Dry Bone Valley

Album: The Hunter (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song was written in 2006 in Italy while Mastodon were in Europe on the Blood Mountain tour. The band also penned "Crack The Skye" on the same day.
  • Vocalist and bassist Troy Sanders recalled to Kerrang! magazine: "Brent (Hinds, vocals/guitar) was playing a real simple, Melvin-ish rock riff and I just took out my Dictaphone and recorded him. Five years later, it was still rocking, so Brent relearned it and we threw in some other interesting ideas and we started grooving to it."
  • The animated video was directed by Californian pop-surrealist artist Tim Biskup, whose artwork is highly regarded by the band. Biskup explained the concept behind the clip as, "basically about waking up to find yourself being chased by death and having to reckon with dying and what that actually means to you."
    "It's a life/death metaphor where the girl in the video goes from hunted to hunter," he continued. "There's a whole lot more going on metaphorically, and the symbolism goes very deep and is very specific, but I'll leave the rest up to interpretation."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Rufus Wainwright

Rufus WainwrightSongwriter Interviews

Rufus Wainwright on "Hallelujah," his album Unfollow The Rules, and getting into his "lyric trance" on 12-hour walks.

Female Singers Of The 90s

Female Singers Of The 90sMusic Quiz

The ladies who ruled the '90s in this quiz.

Tanita Tikaram

Tanita TikaramSongwriter Interviews

When she released her first album in 1988, Tanita became a UK singing sensation at age 19. She talks about her darkly sensual voice and quirky songwriting style.

Cheerleaders In Music Videos

Cheerleaders In Music VideosSong Writing

It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee JonesSongwriter Interviews

Rickie Lee Jones on songwriting, social media, and how she's handling Trump.

Rush: Album by Album - A Conversation With Martin Popoff

Rush: Album by Album - A Conversation With Martin PopoffSong Writing

A talk with Martin Popoff about his latest book on Rush and how he assessed the thousands of albums he reviewed.