{"id":772781,"date":"2026-09-16T18:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/772781\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T18:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:42:22","slug":"how-mastodon-survived-two-of-the-worst-years-of-their-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/772781\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mastodon survived two of the worst years of their lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cGoing back to your question about what I feared most when parting ways with him,\u201d says Bill Kelliher, softly, \u201cit was that he\u2019d pass away.<\/p>\n

On August 20, 2025, that fear became reality. Incendiary Mastodon<\/a> guitarist Brent Hinds<\/a> was killed in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta at the age of 51. It was a devastating punctuation mark to a 25-year creative partnership that had fractured just five months prior, with Brent acrimoniously quitting the band and taking his grievances to social media while the band remained silent.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the recently released 35-minute documentary, The Mastodon In The Room, the surviving members addressed the messy reality of Brent\u2019s departure and subsequent death with remarkable candour. But while that film looks backwards, sitting down with Hammer this afternoon, the conversation repeatedly drifts somewhere else entirely: forwards.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

Spain is currently baking beneath a relentless, tarmac-melting heatwave, but backstage at Rock Imperium Festival, in Mastodon\u2019s air-conditioned enclave, guitarist Bill is the very picture of chill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tour has been going really, really well,\u201d he says, leaning back. \u201cEvery single night is better than the last.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Among all members of the band, the emotional baseline is identical. Drummer Brann Dailor is a blur of kinetic energy, plopping down on the couch with drumsticks in hand, hammering out a lightning-fast, spitfire rat-a-tat on his thigh, then nodding with approval; after a month of shows, this suffices for his readiness check.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a heatwave ripping through Europe and we\u2019ve been following it closely, so it\u2019s been pretty steamy,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the shows have been awesome and it\u2019s been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Grinning beneath his baseball cap, bassist Troy Sanders adds, \u201cUsually people are getting grumpy by now. But the joy is real. We truly enjoy each and every show. It\u2019s a real treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering all that Mastodon have endured in the past 18 months, such boundless optimism sounds almost jarring. To understand how the band arrived here, we need to rewind.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mastodon\n<\/p>\n

Mastodon in 2026: (from left) Joao Nogueira, Brann Dailor, Nick Johnston, Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders (Image credit: William Lacalmontie\/Press)<\/p>\n

Last year put the boot in as soon as it began. In February 2025, Brann lost his mother, Michele, after a lengthy period of ill-health. It was a tragic prelude to the tumult ahead.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

Six weeks later, the other shoe dropped. In March, Brent quit Mastodon, severing a bond that had been buckling under progressive, heavy strain for years. As the band discuss in The Mastodon In The Room, the downward spiral had become impossible to ignore: missed cues, erratic onstage outbursts, and a widening social gulf driven by Brent\u2019s escalating battles with alcohol.<\/p>\n

For a long time, the remaining trio hesitated to act, holding onto memories of the early years when they were just four guys trying to make each other laugh in a cramped tour van. But by 2021, around the Hushed And Grim tour, the collective enthusiasm had withered.<\/p>\n

The end, when it came, was abrupt. During a tense band meeting in their rehearsal space, as members discussed the impact of Brent\u2019s behaviour, the guitarist rose up and stormed out, never to return. For Brann, it was an emotional haymaker after the loss of his mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely struggling just being a person,\u201d he explains. \u201cThen the turmoil with Brent just made everything worse. I had this big, heavy grief cloak on, dragging my carcass around, and I wasn\u2019t having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the raw material that would eventually emerge as the band\u2019s latest album, Marrow Deep<\/a>, had already taken shape. By the time Brent left the band, the skeletons of 23 songs had already been written \u2013 without Brent\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mastodon\n<\/p>\n

Mastodon\u2019s new guitarist Nick Johnston with Bill Kelliher in July 2025 (Image credit: Scott Legato\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had already been quite evident that Brent\u2019s interest in participating was waning,\u201d adds Troy. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to continually invite a dark cloud to come loom over us while we\u2019re trying to be creative. We just kept doing it where the excitement and energy were at 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was immediately shocked and saddened. But unfortunately, I wasn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n

Troy Sanders<\/p>\n

Two days after announcing Brent\u2019s exit, the band drafted YouTube guitar virtuoso Ben Eller to handle immediate touring commitments, bringing a welcome predictability back to an erratic live engine. But while Ben provided vital onstage stability, the permanent role required something beyond pure technical proficiency \u2013 it needed the creative friction of two wildly disparate guitar personalities.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen\u2019s style is a little too similar to Bill\u2019s,\u201d Brann explains. \u201cIt would be like having two Bills. The special thing about our band was that Brent\u2019s playing was so wildly different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Nick Johnston. A virtuoso within the progressive instrumental scene, he wasn\u2019t a standard metal journeyman; he was the necessary creative counterweight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted a yin-and-yang situation,\u201d Brann says. \u201cSomebody who could emote during solos and bring a different side of the coin. Nick approaches the instrument like nobody else I\u2019ve ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mastodon – Your Ghost Again (Official Visual) – YouTube
\n\"Mastodon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNick\u2019s been wonderful,\u201d says Bill. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the nicest humans I\u2019ve ever met. He brings things to the table that I\u2019d never come up with, and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick arrived in May 2025, working alongside longtime touring keyboardist Jo\u00e3o Nogueira, whose atmospheric textures added a fresh dimension to the arrangements. Rather than merely mimicking the past, the two began reshaping the transitions and interludes. Together, Nick and Jo\u00e3o injected a sophisticated progressive flourish \u2013a level of intricate, fluid musicianship that felt striking even for a band with Mastodon\u2019s formidable technical pedigree.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, after 25 years, Mastodon were expanding their sonic palette. But the ultimate test of this new five-piece was fast approaching. In August, just 10 days before they were scheduled to enter the studio to record the album, the news broke from Atlanta: Brent was gone.<\/p>\n

