{"id":463437,"date":"2026-06-06T04:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T04:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/463437\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T04:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T04:00:20","slug":"in-many-ways-that-entire-album-feels-like-we-were-rebelling-against-ourselves-how-mastodon-overcame-moments-of-self-doubt-and-rebuilt-themselves-from-the-ground-up-on-the-hunter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/463437\/","title":{"rendered":"“In many ways that entire album feels like we were rebelling against ourselves.” How Mastodon overcame moments of self-doubt and rebuilt themselves from the ground up on The Hunter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few bands in the 21st century have been showered with as much acclaim as Mastodon<\/a>. Each of their albums, from 2002’s Remission to 2017’s Emperor of Sand<\/a>, has been a landmark in its own right, each pushing the boundaries of metal further in terms of complexity, musicianship and mind-melting concepts, raising the bar ever-higher in the process.<\/p>\n

By 2011, the band\u2019s upwards trajectory was more or less unstoppable. At least that\u2019s what it looked like from the outside. In reality, the Atlantans were in a fragile situation as they prepared to write their fifth album, The Hunter. The intensity of the recording and touring cycle of its predecessor, Crack The Skye<\/a>, combined with ever-increasing external expectations, had conspired to add a degree of fraughtness to inter-personal relationships within the band. The four-piece were determined that they wouldn\u2019t put themselves through that again.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d obviously had a tough time so we just wanted to make it as fun as possible,\u201d says drummer Brann Dailor<\/a>. \u201cHaving just come from a place where we\u2019d been arguing with each other every day we all made a conscious effort to not do that this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Part of the problem was a growing sense of frustration that their music was becoming predictable, at least in the sense that there were certain tropes that reoccurred on every album they made. Chief among these were the grand lyrical concepts that had been a staple of their records since 2004\u2019s Leviathan. This time around, the band elected to park the overarching theme and write a set of standalone songs.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mastodon\n<\/p>\n

Mastodon rehearsing in Atlanta, Georgia circa 2011 (Image credit: Mick Hutson\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

“I had written a concept on my own,\u201d says Brann. \u201cI had it mapped out and I knew what it was going to be and where it was going to go. But when we got together to start putting it all together i could feel from Brent<\/a> [Hinds, guitarist] that he seemed exhausted by the idea. he said to me, \u2018Do we really have to do another concept?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Brann considered the question and decided that, no, they didn\u2019t. That proved to be the starting point of a process that found them recalibrating everything from the ground up.<\/p>\n

Musically, the songs they wrote were a world away from what they had done before, swapping the crushing lengthy progressive metal for a tighter, tauter, more melodic and more, dare we say it, easily digestible set of hard rock bangers, as embodied by the single Curl Of The Burl \u2013 the closest Mastodon have ever come to a straight-up, radio-friendly rock song.<\/p>\n

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Mastodon – Curl Of The Burl [Official Music Video] – YouTube
\n\"Mastodon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were working on something really early on and Brent turned to me and said, \u2018I know it\u2019s only four minutes long, but it kind of feels like it\u2019s done,\u2019\u201d says Brann. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Fine, then it\u2019s done.\u2019 If it is done then let it be done!<\/p>\n

“In many ways that entire album feels like we were rebelling against ourselves. Like, \u2018People think we\u2019re that now! And if people think that then I don\u2019t wanna be that!\u2019 I genuinely don\u2019t think it would have worked out very well for us if we had tried to do Crack The Skye again. We never want to be what people want from us.”<\/p>\n

The Hunter may have been driven by Mastodon<\/a>‘s underlying desire for reinvention, but there were still bumps to overcome. Brann admits admits that he was plagued by flashes of self-doubt.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry about the release of every album,\u201d he laughs when asked about his thoughts on whether he believed the more palatable material would see a potential backlash from Mastodon\u2019s more hardcore fans. \u201cI obsess over it, and I chew it over in my mind and I can\u2019t sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill told us he needed to go to rehab.<\/p>\n

Brann Dailor<\/p>\n

There was a more immediate issue to deal with, however. Guitarist Bill Kelliher<\/a> had been struggling with alcohol problems for several years.<\/p>\n

As Mastodon<\/a> prepared to start work on The Hunter, Bill told his bandmates that he needed to get sober.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust when i thought we were ready to go, bill came to us and said he was going to rehab,\u201d says Brann. \u201cWhich we obviously supported, but we had these songs and we were ready to go, so we very tamely had to say, you know, \u2018We\u2019re going to record these songs. We\u2019d love you to be there with us.\u2019 That was probably the most trying period of the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes in methodology that had sparked The Hunter into life were reflected in the album\u2019s cover art. Where previous Mastodon sleeves had featured artwork by Paul Romano, this time the band elected to use a surreal wood carving titled ‘Sad Demon Oath’ by US sculptor AJ Fosik.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the things that people thought were our rules were things that we were never married to,\u201d says Brann.<\/p>\n

Mastodon – Black Tongue [Official Music Video] – YouTube
\n\"Mastodon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The Hunter was released on September 26, 2011 to rave reviews. It gave Mastodon<\/a> their highest chart placing around the world yet, hitting the top 10 in the US Billboard chart.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s title track was inspired by guitarist Brent Hinds\u2019 brother, who had been killed in a hunting accident while the band were making it, while death also haunted the delicate closing track, The Sparrow, which was dedicated to the late wife of the band\u2019s accountant. But overall the mood was more uplifting, and songs such as Curl Of The Burl, Black Tongue and Octopus Has No Friends swiftly became highlights of shows that were now being played in front of increasingly bigger audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommercial concerns have never been something that enters my head,\u201d shrugs Brann<\/a>. \u201cBut we did start to realise that these were songs that did work in these kinds of venues. that was never why we did it, though \u2013 it was just a happy accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commercial concerns have never been something that enters my head.<\/p>\n

Brann Dailor<\/p>\n

Today, The Hunter sits comfortably in the firmament of modern metal. For many, it acted as an entry point into Mastodon\u2019s weird and wonderful world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the UK really went with us on that album,\u201d says Brann. \u201cAnd I’m not sure the rest of the world did. I actually feel like a lot of people shit on that album because they heard Curl Of The Burl and assume we went pop or whatever. I can\u2019t remember when I last listened to the album in full, but I heard Blasteroid recently and I thought it sounded really good. I really like the drum sound I got \u2013 it sounds like me on drums, it sounds like Brent on guitar, it sounds like Mastodon. So, I’m quite taken aback that this is the record of ours that has been picked, but you know what, I’m actually delighted that it has been.”<\/p>\n

This feature was originally published in Metal Hammer issue 319.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few bands in the 21st century have been showered with as much acclaim as Mastodon. Each of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-463437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}