Metal continues to mutate and shapeshift in innumerable ways, more than 40 years after it first emerged. In this day and age there is a taste for everyone, from fluffy pop metal to the darkest black metal and everything in between.

Generally bands work within their sub-genre, but Mastodon are leading the charge for a few that are incorporating multiple styles into their music and churning out some fascinating and refreshing variations on the metal theme.

Bassist Troy Sanders (trivia: who happens to be the grandson of Colonel Sanders) is on the line from the US discussing their latest album Crack The Skye, which has seen the band reach a new plateau – both in their artistic achievements and the size of their audience.

“2009 has been a huge year for the band with the release of the album and some intensive touring,” he states. “It’s been extremely busy, but very productive. We’ve just been on tour for the whole year basically. We wanted to take this record to the world live and that’s what we’re doing.”

The release of Crack The Skye has seen the band stretch out musically, incorporating both harsher and subtler sounds. “We were hoping to capture a classic rock sounding record, if Mastodon could do one. We wanted to dive in and focus on melody, whether that was with the music or the vocals or whether it was a slow or fast song. We spent a lot more time on the art of song crafting, we spent more time writing this record than we’ve ever done before,” explains Sanders.

“We just went meticulously over every part, every arrangement, every song placement. We wanted every riff to be right, all the lyrics to be right. We wanted every little piece to be right so when you put it all together it is one awesome, bad-ass wholesome piece of art that we call our album.”

That melting pot of styles has seen the band embraced by a wide range of metal fans, something the band pride themselves on. “We strive not to be a one-dimensional band. We are inspired by many and influenced by all genres, so that’s why we can pull out bits of rock – œn roll, bits of psychedelica, bits of thrash, bits of jazz, bits of funk, bits of everything. That just rears its head authentically in all four of us. We’re fortunate to have a unique chemistry between the four of us and therefore it happens naturally. We are fortunate and proud of that.”

In line with creating their so called – œclassic’ album, Mastodon went straight to the top and brought in Brendan O’Brien to produce the record. “He’s got a giant discography of records that he has produced. He’s a real rock – œn roll guy with AC/DC, Aerosmith, Black Crowes and Pearl Jam. He’s done Springsteen and Dylan and we felt that every record he’s done, regardless of the band, has been a big clean, awesome sounding representation of what that band sounds like live.

“This being our rock – œn roll album, he was the perfect guy to get big drum sounds, awesome classic sounding guitar tones. Just big and bad-ass all the way round. The playing was all us but the production was all him, so we felt it was a pretty authentic and awesome combination,” Sanders enthuses.

One of the interesting additions to the special version of Crack The Skye is the inclusion of instrumental versions of all of the songs. The band was keen to give the listeners another angle with which to approach the album.

“You pull the lyrics away and we thought it’d be interesting for people to just listen to the instrumental part of it and kind of create their own journey. It’s interesting for the fans of the band to hear the music, because so much is going on, you can immerse yourself in just the music as well without the story going on top of it.”

Mastodon’s artwork is a definitive part of their image. It is firmly rooted in the metal tradition of sorcery, myths and strange creatures, but artist Paul Romano has developed his own unique style that injects some new life into the often clichéd images.

“He was working with Relapse Records back in 2001 when we put out our first EP. We met with him and discussed having something simple like mountains and clouds that just showed elements of earth and things of nature that are big and bold and beautiful. That was our first low-budget release and then we continued to grow artistically with him and as friends. We kept going back to him because he understands the band and the art and the stories we tell him. It never broke, so we didn’t fix it.”

2009 brings up a decade of making music together for Mastodon. Sanders pauses for reflection on the last ten years and recalls that there were no goals and milestones established when the band first got together.

“We had no expectations; we met and realised all four of us thought alike on certain levels so we just started jamming music to see where it would take us. No one can ever say: – œWe’re going to do this for ten years and see where this takes us’. It’s like a four-way marriage here, so it’s really rare to make this shit work. We had no expectations. We dove straight in head first and then we looked back and thought, – œWow, we’ve got ten years under our belt’.”

So if Mastodon have indeed made their classic rock record, where to from here? After the Australian Big Day Out tour they intend to take a break and then begin the process of creating a new album – something that is a blank canvas at this stage.

“We haven’t even discussed where we go from here because we’ve just been on tour since it came out. When we stop touring we’ll go home and let the ideas come to us. For now the possibilities are unlimited and I have no idea where we’re going from here…”

Crack The Skye is out now on Warner Music. Mastodon plays the national Big Day Out tour, plus these sideshows.

Thursday 21 January – The Roundhouse, Sydney
Thursday 28 January – The Palace, Melbourne