Mastodon are near the end of a tour where they\u2019re playing 22 shows in 14 different European countries during a record-breaking heatwave, when they video-call me outside a Bordeaux venue. Bassist and co-lead singer Troy Sanders says the experience has been \u201c31 days of musical bliss\u201d. He\u2019s not being sarcastic, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are super energetic, even at day 31,\u201d he insists. \u201cWe\u2019re contemplating even staying in Europe for a few days when this tour is over, because we\u2019re enjoying ourselves so much.\u201d It\u2019s pleasantly surprising to see Sanders and drummer\/co-vocalist Brann Dailor, sat to his left, in such high spirits, given the anguish and unrest they\u2019ve endured over the last 18 months.<\/p>\n
In February 2025, Dailor\u2019s mother, Michele Lawrence, died aged 69. The next month, the band announced they\u2019d parted ways with co-founding guitarist\/singer Brent Hinds, ending a 25-year-long partnership<\/a>. Hinds railed against his ex-bandmates on social media, calling them a \u201cshit band with horrible humans \u2026 incapable of singing in key\u201d, among plenty of other insults. He then died in a motorcycle accident, at the age of 51.<\/p>\n Mastodon are one of US metal\u2019s most imaginative and successful acts, with a Grammy win and three Top 10 albums, and Hinds, a hard-partying maverick, had been a big part of what made them so distinctive and respected. Where contemporaries such as Trivium and Killswitch Engage were thoroughbred metal acts, Hinds gave Mastodon a defiant country twang, reflecting his Alabama upbringing and early years playing the banjo. Combined with Dailor\u2019s virtuoso style, inspired by vintage prog, and co-guitarist Bill Kelliher\u2019s primal riffs, \u201cwhat we had sounded original and different,\u201d Dailor says. \u201cWe always saw ourselves rooted in metal, but we could shape shift if we wanted.\u201d When Black Sabbath played their farewell gig last year \u2013 two weeks before the death of Ozzy Osbourne \u2013 it was Mastodon who were selected to open the show, a band capable of igniting a stadium as well as inspiring reverence from the genre\u2019s greats.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The deaths of Hinds and Dailor\u2019s mother are the thematic core of the Atlantans\u2019 upcoming ninth studio album, Marrow Deep. Its title references the fact that Dailor\u2019s relationships with them were \u201cthe deepest you can get with a person. It\u2019s hard to think of closer people that we could lose.\u201d<\/p>\n The lyric-writing was the members\u2019 way of processing those losses. Lead single Your Ghost Again dissects their complex relationship with Hinds, whereas Out Like a Lamb is for Lawrence, who died in her sleep after suffering cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments during her life. Dailor likens both Hinds and Lawrence to Keith Richards: figures who lived far longer than people assumed they would.<\/p>\n Hinds was arguably the most chaotic character in 21st-century metal. A former heroin addict, he lived in vans, boat sheds and abandoned apartments before joining Mastodon. He continued to party and drink long after his bandmates grew beyond such things \u2013 including co-guitarist Bill Kelliher, who almost died of alcohol-induced pancreatitis in 2009. \u201cIf any of us did half the stuff that Brent pulled off, we\u2019d all have been dead years ago,\u201d Dailor says. \u201cWe\u2019ve always been a hard-partying band, but for the last 10, 15 years, the three of us really settled down and were focusing more on our live show and being productive in the studio. He was still rocking, which was, for a lot of people from the outside looking in, the most admirable thing about him. But from the inside it\u2019s not always that much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Brent Hinds performing in Oslo in 2016. Photograph: Gonzales Photo\/Zuma Press\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n In 2011, the drummer told Kerrang!: \u201cPeople think [Hinds is] a fucking mental case, but there\u2019s a beautiful person in there.\u201d What was beautiful about him? Sanders answers: \u201cHe could find beauty in a lot of things: trees, mountains, caverns, oceans, music, people, handmade crafts. An appreciation for lots of originality and creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n Dailor says Hinds loved \u201cthe honest things. He was the real deal, you know? His emotions were right there all the time and he could easily access them through his instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n Following their breakthrough with 2004 single Blood and Thunder, the press touted Mastodon and their intellectual approach for \u201csaving\u201d metal. From 2007 to 2008, they supported Metallica on their stadium-filling World Magnetic tour. Their next album, 2009\u2019s disorientatingly psychedelic Crack the Skye<\/a>, was widely lauded; Hinds masterminded much of it, after being knocked out in a 2007 brawl outside an awards show and put into a three-day coma.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had vertigo for months and couldn\u2019t really get up, so he was just sitting at home with an acoustic guitar,\u201d Dailor recalls. \u201cThere were no bars for him to go to. He was forced to stay at home, so I think that, as a result, you have Crack the Skye.\u201d<\/p>\n It started a string of successful records where the band wrestled with personal crises. The Hunter<\/a>, a Top 10 hit in 2011, controversially stripped back Mastodon\u2019s more brutal and progressive edges, was named after Hinds\u2019s brother Brad, who died on a hunting trip in 2010. Dailor\u2019s contributions to 2014\u2019s Once More \u2019Round the Sun were inspired by his mother, who\u2019d fallen off a chair in her kitchen and briefly been declared dead, and 2017\u2019s Emperor of Sand was about cancer: Dailor\u2019s mother and Sanders\u2019 wife had been diagnosed with the disease, and Kelliher had recently lost his mother to a brain tumour. The album\u2019s opener, Sultan\u2019s Curse<\/a>, won the 2018 Grammy for best metal performance.<\/p>\n \u201cIt summarised the story of us four dudes,\u201d Sanders reflects. \u201cStarting because we all appreciated Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy and Neurosis, and then, 18 years later, we\u2019re on this stage winning this award that was the furthest thing from our minds ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Mastodon\u2019s Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher, Brann Dailor and Troy Sanders in 2009. Photograph: Mick Hutson\/Redferns<\/p>\n Despite the increased success, Hinds\u2019s involvement dwindled. According to Dailor, the guitarist grieved for his brother through \u201calcohol, drug abuse and self-medication\u201d. From The Hunter onwards, the drummer tried to make the rehearsal room \u201cfun\u201d to tempt Hinds to contribute, inadvertently leading to their change in sound: \u201cCome down and we\u2019ll have some fun! We\u2019ll write Curl of the Burl and Stargasm and it\u2019ll be fun! It doesn\u2019t have to be heavy!\u201d<\/p>\n