Mastiff announce new album ‘Deprecipice’

January 17, 2024 James Weaver

MASTIFF have announced a new album!

Titled Deprecipice, the upcoming album from the Hull-based blackened sludge metal band is the follow-up to 2021’s Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth, and is scheduled to be released in March this year, via MNRK Heavy.

The upcoming album was produced by longtime collaborator Joe Clayton [WALLOWING, ITHACA, TUSKAR] at Manchester’s No Studio. The artwork that runs throughout the album is by Paul Phillips at True Spilt Milk Designs, another long time collaborator with the band.

“We’ve gone quite a lot towards a hardcore sound,” says vocalist Jim Hodge. “Where the last one was more death metal, this one’s a lot more staccato: a lot more defined, riff-wise.”

Unlike so many of their extreme metal peers right now, though, MASTIFF didn’t source this rejuvenated energy from the anxieties and frustrations of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the lockdowns ended and real life started to resume in 2021 and 2022, Hodge and guitarist/vocalist James Lee Ross noticed the spirits of the world around them lifting. Feelings of trauma and isolation were beginning to enter people’s rear-view mirrors – and it was an overcoming that the duo couldn’t relate to. Lee was mourning the loss of his mother, while Hodge realised he was still grieving over the death of his five-day-old son, Isaac, in 2010.

“The album’s called Deprecipice, and that pretty much sums up where me and James were when we wrote it,” says the singer. “We were both standing back on the edge of a depressive void. You have to keep that primal feeling. I think, if you take too much time, you start to second-guess yourself. We try to be as true to ourselves as we can.”

Alongside the announcement of the new album, MASTIFF have released a new music video for a new song lifted from the upcoming album; Serrated. The new song features guest appearances from Harry Nott of BURNER and Dan James of XIII.

Speaking about the new song, Hodge says, “lyrically the track is about the ‘bullshit machine’, people blowing smoke up your arse but you try to stay grounded. It’s too easy to fall foul of the reverse of imposter syndrome. We met Harry and the BURNER boys when they came to Hull when they were supporting EMPLOYED TO SERVE. It turned out BURNER were fans of us and after about 30 seconds of them playing we all became some of their biggest fans too.”

Guest vocalist Harry Nott of BURNER adds, “Serrated is a relentless track and the vibe clicked instantly – I went into the studio and smashed it in a couple of takes with some quickly penned lyrics. Mastiff are the epitome of darkness, so I went hard on some apocalyptic imagery.”

Watch the official music video for Serrated here:

Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:

Track List:

1. Bite Radius
2. Everything Is Ending
3. Void
4. Cut-Throat ft. Ethan Lee McCarthy [PRIMITIVE MAN]
5. Skin Stripper
6. Serrated ft. Harry Nott [BURNER] & Dan James [XIII]
7. Worship ft. guitar solo by Rob Scott of YERSIN
8. Pitiful
9. The Shape
10. Thorn Trauma

And that’s not all from MASTIFF. To promote their upcoming new album, the band will be touring across the UK in March this year with support for the tour coming from YERSIN. Tickets for the tour are available now and can be purchased here.

Tour dates are as follows:

22 Mar: Hull, Polar Bear
23 Mar: Glasgow, Audio
24 Mar: Edinburgh, Bannermans
27 Mar: London, The Black Heart
28 Mar: Brighton, Green Door Store
29 Mar: Bristol, Crofters Rights
30 Mar: Birmingham, Devils Dog
31 Mar: Nottingham, Rough Trade