Post-hardcore band From First To Last officially kicked off their new era last week with the release of “Your Name In Red Ink.” The track marked both their first recording with new frontman Lil Lotus and their debut release since signing with Fearless Records. The band have now unveiled a music video for the song, directed by their own guitaris… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
STATICA, the electronically driven side project from multi-platinum alternative metal band Avenged Sevenfold, have released a Lance Drake-directed music video for their self-titled track. The group surprise-released their four-song debut EP under the STATICA name on July 24th, with the release drawing a mixed response from fans.
Whil… Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
Heavy blues troubadour Jack J Hutchinson has earned a reputation for being one of the most stylish acts around, sartorially as well as musically. Drawing audiences in with thundering yet melodic songs with grooves for days, his latest album Soul Believer is available for pre-order now.
What’s the most Metal thing you’ve ever done off stage? Touring Spain in a Renault Clio. We did two weeks travelling around Spain, full band, bassist, drummer, me, amps, full drum kit, merch, everything in a Renault Clio. And then at the end we were driving up to the ferry, the car just stopped working, so we pushed it onto the ferry and got rid of it when I got back to the UK. But it could have broken down at any point in those previous two weeks.
What’s the worst gig you’ve ever played, and why? I did a lot of gigs when I was younger when I was in rock bands where singers would just ring me up in the morning and say, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing the show tonight because my voice is fucked because I’ve been out all night partying.’
I did a gig years ago where that happened. I was opening for Fun Loving Criminals at Lancaster University, and that happened. So I said, well, I’m gonna do the fucking gig. It’s the first time I’d ever done a show singing. It was really hard, and it turned what could have been an absolute car crash into me convincing myself that I could be a singer. The actual gig was a bit ropey, but it led me into doing what I’m doing now.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever played, and why? Playing at The 02 on the same night Jeff Beck played was phenomenal, and I got to meet Jeff backstage and Jimmy Page as well, so two of my absolute heroes. I headlined a festival in Brazil to about 8,000 people. That was incredible.
Playing at Maid Of Stone last year, where we did it as a four-piece. Me, Greg Smith on bass, Phil Wilson on drums and then we had Ash Wilson on second guitar, and that was great. The weather was atrocious, but it felt like we were in it with the crowd. Those are the best gigs where you feel like you and the crowd are as one going through the experience, and it was amazing.
Would you choose a platinum record or one perfect, legendary live show? It’s always been about performing live for me. After you spend eight months in the studio recording a record, then when you take it out on the road, that’s when you know whether the songs are any good. When you’re stood 5 ft away from somebody, and hopefully they have a really positive response to it. It’s an electrifying feeling when that happens.
What’s your greatest fear? Despite the fact I’ve probably done about 1,000 gigs over the years, there’s always the fear that your guitar’s gonna fail, or you’re gonna forget the words or something like that in the back of your mind. In general life, probably Manchester United getting relegated would be my absolute fear.
What’s the trait you most deplore in yourself or other musicians? How long have you got? The one thing that I really despise in musicians is unfounded arrogance, so people who believe they’re God’s gift to music and almost imagine themselves as Freddie Mercury. I’ve come across a lot of musicians like that from doing blues jams in Soho, where people get on stage and think they’re Jimi Hendrix, and actually you feel like unplugging the guitar cos it’s terrible.
There have been moments where I’ve felt a bit like that, where I get a bit overconfident. But fortunately I’m from Burnley in the northwest, and I have a lot of friends who, when I told them I’d got an album in the charts last year, none of them gave a shit. They just wanted to talk about football.
Describe yourself in three words. Honest. Passionate. Loyal.
What’s your guiltiest pleasure? I’m quite happy listening to a bit of pop. My wife listens to a lot of pop music, so she’ll stick on Taylor Swift or something. But I actually think that’s helped my songwriting. I think that gives me a sense of melody, and I always want big choruses that people can sing along with. And there’s nothing wrong with a bit of ABBA.
What does a great riff feel like to write? I don’t write riffs on electric guitar. I actually sing them and then work out what I’ve sung separately. It has to be melodic, and it has to be something that is memorable, something that touches me emotionally, and that can be a vocal line or a riff that, when you’ve sung it, it’ll affect you more.
