Time to catch up on the new rock on Z975!

When the word “mastodon” comes to mind, my first thought takes me back to my child hood and trips to the museum. This prehistoric relative to the elephant often gets confused with the Mammoth. Mastodons are shorter, stockier and have straighter tusks than a mammoth.

Mastodon turned out to be a perfect name for the Atlanta rockers who mix elements of sludge, stoner, alternative and progressive rock styles.

Bassist Troy Sanders:

We don’t consider ourselves a metal band. We recognize there is a lot of metal in us, but we also want to believe we have a lot of rock ‘n’ roll in us, and we have a lot of progressive rock in us, we have bits and pieces of thrash and punk, and psychedelic-ness sprinkled throughout. A lot of times for me personally, just having the metal tag itself seems kind of limiting on us because we have such an appreciation for all styles of music and we like to incorporate bits and pieces of those into our songs. But we also recognize all the different subgenres and the millions of times people say, “Oh, what do they sound like?” and you say something, I understand that. But, it doesn’t affect how we create anything at all,

In short, it’s hard to put a label on them and they are okay with that.

They just released their eighth studio alum, Hushed and Grim, a double album that pays tribute to the band’s longtime manager and friend, Nick John, who passed away.

Check out the first track, “Teardrinker”