As the drummer and co-vocalist of Mastodon, Brann Dailor is certainly familiar with making concept records. Still, he takes a hard sci-fi left turn with The Exodus of Gravity, the latest album from his side project, Arcadea.
The story of The Exodus of Gravity, which was created by band member Core Atoms, takes place some 5 billion years in the future, long after the time of human beings.
“There’s these machines that are infected with these spores that give them this attachment to organic life, [and it] starts to make them human,” Dailor tells ABC Audio. “And the first feelings they achieve is the feeling of love.”
To soundtrack this futuristic journey, Dailor swaps out the heavy metal riffs of Mastodon for synths with Arcadea.
“It’s like taking a weird, heavy rock album and just replacing the guitars with keyboards,” Dailor says. “It just makes it sound a certain way, just because everything’s been replaced.”
He adds, “I do think playing riffs on keyboards forces you to go to some different areas where you might not go if it was strictly on guitar.”
Like with Mastodon, Dailor sings and plays drums on The Exodus of Gravity. Unlike with Mastodon, he isn’t doing both at the same time, and when Arcadea hits the road, he’ll only be handling vocals.
“I sort of made the decision halfway through the recording process, I’m like … ‘I’m singing every single thing, every single song, all the way through,'” Dailor says. “‘I’m not gonna be playing drums for this, it’d be a nightmare!'”
The Exodus of Gravity was released on Friday. Dailor spoke with ABC Audio prior to the death of former Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds on Aug. 20.
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