Prog metal fans the world over have likely given Mastodon's new album Hushed and Grim at least a few spins, but the Atlanta quartet brought the fresh material to the masses earlier this week with a performance of Teardrinker on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Appearing on Tuesday's episode of the talkshow, the band treated the studio audience to a dual electric guitar-laden heavy metal masterclass, with highlights including a dizzying solo from guitarist Brent Hinds and even a bass solo from Troy Sanders.
Footage from the performance has now been posted online – watch it below.
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While Bill Kelliher opts for his signature ESP Sparrowhawk, Brent Hinds can also be seen wielding an unidentifiable model from the Japanese company.
Hinds' guitar sports a double-cut shape, with a matt black finish, two humbuckers and, unusually, what looks to be a Jazzmaster-style floating tremolo – all of which has us pondering: is Brent Hinds ESP's next signature artist?
It's not the band's first ESP signature model tease this month, either; Bill Kelliher used demos for his STL ToneHub Pack as an opportunity to debut his own new Silverburst double-cut from the company.
The band's Seth Myers performance comes hot on the heels of the news that Mastodon have been nominated for a Grammy. They are up for the Best Metal Performance award for their track Pushing the Tides, and are up against the stellar competition of Deftones, Dream Theater, Gojira and Rob Zombie.
Mastodon's new album Hushed and Grim arrived last month via Reprise Records. Described by the band as their “most ambitious body of work to date”, the record – which follows 2017's Emperor of Sand – comprises 15 tracks and clocks in at almost an hour and a half.
Speaking to Talking Metal earlier this year, guitarist Bill Kelliher explained that they went into the process of creating the album “with open minds”, and as a result produced their “fullest‑, biggest-sounding record” so far.
Despite the four-year gap between official studio releases, Mastodon also released another album, Medium Rarities – a collection of cover tunes, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides and live recordings – in 2020.
In a Guitar World interview earlier this year, Kelliher paid tribute to Metallica as they celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Black Album. He recalled touring with the metal giants on a series of dates supporting their 2008 album, Death Magnetic, and shared insight into their grueling work ethic.
“They really work for it,” he said. “They had a mobile practice room, like a shipping container, that went everywhere with them. And every day they would open it up three hours before the gig with Pro Tools set up and everything mic'd up.
“I’m not kidding, they would play for three fucking hours before they played on stage for another two fucking hours. I think it was called the 'Tuning and Attitude' room. They’d be playing different songs every night so they’d be jamming through different setlists while we were sitting around drinking beer and picking our noses!”
