MASTODON Drummer: New Songs Are "Heavier Than I Expected"

Progressive metal quartet MASTODON is tentatively scheduled to enter the studio in the spring to begin recording its follow-up to 2006's "Blood Mountain". A late 2008 release via Warner Bros. Records is expected.

In a recent interview with UK's Rock Sound magazine, MASTODON drummer Brann Dailor stated about the songwriting process for the group's new album, "It's a long, arduous process. We've got a skeleton for the whole record and these huge chunks of music four of five different segments that don't have a beginning or end yet... We're just basically in the middle of the record, adding stuff, giving it a taste then adding a little more 'pepper' or 'salt.' Once all the ingredients are in there, you have to bake it — which is just playing it over and over again until it feels right. The main goal is to get the songs right so you don't have to think about the time changes — so you can relax with it and play it how it should be played. There's a level of difficulty to our stuff and if you're too wrapped up in trying to remember how many times something goes and the timing for the next riff, you can't examine the song for being a song. So it takes a while."

So far, only one new songtitle has been revealed: "The Ghost of Karilla".

Commented Brann: "I dont want to give the theme away but I think the song title will leave a few people guessing. It's top secret. I can't divulge that information. It's more fun keeping it under wraps, but you can be assured that it's definitely another MASTODON record which is going to further in a couple of different directions and the stuff we've written so far is heavier than I expected."