Pitchfork

While TV on the Radio were busy with their Cookie Mountain, Mastodon made plans to visit a far darker place with an equally high altitude. Come September 12, the latter will drop their newest effort and Warner Bros. debut, Blood Mountain. BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!

In anticipation of this release, the follow-up to 2004's Leviathan (this year's Call of the Mastodon featured early recordings), Mastodon have released the "Crystal Skull" 7" (limited to 2000 copies), courtesy of Relapse Records. Two songs, "Crystal Skull" and "Capillarian Crest", were pulled from Blood Mountain, with the former available for streaming at the link below.

And as if that weren't enough, the LP will be released as part of three different packages-- just the album, the album and a limited edition DVD (containing the 45-minute "The Making of Blood Mountain" documentary), and the record, the DVD, and an exclusive t-shirt, oh boy. Before you cough up the dough, however, try trading Mastodon Star Wars collectibles for merch and concert passes. Heheh.

Adding to the Mastodon mystique, drummer Brann Dailor recently described their two forthcoming music videos, for "Wolf Is Loose" and "Colony of Birchmen", to MTV.com.

For "Wolf Is Loose", "We're ghosts in it, and different body parts of ours will be disappearing and falling off." And for "Birchmen", which includes vocals from Josh Homme, MTV says, "the clip will focus on the story of Blood Mountain: a man embarks on a mission up a treacherous mountain in search of the crystal skull, which he needs to place atop the perilous crag, and encounters a smorgasbord of vile creatures, including a vicious wolf and a Cysquatch-- 'a one-eyed sasquatch that can see into the future,' said Dailor."

Holy mother of god, BEST VIDEO EVER!

Beginning tonight, Mastodon launches a North American headlining trek alongside Converge and the Bronx.

Blood Mountain tracklist:

01 Wolf Is Loose
02 Crystal Skull
03 Sleeping Giant
04 Capillarian Crest
05 Circle of Cysquatch
06 Bladecatcher
07 Colony of Birchmen
08 Hunters of the Sky
09 Hand of Stone
10 This Mortal Soil
11 Siberian Divide
12 Pendulous Skin

Dates:

09-06 Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live *#
09-07 Philadelphia, PA - TLA *#
09-08 New York, NY - Webster Hall *#
09-09 Worcester, MA - Palladium *#
09-10 Montreal, Quebec - Spectrum *#
09-12 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Theatre *#
09-13 Cleveland, OH - House of Blues *#
09-14 Chicago, IL - Metro *#
09-15 Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre *#
09-16 Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's *#
09-18 Lawrence, KS - Granada Theater *#
09-19 Denver, CO - Cervantes *#
09-21 Boise, ID - Big Easy *#
09-22 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater *#
09-23 Seattle, WA - Shoebox *#
09-25 San Francisco, CA - Slim's *#
09-28 Phoenix, AZ - Marquee *#
09-29 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater *#
09-30 San Diego, CA - Soma *#
10-03 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room *
10-04 Austin, TX - Emo's *
10-05 Houston, TX - Meridian *
10-07 Atlanta, GA - Masquerade *
10-15 Tokyo, Japan - Makuhari Messe Loud Park

* with the Bronx
# with Converge