Comprised of Claudio Sanchez (Vocals / Guitar), Travis Stever (Guitar), Josh Eppard (Drums) and Zach Cooper (Bass), Coheed and Cambria have gripped listeners and press around the globe with their visionary compositions and conceptual mastery. In 2018, Coheed and Cambria made a stunning return with their new album THE UNHEAVENLY CREATURES, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s “Hard Rock Albums” chart, #6 current sales and Top 15 on the “Billboard 200” chart. Boasting 15 songs over 78 minutes, THE UNHEAVENLY CREATURES marked Coheed and Cambria’s furious return to concept albums, the ‘First Act’ in a brand-new story arc set within the backdrop of The Amory Wars universe. The acclaimed record is highlighted by standout tracks “The Gutter,” “Unheavenly Creatures,” “The Dark Sentencer” (premiered by Marvel Studios) and “Old Flames,” the latter of which features an official music video directed by Charles “Chas” Todd. The cinematic clip features striking choreography masterminded by Broadway luminary Jon Rua who is known for his roles in the 12-time Tony nominated Spongebob Squarepants and the Tony & Grammy Award Winning hit musical Hamilton.  More recently, Coheed and Cambria teamed up with GRAMMY Award-winning singer Rick Springfield for a sequel to one of the most iconic stories in rock ‘n’ roll history with “Jessie’s Girl 2” and launched their very owncoffee brand, Coheed and Cambria Coffee Roasters. 

The process of innovation doesn’t sit still or sleep. Instead, it relies on constant motion. In 2015, Periphery landed two albums in the Top 20 of Billboard’s Top 200 chart as Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega respectively bowed at #15 and #16 during the same week. Meanwhile, the intertwined conceptual epic garnered praise from Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Outburn, and more. Only months after the release, the Washington, D.C. progressive metal disruptors—Misha Mansoor [guitars, programming], Jake Bowen [guitar, programming, backing vocals], Matt Halpern [drums], Spencer Sotelo [lead vocals], Mark Holcomb [guitars], and Adam “Nolly” Getgood [studio bass, guitars, programming]—collectively decided to start creating what would become their 2016 full-length, Periphery III: Select Difficulty [Sumerian Records].

“We ended up with a bit of downtime, so we wrote,” explains Misha. “We’re always working on ideas, and you want to bring them to life when you can. We saw a window of opportunity where we had a little bit of space in the schedule, and we thought, ‘Let’s get to work on new music.’ Juggernaut was so long and comparatively stressful. It took six months. Initially, we decided to try and make an EP. Everybody was down with that. With this fresh start, we were all hooked. This was our first stress-free experience. The time crunch actually helped it become the most cohesive too. It all turned into Periphery III.”

 “We write what we feel,” adds Jake. “It came together very naturally. Normally, we stick to the cycle of put out an album, tour for a year, and then record another album. This time, we felt an itch and just kept moving forward.”

Forward progression defines Periphery’s trajectory. Since the release of 2010’s self-titled debut, the band has covered magazines such as Guitar World, Revolver, Modern Drummer, Bass Player, and more. Boasting a relentless touring ethic, they’ve packed venues on bills with everyone from Deftones and Dream Theater to Between The Buried and Me. In addition to performing at festivals such as Rock on the Range, Chicago Open Air, Download, and more, the musicians lead their own summer camp: the “Periphery Summer Jam.”

Going into their latest offering, the boys would continue to embrace that evolutionary spirit. Expanding the sonic palette, Misha bought a Moog synthesizer and incorporated it into the framework of the album. He also drew from orchestral libraries to infuse a cinematic scope.

 “I wanted to get the hang of synthesis and learn how to use it a little better,” he remarks. “I didn’t expect it to be on the record, but now it’s on every song! The orchestration really adds something as well.”

Periphery III kickstarts on the chugging smash of the first single “The Price Is Wrong.” Driven by an artillery of neck-snapping guitars and a stunning groove, it immediately sets the record’s tone.

“It’s like handing somebody a grenade,” smiles Jake. “It’s so in-your-face and brutal for us. It was a great way to start.”

