Mastodon Releases “Black Tongue” From Upcoming Album

Mastodon has released a teaser track from their upcoming album, “The Hunter,” due in September. The song, “Black Tongue,” is available on iTunes in addition to being posted on YouTube.

The new record will be the follow-up to 2009’s Crack the Skye, which wrapped up their elemental themed albums. Bassist Troy Sanders says the new album gives them room to stray from their former concept albums.

“It’s a little more loosely based,” he told ClickMusic.com. “It lays in more of a traditional rock and roll album. There’s many bizarre topics throughout, but it’s not as deep and complex of a story of our past few records. We did the four elements – four records covering all the elements – and those albums were like chapters. So now the book of elements is closed, we’re free to explore new musical territories, and that’s what we did.”

“We’re very excited about it, just like anything we do,” he continued. “If the four of us weren’t happy with it then we wouldn’t have pursued it and finalised it. That’s the reason why we started this band eleven years ago – to write music that we wanted to write with each other, and anything outside that is just gravy, just extra. Thankfully it’s grown into a big career over eleven years. But yeah, we the four of us are stoked about it – how the rest of the world feels, who knows.”