What’s the worst thing a fan has ever said to you? I’ve had a lot of shit actually. I had a large amount of fans that got into my music through acoustic blues, but I’ve never just listened to Robert Johnson or Elmore James or BB King. My music has evolved over the years, and I’ve had some quite harsh conversations with people. I don’t like those kinds of conversations where people can be narrow-minded about it.
What’s the worst thing a critic has ever said to you? At Ramblin’ Man Fair, almost 10 years ago now. The worst thing about it was he was correct. I knew that we drank too much backstage. We were a bit pissed. We were focused on the partying aspect rather than delivering a kick-ass show, and it was a massive lesson for me actually.
At the time I was fuming, but in the cold light of day he had a point. I’ve never made that mistake again. It’s funny, I actually nearly ran the reviewer over driving in today to Maid Of Stone. Not on purpose, but he just happened to be walking where I was reversing, and I nearly knocked him over.
If you weren’t in music, what would you be doing? I’d probably be an artist. Music’s this energetic explosion of emotion, and when I was making drawings, it was very meditative, calm, and actually more serene. I plan to do that again at some stage, so maybe when I’m a little bit older I’ll go back to it.
What keeps you awake at night? Thinking about mixes of songs and getting the mastering done for my next record. Financing the band and how it all works. The end product is the gig and the recordings. But I’m an independent artist, and it’s a challenge to keep it financially going. Even last night I woke up at 3 in the morning thinking about a mix and whether it needs tweaking.
Riffs, royalties or recognition, if you had to choose? It’s always about songwriting for me. I have these bonkers conversations with musicians. I had one last week where an artist was talking about writing a song specifically for radio. And I thought, would you not write a song for yourself? Surely that’s the best starting point. It’s going to be more emotional, and I think people can sniff when things aren’t authentic. If you get a bit of money, great, but it’s not about that for me. It’s always about being personal and honest to yourself.
How do you want to be remembered? As a guy with a nice pair of shoes.
What’s the most important lesson the road has taught you? That there’s fuck all to eat at two in the morning apart from WH Smith’s Ginsters Pasties.
What happens when the music stops? I get treated for tinnitus, probably. I like to think that never will happen. I’ve been doing this for ten years, and I absolutely love it. My music has led me to meet such incredible people all around the world now, and I hope it continues for a long time.
According to a report on TMZ, a source close to the Iowa outfit reports that DJ and keyboard player Wilson was ejected from the band on Friday. No reason for his apparent departure was given.
However, the band’s guitarist, Jim Root, has alluded to the story in a post on Instagram Stories.
Root wrote: “Don’t believe every thing you read. Stop. Think. Take a breath. Sit with it for awhile. Maybe. Just maybe even wait until there’s more information.”
While the post doesn’t mention Wilson, the timing has prompted fans to speculate that Root’s is referring to his bandmate’s departure.
Neither Slipknot or Wilson have confirmed his departure.
Wilson joined Slipknot in 1998, just before they recorded their self-titled debut album with producer Ross Robinson.
He has appeared on every Slipknot album from the debut to 2022’s The End So Far, as well as the ‘lost’ album credited to Look Outside Your Window, which was finally released earlier this year.
As well as Slipknot, Wilson – who was engaged to Kelly Osbourne until their relationship ended earlier this year – has also performed under the name DJ Starscream and SID, as well as Miami Vice Crack.
Following Wilson’s apparent departure, only four members of the line-up that played on Slipknot’s debut alum remain – percussionist Shawn Crahan, singer Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root and Mick Thomson.
Blurring the lines between dark pop, alternative electronica, and drum & bass, Remote Places crafts an intoxicating sonic landscape on Erase the Fingerprints. Propelled by urgent breakbeats, brooding synth textures, and cinematic production, the track channels the shadowy allure of acts like HEALTH, Phantogram, and Depeche Mode while maintaining its own distinct identity. Exploring themes of buried secrets, reinvention, and the desire to erase the past, the song balances emotional weight with infectious momentum, resulting in a sleek, immersive, and compelling listen that lingers well beyond its final beat.
Brann Dailor appears at ease and relaxed as he zooms in to our chat from his home in Atlanta. Recently returned from a European tour, the Mastodon drummer, singer and songwriter is now in the midst of the press cycle for one of the year’s most anticipated releases.
Given the circumstances under which it was recorded and conceived, it must be difficult for him to discuss it.
