Mastodon look to 2019 to begin Emperor Of Sand follow-up

(Image credit: Jimmy Hubbard)

Mastodon’s Brann Dailor says the band have been kicking about ideas for a new album – but says they won’t fully turn their attention to it until next year.

They released their critically acclaimed seventh studio album Emperor Of Sand in 2017 and have spent a large chunk of time since then on the road supporting the record.

And in a new interview with Consequence Of Sound, drummer and vocalist Dailor has given an insight on what’s been going on in the camp.

He says: “We’re always a work in progress, trying to figure out what we’re going to do next. 

“We’re letting the ideas come and setting them to the side for future work – and once in a while just saying out loud what those ideas might be — whether they’re collected onstage when we’re doing soundcheck or if they are something that gets worked on backstage. 

“You hear somebody noodling, and you’re like, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ Whenever the ears perk up to either Brent Hinds or Bill Kelliher doing something backstage. That’s always a nice little surprise.”

He adds: “Once we get home, and we decompress from the Emperor Of Sand tour cycle, sometime early next year, we’ll start dumping out the riffs and seeing what’s new and seeing what’s fresh and what we’re digging on. Then we’ll just start working – do what we normally do.”

Back in April, Mastodon released an animated video for their Emperor Of Sand track Clandestiny and they’ll head out for further live dates later this month – a run which includes shows in Dinosaur Jr.

In May, Dailor released his first ever solo track Red Death, which was inspired by DC Comics’ graphic novel Dark Days: The Road To Metal.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.