Heavy metal outfit Mastodon have teased that they are in the studio working on a new album. The group’s latest record Medium Rarities came out earlier this year and featured a mix of covers, instrumental versions of songs from previous albums, live recordings and unreleased material such as “Fallen Torches.”

 

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The band have been teasing work on a new record since last May, when they announced their plans to debut a project during the fall of 2019. Prior to the announcement of Medium Rarities, the band’s Bill Kelliher revealed that he had about “20 rough songs” recorded for a new project.

Kelliher provided further updates on a possible project, hinting that it would turn away some of Mastodon’s fans due to the band’s change in sound. Dailor later added that the group’s late manager Nick John would be a central theme for an upcoming project.

The group’s Troy Sanders spoke about COVID-19’s impact on the recording process during an interview with mxdwn this year. “We were supposed to spend the month of June touring across Europe playing a lot of festivals, but once that got scrapped back in April, we realized that we got the whole year to start working on all the ideas we’ve collected over the last few years,” Sanders explained.

Mastodon’s band members were also feeling negative financial affects from the COVID-19 pandemic, with Kelliher claiming that band members partially relied on unemployment during this time. Kelliher stated that he partially supported himself with his real estate investments during the pandemic.

Photo Credit: Boston Lynn Schulz