Rock and dub crossover band Dub Trio have released a new video for the “Fought The Line,” which features Troy Sanders of the heavy metal band Mastodon. This will be off of their forthcoming album The Shape of Dub to Come, which will be released on April 26.

Sanders is featured as a vocalist and guitar player for the track, delivering clean guitar licks and sweet crescendo vocals as part of his performance. The backing instrumentals create a chilling effect, amplifying the band’s signature blend of various genres with dub.

“I’m always very humbled when someone wants me to be a part of their art,” says Sanders in a press release. “‘Fought The Line’ references struggle. It comes from a poem that I wrote inspired by a conversation I had with cancer itself. I stared at a face of beautiful soft skin and assured this face, ‘I will take care of you.’ We’re fighting one battle together. I’m right there, if things fall into my hands.”

Due to the interpersonal struggles he faced while dealing with his cancer diagnosis, Sanders decided to place that energy onto the track. He explains that this process was somewhat therapeutic and helped him come to terms with his illness.

“The verses were therapy venting my anger. When people are fighting for their lives, it’s very easy to go off the line,” Sanders explained further in the press release. “If death is reeling you in, then you have to fight and do anything in your power to overcome it. I just wanted to be there to support.”

The Shape of Dub to Come is inspired by previous albums such as  The Refused’s The Shape of Punk to Come, which was in turn inspired by the name of Ornette Coleman’s 1959 album The Shape of Jazz to Come. Stu Brooks, the band’s bassist, explains that the upcoming album’s mantra is similar and will seek to push dub as a genre forward.

“We were a dub/reggae band, and we started implementing what we thought was cool from The Refused and bands like that,” explained Brooks in a press release. “The Shape of Dub To Come describes our whole method; applying dub as a process to virtually any style of music. The future of dub doesn’t have to be just reggae. It’s a process rather than a genre.”

Back in 2017 the group announced that they had ended their six year hiatus, and resumed touring once again. They had previously toured extensively with Matisyahu, who collaborates extensively with Brooks.

Brooks explained his work with Matisyahu as also a similar freedom, where he plays the type of dub which is atypical for many dub traditionalists. This includes a blend of various styles, which retain heavy bass and a ton of reverb present in a lot of dub.

“Well, (we’re) our own brand of dub I suppose. We got Joe from Dub Trio and myself. We don’t really sound like traditional reggae at all,” Brooks explained in an interview with SF Sonic. “But it’s usually stripped back. Heavy bass and a lot of delays and reverbs flying around. I don’t know. We have our own brand or style I’d say.”