Progressive RockMetal
Brann Dailor has explained why Mastodon decided that «The Mastodon In The Room», the documentary they released a month and a half ahead of the new record, couldn’t avoid Brent Hinds’s death. «I definitely had big questions about putting out ‘The Mastodon In The Room’. I was torn about it,» admits the drummer and vocalist, who appears in it alongside Troy Sanders and Bill Kelliher discussing the founding guitarist.
Hinds was fired from the band in March 2025 and died five months later in a motorcycle accident, with no reconciliation having taken place in between. Dailor, Sanders and Hinds all sang in the band; on the documentary, Dailor only adds that the subject was «pretty personal».
It’s not the first time a Mastodon record has grown out of a death. «Crack The Skye» (2009) — the one about astral travel and Rasputin — was born from the death of Dailor’s own sister, Skye, who took her own life at fourteen; «Emperor Of Sand» (2017) came from the cancer diagnoses that touched several members of the band closely, and «Hushed And Grim» (2021) was a farewell to Nick John, their manager for fifteen years.
The documentary came out on 8 July, and «Marrow Deep», Mastodon’s first full-length record without Hinds, on 28 August. It was recorded at West End Sound in Atlanta, produced by Patrik Berger and Kurt Ballou and mixed by Andrew Scheps, and it debuts a new line-up: Canadian Nick Johnston takes over second guitar and João Nogueira adds keyboards, alongside Dailor, Sanders and Kelliher. Josh Homme makes a guest appearance on the single «Snakes For Dinner». The live run in support of it kicks off on 16 September in Orlando with the Poisonous Weapons Tour and wraps up on 24 October in Dallas, with Deafheaven and Alcest.
Text by Guillem Cardós