Arcadea is Brann Dailor (left) and Core Atoms. Their new album, “The Exodus of Gravity,” is out August 22. (Photo by Calina Walker)
The drummer and vocalist’s sophomore album with the synth-driven Arcadea is out on August 22.
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In Mastodon, Atlanta’s progressive metal juggernaut, drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor is one of four alchemical chefs that serve up swirling, nightmarishly ethereal journeys into the human psyche and the nature of reality and consciousness. With Arcadea, his collaboration with keyboardist/guitarist Core Atoms, Dailor takes that surrealistic journey into synthesizer-laden realms of science fiction and psychedelia. The group’s sophomore album, The Exodus of Gravity, will be out August 22 on Relapse Records.
The new album is a treasure trove of creative explorations, but our interview could only begin in one place: How were Dailor and company handling the recent passing of heavy metal pioneer Ozzy Osbourne?
“It was a little bit shocking,” Dailor admits. “I thought that maybe we were going to have him for a few more years.” He points out that a world without Ozzy is one that Generation X and younger have never known. Mastodon has been paying tribute to the rock god with a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut” on their current tour.
It’s an appropriate choice: “Supernaut” is a song about living life to the fullest, as well as expanding one’s consciousness (in this case, through pharmacological means). Such themes are integral to Dailor’s work. When we last spoke, Mastodon had just released Hushed and Grim, a somber, ominous exploration of the Covid years that dealt with an array of dark topics, including the death of the group’s manager.
With the new Arcadea album appearing to have similar (though brighter) spiritual themes, I broached Dailor and Core’s views on the afterlife and the other planes of existence.
“I’m hopeful that the light just goes out and that there’s nothing except for a void,” says Dailor. Nevertheless, he considers himself an agnostic and acknowledges the powerful pull of human connection that persists beyond the grave.
His convictions notwithstanding, Dailor does have an overarching interest in world mythologies and cultural studies. “I enjoy the traditions of other cultures and the explanations of death and dying and how every culture throughout history has grappled with that unfortunate question that makes us sentient beings. I think it’s a really interesting topic, and I like to explore it and put it into the music.”
Atoms concurs, pointing out that his views skew in what he considers an optimistic direction, even though many disagree with him. “I think that this big ball of life is probably one of the only balls of life in this vicinity. So I think everything on it — every pet we’ve ever had, everything — is just being recycled in this moving, living organic ball.”
Atoms’ grander narrative in that regard is reflected in The Exodus of Gravity, which reflects his long-term vision that, despite the theoretical expansion of black holes and the eventual collapse of the universe, life will somehow endure. “It’s my guesstimate that something will exist,” he affirms.
It’s an apocalyptic vision, but one that Atoms feels is ultimately life-affirming. “I think life is amazing,” he declares. “I think people take it for granted way too often.”
The creative nexus of Arcadea (which also features synth player João Nogueira) is a thoughtful and philosophical one. From a musical standpoint, that eon spanning futurism manifests as aggressively danceable walls of keyboards and drums, with guitar only offering background texture. The arrangements work on multiple levels, offering the immediacy of hook-oriented choruses and the fiendish intricacy of progressive rock in equal and often coexisting measure.
I couldn’t help but wonder if such an expansive sonic palette was achieved in part with actual psychedelics. “I spent a lot of time on psychedelics when I was a teenager,” he explains. “But you get your psychedelic experiences, and you can channel those later when you’re being creative. You don’t necessarily need to be on them. You can recall where the doors of perception are located and tap into them.”
Still, he emphasizes that such experimentation is very much in his past. “I don’t really go there anymore because I’m too scared,” he chuckles. “Too much life has happened to me now.”
Atoms concurs. “I had a similar experience in high school,” he recalls. “I loved my acid and could handle it. But the thought of doing that now is just torture.”
Ultimately, Arcadea’s compositions are simply borne out of jam sessions between two friends, with Atoms’ keyboard ideas providing the foundational framework. It’s a rapport that developed when the pair met in Rochester, New York, when Dailor joined Atoms’ experimental metal band Gaylord in the mid-1990s.
Listening to the early Gaylord recordings, it becomes apparent that Dailor and Atoms have always prioritized a hard, unyielding sense of groove. That dance floor-ready feel persists on The Exodus of Gravity.
“We wanted it to be more ‘dancey’,” says Dailor of the album’s funkadelic aura. He points to the looping, ostinato structures of songs like Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” as providing the core concept behind many of the arrangements.
“The thought of having something you could dance to throughout was kind of fun,” adds Atoms. He goes on to explain that the album’s core sound was built on keyboards and drums playing off one another, with additional elements added purely to fill out the arrangements. “The spine of those songs is definitely synthesizer and keyboard. The guitar and bass were more like textures. As much as I love guitar, I don’t always need it to be forward and present. Different instruments are different colors.”
Those different colors form a variegated tapestry on The Exodus of Gravity. Dailor and Atoms look forward to bringing the project to the stage as their schedules allow. In the meantime, their latest album is a sonic joyride that is sure to delight listeners across the musical spectrum.
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Jordan Owen began writing about music professionally at the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he is a professional guitarist, bandleader and composer. He is currently the lead guitarist for the jazz group Other Strangers, the power metal band Axis of Empires and the melodic death/thrash metal band Century Spawn.