“A little bit,” he says breezily, running his fingers through his trademark quiff, “but it’s nothing that I’m uncomfortable with.”
Marrow Deep, the band’s ninth album, is named for the deep connection the band members shared with those Dailor calls its “two main characters”: his mother Michele Lawrence, who died in February last year, and their late former bandmate and great friend Brent Hinds.
Hinds, Mastodon’s outspoken, wild-man lead guitarist, was killed on August 20 last year in an early morning motorcycle crash, six months after he was fired from the band. Death, disease and tragedy have shaped Mastodon’s works before, but the loss of Hinds is perhaps the cruellest blow yet.
“Honestly, I really thought we were going to be able to get away with this one,” Dailor says with the hint of a grim laugh, “and be able to go back to writing about the Loch Ness monster and the skunk ape and other weird creatures like that. We were able to snag some Greek mythology with the three Fates, because I’m like, ‘We gotta do something here and get some kind of metaphor going’. I thought it was good because it sort of describes two people, my mum and Brent, who were evading the third daughter with the scissors [Atropos], and it seemed to be like hiding from her – one on purpose, and one not on purpose.”
Lawrence and Hinds had been able to miraculously avoid death on many occasions. His mother, he explains, was chronically ill from the time she was 19.
“She had rheumatoid arthritis, and from there was different unfortunate circumstances healthwise that really tried to keep her down, basically. She was in and out of hospital for years and years, and I would always get called up from Rochester in New York, from where I’m from. I live in Atlanta, and I’d get calls from the doctors in the middle of the night saying, ‘She’s not gonna make it through the night. You gotta get up here.’ Right, so I’d get a flight in the middle of the night, walk in the ICU and she’d be up – ‘What are you doin’ here?’ ‘They said you weren’t gonna make it!’ ‘How many times have they told you that?’ ‘That doesn’t mean I’m not going to come!’”
The Marrow Deep song ‘Out Like a Lamb’ is dedicated to her struggle.
“There’s a saying in Rochester where I’m from – it’s on Lake Ontario across from Canada – they would always say ‘March was in like a lion and out like a lamb’. My mum would always say that. I kind of looked at her life like that, always fighting.”
“Everything in the health system in the US is so ass-backward,” Dailor continues, with an air of bitterness. “We don’t take care of our people. It’s so sad to see someone fight tooth and nail through all of that and try to be their own advocate, but also have a brain injury and try to pull themselves out of these terrible medical situations where they don’t feel so good. It’s like this human Whack-a-Mole where every time it looked like things were getting a little bit better for her, she’d just get hit over the head again.”
In the end she died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 69.
“At least the universe found some bit of charity with her, where they let her go peacefully instead of from some violent fall, or something like that.”
Hinds was also, and famously, defiant in the face of death. But where Lawrence’s was quiet determination, Brent Hinds was complete abandon.
“He just lived his life pretty wild, you know.” There’s loss and pain on his face now, as there always is when the subject turns to Hinds. “He was a pretty wild person and he didn’t really have that switch that a lot of us do have where you go, ‘I shouldn’t do this because it’s dangerous for me’. He just didn’t have that. We’d see him doing stuff and we’d be like, ‘My God, if I did any of this stuff, I’d be dead twenty years ago!’ We’d never have made it. But he always came up smelling like a rose, and we’d be almost jealous. We’d be like ‘…Man, I can’t do that’. But he could, for a long time.”
Eventually, on a dark Atlanta roadway, Atropos severed his thread. As Mastodon albums have a habit of reminding us, it gets us all in the end.
“So the three Fates seemed fitting,” Dailor says of the album’s loose metaphor. “It’s all pre-planned for you. It’s all kind of worked out. You think that you’re cheating death, but eventually it will get you. We just wanted to remind everybody – once again!”
Marrow Deep sees the injection of two new players into the Mastodon fold, keyboard player João Nogueira and guitarist Nick Johnston. Nogueira, also known as Rasta, is a Brazilian composer, former TV personality and intellectual who contributed to 2021’s stark Hushed and Grim and features as a member of The Claypool Lennon Delirium. Johnston is a Canadian axeman with a string of highly-praised instrumental albums behind him who’s worked alongside the likes of Periphery and Polyphia toured alongside our own Plini. Both became official members of Mastodon in 2025.
