Mastodon Guitarist Says Band Has Shifted Their Sound on New Album

Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher recently spoke to Tone Talk and outlined what he sees as another shift in musical direction on the band’s next album, which is currently in the writing phase. Kelliher made specific reference to Slayer and AC/DC, bands that largely stuck with one sound throughout their careers, and drew a contrast between those acts and the direction Mastodon have taken from album to album.

Asked about his favorite part of Mastodon’s next album, he replied:

“For me, our band, if you put our first album against even three or four albums ago, you’d be like, ‘These are the same band? Holy shit.’ It is no exception with our latest record that we’re working on.

“It’s moving forward, and we’re kind of turning the corner to the next thing. I can’t sit still in the same… like AC/DC – awesome band – every record they got to a point where they just have the same formula, three chords – awesome three chords. The Ramones, same thing; Slayer, same kind of thing. It really just kind of gotten that groove, I don’t want everyone to get in that groove.

“Let’s put it this way: when we put a record out and there’s half of our fans like, ‘Fuck these guys! They’re fucking selling out or they’re turning a certain corner where we don’t feel comfortable here anymore,’ I feel like, ‘You know what? We’re gaining more people over here because we’re actually growing as a band; because I’m still writing.’

“I mean, I’m 50 years old, but I’m going over there today. I’m gonna write something over there, I’m not just gonna go like this the whole time, and I feel like we have a lot of fans in the waiting who are like, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to see what they do next’ because our past few records have been… we mix it up.”

[via Ultimate Guitar]