On the surface of it, Mastodon and Lamb Of God are like chalk and cheese. Sure, both are titans of the early 2000s metal scene that coalesced around the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal tag, but stylistically their paths have long since diverged from a shared sludgy base, Mastodon evolving into prog metal cosmonauts while Lamb Of God's punk leanings have shone through as their groove metal became ever-more feral and nihilistic.
Imagine our delight, then, when the band announced an enormous co-headline tour of the US, celebrating their 2004 breakthrough records Leviathan and Ashes Of The Wake in full in arenas around the US. Then double that delight when they teased - and eventually released - an almighty team-up for the ages in the form of new single Floods Of Triton. What a time to be alive.
Hammer caught up with Mastodon drummer/singer Brann Dailor and LoG growler-in-chief Randy Blythe to find out how this single came to be, what it's all about - and whether we'll ever see the Ashes Of The Leviathan tour in the UK.
Where did the idea of teaming up Lamb Of God and Mastodon come from?
Brann: “I came up with the idea. We’ve been working on material for a new Mastodon record and when we first start doing that we’ll turn over rocks and dump out our bag of riffs to see what we’ve got going on. As we were sorting through things we came across this song that we put together that, every time we go in to make a record keeps getting shoved in the corner and put back into the homeless riff pile. So I was adamant that we take another look at it, because I’ve always really liked the couple of riffs that we’d strung together, but we’ve never finished it.”
“This is all before we even got Randy involved. Bill [Kelliher, guitars] and I sat down and worked on it for like a week or so. At that point, I was like ‘Man, it’d be cool to get Randy to sing on this’ with the initial thought being that we’d put it out before the tour started, or maybe during to cement the friendship between our bands."
Why Lamb Of God specifically?
Brann: "We’ve known each other for a long time, been friends for a really long time and been on countless tours together. We’re doing this thing in celebration of both our pinnacle albums and this is a further celebration of just how far we’ve come, crawling out of the gutters we used to live in. It was a really heavy, badass track that I could hear Randy’s voice on from the start. He was always in the forefront of my mind because we’d got this tour together, so it was an easy set-up.”
Mastodon aren't exactly lacking for diverse vocal styles - what do you think Randy brought to the table?
Brann: “Randy has this super intense, powerful voice and that’s exactly what the song needed. Especially having him going back and forth with Troy [Sanders, bass]. We came together in the studio and knew Randy would bring the song to life and give it the power it needed.”
Randy: “I’m not a dude who plays guitar, bass or whatever. But Lamb Of God have had a few guest vocalists on our stuff and although we’ve never written a song like ‘oh, we need someone on this’, we’ll listen to it and it’ll be like ‘Oh man, that part is perfect for Chino [Moreno]’, or ‘That’s perfect for [Jamey] Jasta’. Our world is so small, we all know each other so you can hear your friends. It’s not like they have to stretch hard to guess at what I’ll do on a song. I’m not gonna come along and suddenly start singing falsetto, ‘The flood is comiiiiing!’ Funny as that’d be, busting out the King Diamond.”
So what is Floods Of Triton actually about?
Randy: “It was a collaborative writing process. So even though I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do before I got there, Troy wrote stuff too. I don’t like to say exactly what a song is about – the best connection you can make with music is when you can internalise it and turn it into something that means something directly to you.
But what I will say, is that its rooted very deeply in this idea that Lamb Of God and Mastodon have been friends for well over 20 years – I’ve known Brann and Bill since before the band even existed, when they were with Today Is The Day. Our whole band has, in fact, because when we recorded the Burn The Priest record Brann was actually living in the studio, where we also stayed because we couldn’t afford hotel rooms.
The world is a much different place now – both the music world and real world. Older generations will always say that, but I do believe that in a very quantifiable way the world is changing at a far more exponential pace now, to say the 20 years that came before that. In no small part that’s due to technology, but the whole landscape has changed in a massive, massive way. Not to mention the way people perceive reality through technology. I’m not a fucking luddite, I’m not anti-technology, but there is a mental, emotional and even spiritual cost to it all. A cognitive deficit occurs. We all existed before this tech, so if it all goes away, we as bands are going to be fine because we know how to exist without it. So it’s that, but also rooted in our long-term friendship, as old men.”
How was the tour for you both – do you think you'll bring it overseas?
Randy: “It was awesome! We’re exploring options, right now. We’re thinking it over, turning it like a pizza dough and deciding whether we want to spin it out into a round, crust-like bakeable shape.”
Brann: “I’m poking it with a stick to see if it’ll do anything.”
Randy: “Exactly. Will the dough rise? Will it be cooking in the oven that is the European gig setting? We shall see.”
How are things looking for recording your next albums, respectively?
Randy: “Lamb Of God still have gigs to play. That’s as far as I’m gonna look – let 2025 handle itself.”
Brann: “We made quite a bit of progress before the tour, actually. But we’re kinda in the same boat as these guys. We also have a bunch of festivals coming up and I tell you what, it’s really hard to split your brain in two. We’re thinking about those shows, but then also trying to say ‘Well, let’s write some new music’.”
Randy: “It’s so weird trying to switch gears and do that. I’ve heard of bands who write when they’re on the road, but that’s not us. When we write music we want to be home.”
Brann: “Writing an album, you need to give your whole self to it. You need your imagination to thrive and for that album to get the attention it deserves, you basically have to be artistically monogamous to that project.”
What’s your favourite song by the other guy’s band?
Randy: “I have a new favourite Mastodon song, actually! But, I mean, I could list several of my favourites; of course Blood And Thunder, because come on! Who doesn’t love that song? It’s fucking crazy and I love the story behind the whole album. March Of The Fire Ants is another big one. Curl Of The Burl is another huge one. But on this tour, my new favourite Mastodon song has been More Than I Could Chew. I’ve been listening to it and singing along with my own lyrical versions.”
Brann: “Again, Lamb Of God have so many metal hits and being on this tour really rejuvenated my love for the Ashes record. Hearing stuff like Laid To Rest, Redneck, Walk With Me In Hell, Omerta, Memento Mori… every night was insane. It’s funny actually, when we were talking about the tour, they said to me, ‘Man, this album is really front-loaded; lots of big hits for Lamb Of God really early on.’ I disagree though. I love the instrumental track, Ashes Of The Wake.”
Randy: “That’s my favourite Lamb Of God song! I get to chill out and just breathe every night during that song.”
Do you think you’ll collaborate more in future – more songs, or even a full project?
Randy: “If the opportunity presented itself, absolutely.”
Brann: “Our door is always open for stuff like that. There’s always a special place in my heart for Lamb Of God and for Randy directly too, because we’ve been friends for so long – before Mastodon were even a scratch in my daddy’s Levi’s. It’s different, with those guys so it’s always cool to collaborate. Plus, even though I’m from Rochester, New York, we’re still these southern metal bands that became bigger than we ever thought we could.”
Randy: “Or should’ve!”
Floods Of Triton is out now
