Deep is the band’s ninth album, and first without former guitarist Brent Hinds, who left the group in March last year, and was killed in a motorcycle accident last August.
It will also be the first with new guitarist Nick Johnston and keyboardist João Nogueira, who has been added as an official member of the band. It makes for a new-look Mastodon.
The band has already released Your Ghost Again, which saw them face Hinds’ loss head-on, and last week released a short film that celebrated his life and legacy.
Homme, who previously featured on Colony of Birchmen, returns to the fore with some harmonized vocals, while Bill Kelliher and Johnston's riffs propel the track forward. Some fierce fretboard runs nod to the band’s Leviathan and Blood Mountain eras.
Marrow Deep is inspired by the Three Fates of Greek mythology. Life, loss, and destiny are three interconnected themes throughout, as the band prepares to release yet another album dominated by grieving.
Emperor of Sand found Bill Kelliher writing by his dying mother’s bedside, while its follow-up, Hushed & Grim, was underscored by the death of their manager, Nick John.
The album was recorded at West End Sound in Atlanta with Patrik Berger, who has worked with Lana Del Rey, and Kurt Ballou (High On Fire, Converge). The album is said to feature “a staggering roster of guests”, which will be revealed in due course.
Having wrapped summer dates with Loathe, Mastodon will embark on the Poisonous Weapons Tour, which starts in Orlando on September 16 and concludes on October 24 at Sick New World Dallas.
Marrow Deep is available to pre-order now.
