Thunderous fun with Mastodon

Atlanta-based heavy-metal band Mastodon's newest album, "The Hunter," peaked at No. 10 on Billboard's Top 200 chart, and the lead single, "Curl of the Burl," has found a home on Billboard's rock songs chart.

"The Hunter" is getting noticed, with positive reviews from Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone and many others - including AbsolutePunk.net, which says "the 52 minutes you spend with this album will be the most interesting 52 minutes of your day."

Calling from Salt Lake City, drummer Brann Dailor talked with us about the band's decision to make a stress-free album, dedicate it to a departed brother and give fans an "augmented reality" experience.

With your new album, how is the writing style different from past albums?

We felt like things were getting real progressive with "Crack the Skye" (2009). It was a really stressful album to write. Making that album, we really dug deep and got in the trenches and went around in circles trying to figure out how to shoehorn these mathematical equations together to make these 15-minute-long songs. It was the same way with "Blood Mountain" (2006). So basically this time around, we decided we were going to eliminate the stress.... Even though there's a lot of pride in the fact that you've challenged yourself, we felt we didn't need that this time around. It was a nice change to go in and just play and be satisfied with what was coming out.

There's a dedication on the album, to Brad Hinds...

The album is dedicated to Brent's brother (Brent Hinds is lead guitarist/vocalist), who passed away while hunting. It was a real tragedy and real unexpected, and I think it's a fitting tribute. Everybody is going to lose someone close to them at some point in their lives, but not everyone has this kind of artistic platform.

Pick one song on the album, and explain its lyrics.

"Dry Bone Valley" is about someone trying to escape his own death. He wakes up being chased by a herd of water buffalo, which is the Tibetan symbol of death.

Something for the fans...

We always try to do something interesting with the packaging, and, as you know, you can't just put out a record these days. But it has forced artists to dig a little deeper and find cool things to give to fans. We are a visually artistic-geared group and big fans of visual and pop art.... AJ Fosik did the album cover of the wood sculpture (of the hunter's head), and it was a cool opportunity to do this augmented reality thing and have kids be able to totally immerse themselves in the experience and have that head be their head. (After you buy the CD, go to www.mastodonrocks.com to launch the effect.)

Patty Jenkins, (757) 446-2298, patty.jenkins@pilotonline.com