Mastodon

So, Cold Dark Place is actually a thing! Back, when Mastodon were writing Emperor of Sand, there was talk about a double album, with the second half being written entirely by Brent Hinds. That obviously didn't happen, as EoS ended up being a single record. Then, in the best interview ever made (check it out below), Brent said an album called "Cold Dark Place" will be released "on Record Store Day in June". The record is supposedly about a "nasty breakup". Brent described it as "pretty dark, beautiful, spooky, funky, ethereal, melancholy music, which also sounds like the Bee Gees a little bit."

Appearing near the dawn of the 21st century, Atlanta's Mastodon established themselves as one of the most original and influential American metal bands. Their wide-angle progressive approach encompasses stoner and sludge metal, punishing hardcore and metalcore, neo-psych, death metal, and more - sometimes in the span of a single song. The group's playing style incorporates heavy, technically complex guitar riffs, lyric hooks, long, melodic instrumental passages, and intricate, jazz-influenced drumming with syncopated time signatures. Their second album, 2004's Leviathan, was a concept offering based on Moby Dick, Herman Melville's iconic novel of whaling and obsession, and proved the band's commercial and critical breakthrough. Since its release, the record has attained status as one of the most important albums in heavy metal's history…

Medium Rarities presents a bevy of classic covers, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides, and live recordings on one complete package for the very first time.

Mastodon's constant state of musical evolution dictated that the weirder, often complexly brutal progressive excursions on earlier albums took a back seat to pile-driving riffs and more approachable melodies on 2014's Once More ’Round the Sun and 2017's Emperor of Sand. The David Bottril-produced Hushed and Grim embodies their history of musical experimentation in 15 songs that crisscross prog, stoner, doom, and psych metal through vanguard and earworm melodies amid sometimes exotic modal, dynamic, and textural excursions…