METAL AND MORTALITY

Mastodon guitarist says mom’s death adds sad edge to music

Creating an album in the middle of heartache is what Bill Kelliher was forced to do.

“I found out my mom had gotten sick and she was diagnosed with cancer and it was fatal,” the guitarist said. “It was right at the same time, there was a lot of things going on in my life at the time. I had just gotten off tour, and I was just opening up a new rehearsal facility in Atlanta for a bunch of bands. I was trying to get a rental property and get that all fixed up, and then I get this phone call that my mom has terminal cancer. … She’s in New York and I’m in Georgia, so I was racing back and forth and … it helped me focus more on really digging in deep in my writing.”

The result is Mastodon’s recent album, “Emperor of Sand.” Mastodon also recently released “Cold Dark Place,” an EP containing a few songs that did not make it onto the 2014 album “Once More ’Round the Sun.”

“It was like, OK, well I’m just going to pour my heart and soul into this,” Kelliher said of “Emperor of Sand.” “It was more of a distraction of what was really happening than like therapeutic or anything. It was therapeutic too, but it was every time I think of these songs or play these songs or hear these songs I think of my mom, of course. It’s like with every record I remember where we were when we were writing it, where we were when we were recording it, what kind of circumstances were happening, where the band was at and all that kind of stuff. For me, it’s kind of a sad record; in my case, it didn’t pan out to have a happy ending. It was pretty tragic. You know, unfortunately, that’s life. Death is part of living.”

Opening up about personal matters is what keeps Mastodon real.

“I think that’s why people come to our shows and listen to our music, because we wear our heart on the outside of our chest kind of where people can see it,” Kelliher said.