(hennemusic) Mastodon have scored a US Top 20 debut with their latest album, "Hushed And Grim." The band enter the Billboard 200 at No. 20 with their eighth studio set, which was recorded with producer David Bottrill in their hometown of Atlanta, GA.
Introduced with the lead track, "Pushing The Tides", the album was created during a period following the passing of longtime manager, Nick John, while undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2018; as a result, an atmosphere of very real loss, loneliness, and longing permeates through the album as the group musically say goodbye to their old friend and confidant.
"Essentially, to be brief, [the tree] is an afterlife mythology that when you pass away, your spirit goes into the heart of a tree and then experiences all the pillars of your in successions of the seasons that the tree experiences," explains drummer Brann Dailor about the "Hushed And Grim" cover art. "That is the way you're able to say goodbye to the natural world and move on to the next dimension. You can see a green man in the center of the tree - the heart of the tree - and that is our good friend and manager Nick John, who passed away, unfortunately, a couple of years ago. [Nick] has a lot to do with the inspiration of the album, 'Hushed And Grim'."
Mastodon will launch the album on a fall co-headlining US tour with Opeth, with shows beginning in Asheville, NC on November 16. Check out the "Pushing The Tides" video here.
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