All The Heavy Lifting

Album: The Hunter (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Speaking with Kerrang! magazine, drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor explained: "The title is about having to take on a lot of work yourself. It came from a period when we were writing, it felt like I was the only person going down to the studio. It's a song about things not going as smoothly as they might."
  • Musically, the song is a tribute of sorts to one of Mastodon's favorite metal bands. Said Brent Hinds (vocals/guitar) to Spin: "It kind of sounds like Neurosis, with that evil, minor, creepy sounding stuff." Scott Kelly of Neurosis is a good friend of the band and has made guest appearances on several Mastodon tracks including "Crack The Skye" and "Spectrelight."
  • Guitarist Bill Kelliher told the story of the song to MusicRadar.com: "Brann and I threw that one around. He hums a lot of stuff, and I'll figure it out on guitar. I tuned down to A, which gets a really great sound. During the chorus, once I heard the vocals, I could tell the song was going to be amazing, so I put in some really evil harmony guitars. Actually, that's another song I worked on away from the studio. I recorded some stuff on my laptop backstage in Berlin. You gotta jump when the time is right, you know?"

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