MASTODON drummer Brann Dailor has confirmed to the 100.3 The X Rocks radio station that the band will enter the studio around mid-November to begin recording its next album. The follow-up to 2017's "Emperor Of Sand" will mark MASTODON's first collection of new material since the death of longtime manager Nick John and the passing of tour manager Bob Dallas. "We have way too much material, which I guess is a good thing, but also it's very difficult for us to narrow it down at this point," Brann said (see video below). "We've had so much time — as everyone has [during the coronavirus pandemic] — to be creative and be in the studio and write new stuff that now we have, like, 30 songs demoed, and we need to pare it down to about 12." Asked what criteria he and his bandmates use to determine which songs to include on an album and which to set aside, Brann said: "We need an outside entity to come in that we trust to say, 'These are the songs,' but that's probably not gonna happen, so it's gonna be up to us to put our big-boy pants on and make a decision. But there's a few different ways that we could do things, so we are just sort of debating those things. Okay, all these songs kind of sound like they're all friends, they all are similar-ish — they sort of have the same vibe, like a more doomy vibe, a more doom side of MASTODON. So we kind of like that idea — it's kind of cool; we like that — but also there's some rippers that we don't wanna leave out. And so we're kind of discussing whether or not, do we wanna do a full kind of doom-leaning album and then, a few months down the road, record the rippers and put a ripper album out? I don't know. So we're still sort of deciding how we wanna approach it." MASTODON's new rarities collection titled "Medium Rarities", was released in September. The compilation includes a new song called "Fallen Torches" as well as a bevy of classic covers, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides, and live recordings on one complete package for the very first time. "Emperor Of Sand" debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. That LP was nominated for the 2018 Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album," and its opening track, "Sultan's Curse", won the Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance." Earlier in the year, MASTODON wrote and recorded a new song called "Rufus Lives" for inclusion in the latest "Bill & Ted Face The Music" movie. "Bill & Ted Face The Music", which reunites Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves in the title roles for the first time since 1991's "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey", was released in August.
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