Mötley Crüe have been embroiled in a nasty legal battle with their former guitarist Mick Mars, who retired from touring due to an arthritic condition known as ankylosing spondylitis, then sued his bandmates for kicking him out of the band altogether. Mars (real name Robert Alan Deal) was intending to keep recording with the Crüe and doing limited performances, but he’s been replaced by John 5, best known for his work with Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie.

Now, the band has released its first song ever without Mars, which is also their first new song in five years. It’s called “Dogs Of War,” and it presents a weird mix of late 20th century metal touchstones. At the beginning, Vince Neil repeats, “Master! Master!” as if channeling Metallica’s “Master Of Puppets.” The music that kicks in sounds less like classic Crüe than nü-metal that might have been played on rock radio alongside Tommy Lee’s Methods Of Mayhem project. I would have chalked that sound up to John 5’s influence, but Neil told Billboard this week that it was written by bassist Nikki Sixx. Neil said the sound is “like old school meets new school. It’s got that old school vibe about it, but it’s new music. Nikki came up with it and he sent me the music and I thought it was really cool. So I started singing it and we got in the studio and it turned into the song I think the fans are really gonna like it.”

“We want to keep putting out new music, too, so we don’t get stagnant,” Neil said in the interview. “We recorded ‘(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)’ by the Beastie Boys and we recorded this song, too, and I thought it turned out pretty good.” He added, “There’ll definitely be new music out next year, for sure, ’cause we recorded a couple of other songs, too.”

Hear “Dogs Of War” below, and starting at 10AM ET, watch director Nick DenBoer’s apocalyptic CGI music video for the song.