Mastodon Member Reveals Deadly Serious Concept In New album

(Metal Hammer) Mastodon's upcoming seventh album features a concept that centers on the horrors of cancer, drummer Brann Dailor has revealed. Since releasing 2014's Once More 'Round The Sun, cancer claimed the life of Mastodon guitarist Bell Kelliher's mother - and Dailor says his own mother is also unwell.

And the drummer says it was inevitable that cancer would feature as part of the as-yet-untitled album's theme. Mastodon recently said the record was in the bag and nod Dailor has opened up further on the concept.

On how the new songs are linked, Dailor tells Loudwire: "There is a tie, a concept that goes between them. The last couple of years have been not... there's been some illness within the bands' family, there's been a bunch of cancer.

"So the whole album is sort of all about cancer basically. Well, not literally. It's a big story that sort of roped to go along with it. It takes place in the desert.

"It brought us together writing wise, because when someone is going through cancer, Bill's mom was going through cancer and he's kind of far away from her, so there's wasn't a lot that you can do.

"And my mom's also sick as well and being far away there's not a lot you can do. I mean, you know we were done writing anyways but we kind of needed something to occupy some hours of the day that would've been kind of us sitting there worrying about the situation that you don't really have that much control over.

"Unfortunately, Bill's mom passed away a few months ago, her illness came on kind of quickly, and she had a brain tumor and she didn't last more than eight or nine months." Read more here.

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