Read this: Mastodon: 20 years of triumph, tragedy and scaling the metal mountain
Recently, when talking about the direction of their forthcoming new record, Bill considered that fans might be surprised – or even unhappy – with what's to come.
“Let’s put it this way: when we put a record out and there’s half of our fans like, ‘Fuck these guys! They’re fucking selling out or they’re turning a certain corner where we don’t feel comfortable here anymore,’” he said. “I feel like, ‘You know what? We’re gaining more people over here because we’re actually growing as a band; because I’m still writing.’”
Detailing Mastodon's evolution, he continued: “For me, our band, if you put our first album against even three or four albums ago, you’d be like, ‘These are the same band? Holy shit.’ It is no exception with our latest record that we’re working on.
“It’s moving forward, and we’re kind of turning the corner to the next thing. I can’t sit still in the same… like AC/DC – awesome band – every record they got to a point where they just have the same formula, three chords – awesome three chords. The Ramones, same thing; Slayer, same kind of thing. It really just kind of gotten that groove, I don’t want everyone to get in that groove.”