“Every one of our albums has a nice long intro, and we were like, ‘Let’s kick this off with a drum fill and a pissed-off riff,’” laughs Misha. “It’s something we haven’t done. It was fun.”

On the other end of the spectrum, the seven minute-plus closer “Lune” marks a first for Periphery. The sweeping orchestral climax actually saw its genesis during a jam in Misha’s apartment.

“It’s a special one for a number of reasons,” admits Misha. “We’re attached to it. We literally never jam, so we did the next best thing at my place. I setup all of the amps and pedals. Matt was drumming on his legs, and we started playing one by one. It was such a cool experiment. It’s a love song.”

 “Remain Indoors” unloads a striking sonic schizophrenia, while “Flatline” showcases a precision polyrhythmic pummeling evocative of the band’s most beloved sonic hallmarks.

“It’s a killer,” Jake goes on. “We actually tracked the first three riffs backstage in Pittsburgh on tour. We never get to do that. It’s broken up into two sections with this normal Periphery energy and this mysterious build-up at the end.”

Once again, Misha and “Nolly” spearheaded production and engineering. Another change occurred following recording though, when “Nolly” announced he would remain a studio member based back home in the UK, but no longer tour in order to focus on his production work and family.

“He’ll still be there and write with us,” affirms Misha. “He’s such an important part of the process. We don’t want to change that dynamic. We have him where he’s most important.”

“He’s a good friend and a brother, and he brings something to this music nobody else can,” agrees Jake.

Charging full speed ahead, Periphery continue to make seismic impact with Periphery III: Select Difficulty.

“I hope everyone thinks this is fun and enjoyable to listen to,” Misha leaves off. “We enjoyed making it, and I still love listening to it. We want to share that.”

“I’m so happy with how it came out,” concludes Jake. “This is Periphery being Periphery. This is all we know how to do.”

 

Death is inevitable. Time is a precious, finite resource. Regret springs solely from our collective inability to square these two truths. A friend suddenly passes away and you’re left to think about all those times where you could have said how much you appreciate them and didn’t - because you figured there would always be a next time. A partnership collapses and you’re left to reflect on the moments you took for granted, the ways you could have been more present. A band lacks the foresight to predict that touring will cease to exist for two years and doesn’t leave it all on the stage that last night; or, think of the fan that doesn’t stick around for the encore because they wanted an extra half hour of sleep.

These concerns were not hypothetical for Mastodon. The core lineup has been in place for 21 years, an eternity in the highest echelons of metal, where even the most legendary band names eventually become brands staffed by a rotating cast of hired guns. And yet, Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher, and Troy Sanders experienced enough individual and collective tragedy to threaten their adamantine bond - the death of their longtime friend and manager Nick John after battling pancreatic cancer, a devastating global pandemic that put their faith, families, and livelihoods in jeopardy. Mastodon’s decades of success and the brotherhood between its four members had not made them any more immune to the possibility that it could all splinter tomorrow. Mastodon had a glimpse of the end and committed to a new beginning - and Hushed And Grim does not take a single moment for granted.

And there are more of these moments than on any previous Mastodon release. It initially feels reductive to simply describe Hushed And Grim as Mastodon’s ninth album - at 88 minutes, their first double LP boldly defies conventional assumptions about attention spans in the streaming era. With the expanse of a studio film, the texture of a novel and the breadth of a Greatest Hits, Hushed And Grim is Mastodon paying tribute to John by building an eternal monument. “He’s always been an influence when he was alive,” Hinds wistfully states. “And he’s even more of an influence now.”

Consider why double albums are frequently called “monumental.” Mastodon is very much aware of what this format says about their legacy in heavy music. Dailor recalls his formative teenage years absorbing every note of world-building epics like The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Physical Graffiti, and The Wall, milestone works from bands whose inspiration and craft have simultaneously reached a zenith. “It takes some balls to put out a double album these days or takes some ovaries,” Dailor quips. “I've been trying to say ovaries because I think it's more powerful.”

