After nearly three years since Mastodon’s sixth studio album of Once More ‘Round the Sun, it appears their seventh release will drop sooner than we think and hope. Loudwire recently conducted an interview with drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor about the upcoming release as they finished the recording. Dailor cleared out the rumor of it being a double album as he stated that they trimmed it down to clocking in for at about an hour’s worth of material.

Loudwire asked about the concept of the new album and Dailor revealed the new material would be based upon cancer after the band experienced a few losses including the recent death of Bill Kelliher’s mother a few months back due to a brain tumor. As Dailor reflected about the upcoming album he revealed:

“There is a tie, a concept that goes between them. The last couple of years have been not, there’s been some illness within the bands family, there’s been a bunch cancer, so the whole album is sort of all about cancer basically. Well, not literally. It’s a big story that sort roped to go along with it. It takes place in the desert.”

This isn’t a first for Mastodon to write tragedies into their music. 2009’s Crack the Skye was a dedication to the memory of Dailor’s sister who committed suicide at the age of 14. Hopefully, once the artwork is fully laid out, we will receive an official release date since this could be one of the most anticipated album releases of 2017, especially given it’s heavy concept.