Mastodon Prepared to Record Leviathan By Playing the Whole Album Every Night on Tour
Today kicks off the double-headlining “Ashes of Leviathan” tour in which Lamb of God and Mastodon will be playing their albums Ashes of the Wake and Leviathan, respectively, in their entirety, celebrating the 20th anniversary of both albums. As exciting as that is, it seems that this won’t be the first time that Mastodon will have played Leviathan all the way through on a tour: that’s apparently how they got prepared to record the album.
In a recent interview in the Consequence series “Two for the Road” (which was transcribed by Metal Injection) where two artists interview each other, Mastodon singer and bassist Troy Sanders and Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton interviewed each other ahead of the double-headlining tour and Sanders revealed that, on the tour immediately before the recording session for Leviathan when Mastodon was opening for Clutch, they played Leviathan every night on the tour:
“We had put out Lifesblood [in 2001] on Relapse and then Remission [in 2002], and we were just toured basements and VHF halls and boat sheds and, you know, we lived by BookYourOwnLife.com. Our friends in Clutch invited us to open for them in 2003, and we decided that we were an unknown band and we had all this new material for a new record which was going to be Leviathan.
“So we played Leviathan pretty much start to finish opening for Clutch for an entire month. The tour was East Coast all the way through the US, and wound up in Seattle where we recorded Leviathan with Matt Balis at Litho Studios. So we rehearsed Leviathan in front of a crowd that had never heard any of those songs ever, in the time where no one had a phone recording all the stuff – all your new stuff, not that it would meant much to us at the time, anyway.
“But we were a relatively unknown band playing a whole record of unfamiliar material to an entire run opening for Clutch, for thousands of people collectively. We got to Seattle and sure enough we were pretty damn well rehearsed on the material. We recorded Leviathan and it came out… you know, we really stretched ourselves doing the Moby Dick story, and thankfully it worked out well because a month later we were on tour with Lamb Of God and Slayer.”
That’s certainly a good way to get the new album perfectly rehearsed for the recording session. Ultimately it paid off, as they produced a legendary metal album, so it seems like the best decision in the long run.
If you want to catch the big “Ashes of Leviathan” tour, here’s the tour dates:
Ashes of Leviathan Tour
Jul 19 – Grand Prairie, TX – Texas Trust CU Theatre
Jul 20 – Austin, TX – Germania Insurance Amphitheater
Jul 21 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall
Jul 23 – Jacksonville, FL – Daily’s Place
Jul 24 – Orlando, FL – Orlando Amphitheater
Jul 25 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Jul 27 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater
Jul 28 – Richmond, VA – Virginia Credit Union LIVE!
Jul 30 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
Jul 31 – London, ON – Budweiser Gardens
Aug 1 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
Aug 3 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
Aug 4 – Manchester, NH – SNHU Arena
Aug 6 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheatre
Aug 8 – Reading, PA – Santander Arena**
Aug 9 – Cleveland, OH – Jacobs Pavilion**
Aug 10 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre @ Freedom Hill**
Aug 13 – Moorhead, MN – Bluestem Center For The Arts Amphitheater
Aug 15 – Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome
Aug 16 – Penticton, BC – South Okanagan Events Centre
Aug 17 – Kent, WA – accesso ShoWare Center
Aug 18 – Portland, OR – Theater of the Clouds
Aug 21 – Los Angeles, CA – The Kia Forum
Aug 23 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
Aug 24 – Rio Rancho, NM – Rio Rancho Events Center
Aug 25 – El Paso, TX – El Paso County Coliseum
Aug 27 – Magna, UT – The Great Saltair
Aug 29 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Aug 31 – Omaha, NE – The Astro Amphitheater
**No Malevolence, Support from Kerry King & Unearth
