Songfacts®:

• Mastodon recorded "Sickle and Peace" for Hushed and Grim, an album that largely deals with the loss of Mastodon's longtime friend and manager Nick John. Their fallen comrade passed away from pancreatic cancer in September 2018. "It's about taking the factual, brutal darkness of a life's moment, then really trying to navigate through and beyond it," bassist Troy Sanders told Kerrang. "Writing and recording this record was like grief counselling for me: started out feeling horrific, came out feeling fantastic. Even if we wanted to write a happier record, we couldn't. Our band doesn't work that way. We can't just shovel all of the darkness aside and say that everything was great."
• The eerie track explores how despite being sad for those left behind, death is a mercy to those who are suffering.
  
  Death comes and brings with him sickle and peace
  Shelter from storms come with long flowing robes
• Darby Rose Tapley, the daughter of Hushed and Grim recording engineer Tom Tapley, supplies the creepy vocals at the beginning.
• Mastodon recorded Hushed And Grim at West End Sound, the band's fully kitted-out recording studio. It is situated in the basement of Ember City, the rehearsal facility that the Mastodon band members manage in Atlanta.
• Canadian producer David Bottrill, who has previously worked with Peter Gabriel, Muse and Tool, oversaw Hushed And Grim. His prog-rock leanings influenced this swirling, epic journey, which features several significant shifts. "This is a song of sophistication that could not have been made on our earlier records," Troy Sanders told Apple Music. "'Sickle and Peace' is a culmination of all things Mastodon showcased in about six minutes."