FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

Twenty years ago, a wild Mastodon appeared. In honour of the occasion, the beardy Atlantans have put together a rarities collection featuring instrumentals, live tracks and one-offs. “It’s awesome to have the same four guys in the band, because we went through all of it together,” smiles drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor. “Listening to this album was a trip down memory lane for me.” We asked him and guitarist Bill Kelliher to give us a guided tour.

1 FALLEN TORCHES

(Previously unreleased, 2020)

Bill Kelliher (guitars/vocals): “Fallen Torches has so many elements of Mastodon in it, that that’s what makes it such a great song. We had done a European tour on Emperor Of Sand [in 2017], and we had brought [Neurosis vocalist] Scott Kelly with us. We were toying around with the idea of writing a whole record with him, and we would sit backstage and play acoustic guitar. After that tour, Brann had just come over to my studio in my house one day and said, ‘Hey, let’s try to write a song for this thing with Scott we’re gonna do.’ And he had a real simple idea for the main riff, which is like [sings the riff]. And that’s usually how he and I will write together. He’ll come over and he’ll hum an idea in my ear, and I’ll say, ‘OK, let me figure out how to play that on a guitar.’ When he and I get together, we’re pretty proficient.”

2 A COMMOTION

(Feistodon, 2012)

“We were on , and we were so excited to be invited. Heavy, and we covered . It’s probably one of my favourite things outside of doing an album that I think that we’ve done. Just the fact that we traded songs with somebody that you would never, ever expect. I wanna do more of that!”