Mastodon begin work on new album

Mastodon have begun recording the follow-up to 2006's Blood Mountain with producer Brendan O'Brien.

"Everything sounds real creepy and spaced out and different," drummer Brann Dailor told US magazine Billboard. "There's so many toys to play with over at his studio, like pipe organs and all this crazy shit. There are little cool things we're going to do to the record that we've been wanting to do for a long time."

"I have a feeling like I had before Leviathan came out," says Dailor. "It was like, I was feeling like we're not that band. Everyone thinks we're the band that did Remission, but we're not. We're a whole new band."

Dailor is particularly excited about a 15-minute jam - which currently goes by the moniker of The Last Baron - which will form part of the concept behind the band's new offering.

"I think a lot of people didn't realize Blood Mountain was a concept record," says Dailor. "We made up our own story again this time, but we may try to make it a little more evident that that's what's going on. I like to keep them speculating on our message board. There's no possible way they could guess this."

Other songs slated for the release include Divinations and Oblivion. Dailor also told Billboard that Neurosis frontman Scott Kelly may be making a guest appearance on the album.

Mastodon's as-yet-untitled new album will be released this autumn through Warner Bros.