Mastodon share new single 'Forged By Neron' from 'Dark Nights: Death Metal' soundtrack

Mastodon have shared their contribution to the forthcoming soundtrack of DC Comics’ Dark Nights: Death Metal comic book series.

The track, ‘Forged By Neron’, refers to a demon lord of Hell who appears throughout the series. The full soundtrack will be released on June 18 through DC and Loma Vista and also features tracks from Manchester Orchestra, IDLES, Denzel Curry and Soccer Mommy.

“We’ve all been fans of DC Comics and the Batman universe since we were kids,” Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor said in a statement. “It really means a lot for us to be able to add something to that world.”

Listen to ‘Forged By Neron’ below:

Composer Tyler Bates, who acted as the soundtrack’s executive producer, asked the artists to record a song inspired by the comics series.

“This soundtrack and motion-comic series was made by fans of comics, for fans of comics and music,” he said.

“Dark Nights: Death Metal is next-level storytelling by two incredibly talented artists in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. The visual aspect of this comic is entirely compelling, and resonates throughout each song on the soundtrack.”

In a recent interview, Mastodon said their upcoming eighth record had reached the mixing stage, describing it as the “fullest, biggest-sounding record we’ve done so far”. Enlisting David Bottrill to produce, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher said they needed someone new and “who kind of thinks outside the box” to work on the album.

“He had all kinds of notes written out,” said Kelliher during an interview with Talking Metal. “He had done his homework. He was like, ‘For this song, I have this idea. For this song, I have these ideas.’ He kind of spouted them off to us on the phone.

“That was one of my first questions: ‘How do you deal with if there’s certain people in the band that might be more sensitive than others?’ He’s like, ‘I’ve worked with so and so, and so and so.’ He’s like, ‘I’m just a big fan of your band, and I just wanna make your best record that we set out to make.’ He just had a really good way with words without insulting anybody’s creativeness. He was firm, and we basically tried everything.”