At the moment, Mastodon has decided to continue on the tour as a trio. Doctors and Bill are hopeful that he will rejoin his bandmates in time for their headlining tour of Europe which begins November 30th, in Utrecht, Holland and will end on December 7th, at the All Tomorrow�s Parties Festival in Somerset, England.

More details to follow as they develop. [end band statement] There is no word on why Bill was hospitalized, but Relapse sent out this totally unrelated press release: A collectors edition Mastodon vinyl box set is set to be issued on November 18th via Relapse Records. This box set will be a one-time pressing strictly limited to 1,000 copies and include nine 180-gram LP's encapsulating the legendary band's entire history of recordings.

The box set will be cased in a heavy duty, foil stamped black box and include the following:

- The vinyl pressing of Mastodon's '06 Reprise debut Blood Mountain on expanded double LP.

- The band's critically-acclaimed 2004 release Leviathan, expanded to double LP.

- The band covers of "The Bit" (Melvins), "Emerald" (Thin Lizzy), and "Orion" (Metallica).

- A live record documenting the band's performance as part of the Relapse Contamination Festival in 2003. This LP is, and will remain, exclusive to this box set.

- The band's reissue of early recordings, Call Of The Mastodon.

- The final vinyl pressing of the original Lifesblood recording.