Mastodon fundamentally altered the course of 21st century metal on 2004’s classic Leviathan, and every album thereafter continued to shape the genre in their image. In 2018, five-time nominees Mastodon won their first GRAMMY®, with “Sultan’s Curse” earning Best Metal Performance. Arguably more impressive was Emperor of Sand being nominated for Best Rock Album, with lead single “Show Yourself” hitting the top five on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart. Without sacrificing an iota of their intensity and intelligence, Mastodon’s imprint on pop culture has spread from Adult Swim to late night network television, from the History Channel’s Counting Cars to HBO’s Game of Thrones, from DC Comics Dark Knight Metal to Bill and Ted Face the Music.

But as Sanders points out, “the most solid representation of us is when we get in our cycle and craft a wholesome, dynamic and beautiful record from top to bottom. That's what we ultimately thrive on.” Hushed And Grim only emphasizes what the band’s many accomplishments has expressed to this point - Mastodon have transcended genre of any kind, animated by an unwillingness to compromise that results in their most expansive and accessible release yet. There are no interludes, no filler, none of the stereotypical bloat that accompanies even the most revered double albums. With the spirit of Nick John coursing throughout its entirety, “every song has a place in our hearts,” Kelliher stresses.

Throughout, Mastodon travel through time and space, through memory and imagination, drawing on their experience and formative influences to open new portals. On “Pushing the Tides,” they exist at the thrilling intersection of metal and post-hardcore, “The Beast”’s heaving Southern rock, replete with a countrified contribution from guitarist Marcus King, creates an alternate history of the Allman Brothers sharing a bottle of Jack Daniels with Black Sabbath, “Had it All” features a guitar solo from Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil and some classical French Horn by Jody Sanders, Mother of Troy, reimagining Mastodon as a band intermingling with the monsters of Headbanger’s Ball. It’s all overseen by the legendary producer David Bottrill now including Hushed And Grim alongside his prior progressive pop landmarks from Peter Gabriel, Tool and King Crimson.

Yet for all of their technical mastery and ambitious musicianship, the most daring aspect of Hushed And Grim comes from the voices of Mastodon themselves. It’s not just in the tremendous growth all members have made as vocal performers, exemplified in the explosive shouts of “The Crux” and the aching refrain of “Skeleton of Splendor”; there’s an unmistakable expressive grit that cannot be coached, that takes years of endurance and pain to unlock. 

As Mastodon’s music continues to expand outward, each member traveled inward, more deeply to unearth their most emotionally transparent lyrics yet. “One thing I've noticed about longevity is that you kind of eliminate layers of bullshit and become more honest,” Sanders muses. In the past, Mastodon albums were so memorable in their metaphorical heft that it threatened to swallow them whole - they’re the Moby Dick band, the Rasputin band, the guys who wrote about wolves and skulls. “We pull authentic emotion from our life experiences,” Sanders explains. “And we channel that through the art that we call Mastodon.” And the themes of heartbreak, of joy and hope that have always underpinned the band’s most referential work are pushed to the fore on Hushed And Grim.

Look, they’re still called Mastodon - the metal is here, Kelliher and Hinds’ riffs are still massive, Sanders’ bass can level a mountain and Dailor’s drumming is every bit as dazzling in its intricacies. Yet, the towering “Had It All” was originally built from Sanders’ simple acoustic strum, Kelliher and Hinds’ interplay impresses with a newfound, nimble sense of melody and Dailor’s restraint is as thrilling as his blinding fills as “The Beast” brings a slow Southern shuffle to their repertoire. But Hushed And Grim dares you to see Mastodon as what they’ve always been - four friends from Atlanta who are subject to the same struggles as you and I. “I’ve turned the grief to medicine,” “I feel the pressure,” “death comes and brings with him sickle and peace,” “leaving you behind is the hardest thing I’ve done,” these are their refrains, to be shared between Mastodon and the listener as equals. “My love, so strong/The mountains we made in the distance/Those will stay with us” - these are Mastodon’s parting words on the closing “Gigantium,” and we is all-inclusive, to themselves, to the fans that have stuck with them throughout the years, and the new ones to come. And to Nick Johns’. Our time together can’t possibly last forever and, inevitably, Mastodon may one day be no more. Hushed And Grim will remain.