“[Nick] and João were integral, I think,” says Dailor. “The way that they were able to, first of all, just be so excited to be there. So excited to be in the room at a time where, quite honestly, I was having trouble getting out of bed to go over to the studio. It was like maybe six days after Brent had died, and everything that was just heaped on top, I just felt like this really heavy grief that manifests itself in a physical way sometimes.”
The pair also brought a new perspective to the band’s songwriting. Dailor explains that their depth of musical knowledge and theory allowed the others to get over creative obstacles as they prepared the final tracks for the album.
“It was exciting because those guys were providing a lot of music theory, and sometimes you get stagnant and you bang your head up against a wall. So all the transitions and all the things we pored over when we were doing pre-production for the album, it was a lot of João and Nick saying, ‘What about this chord, or what about that chord, to bring us to here?’ It’s almost like the clouds open up and the sun shines through and you finally find the missing piece to a song. Simple chord changes, or not-so-simple chord changes. Just something interesting that we didn’t think of.”
It was nice, he admits, “to finally have a couple of people who know what the hell they’re doing! I’m not a schooled musician. I’m a self-taught player, so it’s nice to have those guys involved.”
Mastodon has always held a welcoming door open for others to collaborate with them. Marrow Deep is no different, with a list of guests that includes Ben Koller and Nate Newton from Converge, Josh Homme, Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe, Neil Fallon from Clutch and two new contributors – Joe Duplantier of Gojira and Geezer Butler. The latter two make appearances on ‘The Vanishing,’ which Dailor has clearly dedicated to his mother. The band was already “deeply immersed” in Sabbath from having opened the Back to the Beginning concert, the drummer explains, “and I already live a pretty Sabbath/Ozzy-centric lifestyle. Since I was a little kid, Ozzy and Sabbath have been present for my whole life.”
“My mum’s favourite member of Sabbath was Geezer,” he says with a smile. “She was obsessed with him and his hair. I can hear her saying ‘He writes the lyrics, man!’”
He elaborates further on Butler and Duplantier’s contributions to the track with an evident degree of relish.
“When we came up with [‘The Vanishing’] and put that kind of ‘Planet Caravan’-sounding effect on my vocal and then it sounded like this cosmic journey, psychedelic situation going on. So I decided the lyrics were going to be about maybe going out into the cosmos and making sure that my mother’s constellation hooked up with my sister’s constellation in the universe so I won’t have to worry about them, and that they’ve found each other. So having Geezer do the intro for it just couldn’t have been more perfect for the quote-unquote planets to align like that. And that big heavy moment at the end, I just couldn’t hear anything else but Joe. He was amazing. He was like, ‘What kind of words do you want me to say?’ and I was like just go ‘Arrrgh!!!!’ Just to drive the heaviness of that moment home, Joe had the perfect voice for it. That one was perfect for me.”
When asked if he considers that to be his favourite song from Marrow Deep, he’s circumspect with his answer. He ruminates and explains that he always looks at Mastodon albums as complete works rather than individual songs, so it can be a difficult question to consider.
“It’s hard for me because I see the album as one big piece from start to finish. I’m one of those people. I really don’t like singles. I don’t like to put singles out. It’s a conversation out of context. I’m like, ‘No you can’t show that, you didn’t hear the whole conversation. You’re only hearing this one little tidbit.’”
Dailor makes it his role to decide how the album will flow. In the end, he eventually admits that ‘The Vanishing’ is a favourite track, because it’s different from what might be expected from Mastodon.
“I know what I wanted the first song to be, and I knew what the last song should be within the sequence. The drum intro for ‘Barbarian’s Blood’ was the perfect introduction, when the heavy riff comes in and you go “Wooah!” I look at it like a whole journey, but ‘The Vanishing’ is definitely one of my favourites and it’s a song that I would play for somebody and they probably wouldn’t be able to guess that it was us. I kind of look for that, and it makes me stoked when there’s a song on the album and you don’t even know who it is!”
Brann Dailor is enormously proud of the work he and his bandmates have done on Marrow Deep, and the way they were able to rise above the challenges such personal tragedy wreaked upon them to bring it to the world. He hopes the catharsis they found is contagious.
“I’m super proud of Troy and Bill and Nick and João for trying to quiet the outside world and try to work through all this with the power of music. It’s the only thing we have, and it’s the only thing we know how to do, so it definitely helped. We hope that the feeling on the songs translates and helps somebody.”
