Hushed and Grim

The band worked with David Bottrill, a producer known for Tool, Rush, Muse and Peter Gabriel. Recording ran about a year in their hometown. The room was West End Sound, the studio inside Ember City, the Atlanta rehearsal facility Mastodon's members manage. The record says goodbye to Nick John, the band's longtime manager and friend, who also managed Gojira and died of pancreatic cancer in September 2018. Paul Romano, who drew the sleeves for Leviathan, Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye, came back for the cover, and Brann Dailor has said the green man at the heart of the tree is John. Kim Thayil solos on "Had It All" and Marcus King on "The Beast". The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Hard Rock Albums chart, Mastodon's third topper there, with 20,000 equivalent album units in its opening week, 18,000 of them album sales; it also started at No. 2 on Top Rock Albums and No. 20 on the Billboard 200.