MASTODON's Brent Hinds discusses the band's latest album, The Hunter, in a new interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com. An excerpt is available below:

UG: Did you feel Mastodon had run the course with Crack the Skye in terms of those concept types of records?

Hinds: "Yep, I did."

UG: Did you say, “Where do we go now?”

Hinds: "No, I didn’t say, 'Where do we go?' I said, 'We’re not gonna go over there again.'

UG: You weren’t sure what you wanted to do next?

HInds: "Well of course, I knew exactly where I wanted to go—I wanted to dedicate an album to my brother and I wanted to pay homage to the fallen loved ones. That was basically my idea."

UG: You worked with 50 Cent and Eminem producer Mike Elizondo. Was he involved early in the recording process?

HInds: "Yeah, he came down to the practice PA and watched us play music and we felt his vibe and he felt our vibe and we were all copasetic with each other. And we’re like, 'Yeah, man, let’s work together. You’re totally an awesome dude. I don’t care if you’ve produced rap music—I could care less. I just need someone to get this album done for us you know.' Originally I was pushing Warner Bros. to let me produce it but I don’t have enough releases yet to have that kind of a faith in such a corporation I guess at this point in my life. We took Mike and he said he was available and he was ready and he was stoked and that’s all we need—we need availability and we need excitement; we need new faces. A familiar situation can kind of get you back where you were and you don’t wanna ever go backwards when you’re creating art. You kinda wanna move forward with it and kinda get your palette cleansed all the time and for me I thought it was a really refreshing move to have a new artist, a new producer, a new sound, a new look. Shit, I even lost 30 pounds."

Click here for the complete interview.

New quality footage of Mastodon performing 'Crystal Skull' at Ace Of Spades in Sacramento, California on November 2nd can be seen below. The clip was produced and edited by The Mighty Z. Camera operators: Zoran Theodorovic (close up) and El Muerte (wide angle).

Already confirmed to perform five shows as part of Soundwave 2012 - Australia's travelling festival that runs February 25th to March 5th - Mastodon has announced a pair of Sidewave headlining concerts down under.

Scheduled for February 27th in Melbourne at Billboard, and March 1st in Sydney at The Hi Fi, support on both shows will come from GOJIRA and KVELERTAK. Tickets go on sale December 15th.

Soundwave will play the following dates:

February

25 - Brisbane, Australia - Rna Showgrounds
26 - Sydney, Australia - Showground

March

2 - Melbourne, Australia - Showgrounds
3 - Adelaide, Australia - Bonython Park
5 - Perth, Australia - Claremont Showgrounds

For more info visit the festival’s website.