Progressive-metal band Mastodon will release their new album, The Hunter, in several exciting and unconventional configurations that feature an interactive 3D experience they call Augmented Reality.

Augmented reality combines virtual and real worlds to create an interactive one-of-a-kind 3D experience controlled by the user.

“Curl of the Burl” will be the first official single from the album in spite of the fact that “Black Tongue” has already made waves in the metal world. “Curl of the Burl” will be released on August 16th, with a video to follow. Its online debut was August 6.

The Hunter will be released in the following formats:
Standard CD: 13 tracks, basic Augmented Reality Experience
Deluxe Physical CD/DVD: standard CD, alternative cover, basic Augmented Reality Experience, DVD with track-by-track psychedelic visualize, videos for “Deathbound” and “Black Tongue.”
Direct-to-Fan Package: two digital bonus tracks, insert with enhanced Augmented Reality Experience, additional embedded content, 20”x30” lenticular poster of standard album cover artwork.

The Hunter Track Listing:
1. Black Tongue
2. Curl Of The Burl
3. Blasteroid
4. Stargasm
5. Octopus Has No Friends
6. All The Heavy Lifting
7. The Hunter
8. Dry Bone Valley
9. Thickening
10. Creature Lives
11. Spectrelight
12. Bedazzled Fingernails
13. The Sparrow
14. The Ruiner (limited-edition bonus track)
15. Deathbound (limited-edition bonus track)

Drummer Brann Dailor said:
“When you listen to the songs, they don’t sound as ‘fun’ as we perceive them to be, I guess; it’s still pretty extremely heavy material. We had a few songs that were kind of, not left over from ‘Crack The Skye’, but just stuff that we wanted to be on that album, but that album kind of took on a whole different thing of its own and there were a few stragglers that were super-heavy and crazy that didn’t make it, and we finally got to put them on this record. And then we wrote a whole bunch of brand new stuff. There’s, like, 14 songs that we recorded. And it’s sort all over the place — a lot of different sounds. Some straight-up classic-rock-sounding songs, straight-up death metal-sounding songs and some completely bizarre, weirdo rock songs that we’re not really sure what they are, but we love them.”

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