MASTODON Re-Teams With Producer BRENDAN O'BRIEN For Upcoming Album

Atlanta progressive metallers MASTODON have re-teamed with producer Brendan O’Brien for the recording sessions for their new album, tentatively due in early 2017.

O’Brien, who has previously worked with AC/DC, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS and PAPA ROACH, among many others, helmed MASTODON‘s 2009 effort, “Crack The Skye”.

MASTODON‘s new CD is being recorded at an Atlanta-area studio. The band’s co-frontman/bassist Troy Sanders told the Atlanta Business Chronicle about the follow-up to 2014’s “Once More ‘Round The Sun”: “We’ve been working on it for the bulk of this year. We kind of dedicated 2016 to writing a record.

“We’re going to record it in the Atlanta area, so we’ll get to go home and sleep in our own beds at night.

“We’re excited because we’ve done lots of touring over the past few years. It’s that refreshing cycle of write, record, tour, tour, tour, take a break, write, record, tour, tour, tour. This is one of the many healthy transitions that we do as a band to keep our momentum going. We’re excited about recording because we haven’t recorded a record in over two years. Positive vibes are in the house.”

MASTODON guitarist Bill Kelliher told GuitarMania about the band’s upcoming album: “I’ve already come up with eleven songs, which is probably about an hour’s worth of music — like, finished, start to end. It’ll change as everybody chimes in and takes the things I wrote and maybe changes them a little bit, or we might take parts out and write a new part.”

Regarding what fans can expect to hear on MASTODON‘s next album, Bill said: “It’s a little bit of the same as the last album, but I think it goes even deeper in certain areas — a couple of more psychedelic parts, a little more technical parts. There are a couple of new places we haven’t gone before. So it’s just kind of a continuation of the last record to me, but even deeper.”

“Once More ‘Round The Sun” sold around 34,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 6 on The Billboard 200 chart. The record arrived in stores on June 24, 2014 via Reprise Records.