Word of his fatal accident spread rapidly. A subsequent Atlanta Police investigation concluded Brent had been travelling at nearly 70mph \u2013 twice the legal speed limit \u2013 and that excessive speed was the decisive factor in the crash. For the surviving members, whatever resentment had built up during the public fallout of the split evaporated the moment the news broke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was immediately shocked and saddened,\u201d says Troy. \u201cBut unfortunately, I wasn\u2019t surprised. I don\u2019t mean that in any distasteful manner, whatsoever. I\u2019ve done everything I could as a friend and as a bandmate over the years. I don\u2019t know what else I could\u2019ve done, so I\u2019m kind of forced to just let go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mastodon\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: William Lacalmontie\/Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t surprised that it happened, but I was shocked,\u201d adds Bill. \u201cI just didn\u2019t think it was going to happen like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact was that they began grieving Brent long before the crash. Reflecting this afternoon, there\u2019s only a quiet sadness and a deep, genuine fondness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever someone rides by on a loud motorcycle, I think of Brent first,\u201d says Bill. \u201cHe was omnipresent in my life. Even though we didn\u2019t always see eye-to-eye \u2013 more times than not we did \u2013 I cared about the guy. I always thought
he would outlive us all, because he had nine lives and got away with everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Brent was in a good mood \u2013 his normal, happy
self, not hungover Brent \u2013 it was so much fun,\u201d Brann adds. \u201cWe were the funniest people we knew. I miss that aspect of it: the camaraderie, the jokes, and the fun. And musically, he would just rip some solos \u2013 snatch them right out of the sky and make you cry. I miss all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mastodon – Snakes For Dinner (Official Video) – YouTube
\n\"Mastodon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Barely a week after his passing and still reeling from the news, Mastodon entered the studio. \u201cIt was difficult. It was dark. It was sad,\u201d Troy says. \u201cBut it was also necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had this big, heavy grief cloak on, dragging my carcass around, and I wasn\u2019t having fun<\/p>\n

Brann Dailor<\/p>\n

Historically, Mastodon have processed personal tragedy through a cinematic filter of concept albums and mythology \u2013 Moby Dick, czars and villainous emperors \u2013 using grand metaphors to absorb the concussive force of real-world pain. On Marrow Deep, the masks are gone, the lyrics replaced by a stark, collective honesty, with the word \u2018we\u2019 frequently overtaking the insular \u2018I\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably wasn\u2019t intentional,\u201d Troy says, considering the shift. \u201cBut that\u2019s where we all were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across towering tracks such as Your Ghost Again and Moth And Bone, grief and the wreckage of their fractured friendship with Brent are laid bare. When Troy roars, \u2018Our faces hit the wall again\u2026 the wound is cutting deeper\u2019 on the latter, there is no protective imagery left to hide behind. The nerve is fully exposed.<\/p>\n

That starkness crystallises halfway through the album, on In The Ruins. Built around a long-gestating riff from Bill, the track took shape when co-producer Patrik Berger suggested slamming from its quietest moment straight into its most punishing movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Troy put his lyrics over the top, it shot to the top of everybody\u2019s list,\u201d reveals Brann. \u201cHe is pulling from his own experience there. He lost his home and all his possessions in a Florida hurricane. It\u2019s something he\u2019s very quiet about, but it was devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mastodon\n<\/p>\n

The late Brent Hinds with Mastodon on Late Night With Seth Meyers in 2021 (Image credit: Lloyd Bishop\/NBC\/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Conversely, A Vampire\u2019s Demeanor offers a blast of straightforward metal built around a driving main riff written by Brann.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we played it in the rehearsal space, I just wanted to play it forever,\u201d Brann says. \u201cTo me, that\u2019s a festival song. I can already see a crowd jumping in unison at Download.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s newly unlocked chemistry really speaks for itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want an example of the new dynamic, look at a song like Poisonous Weapons,\u201d says Bill. \u201cI threw a \u2018riff grenade\u2019 into the room to see what Nick and Jo\u00e3o would come up with. In the middle section, they turned my basic formula into this incredibly proggy space jam. It\u2019s the same on The Three Fates \u2013 the placement of that part at the end of the song is a hint of what\u2019s to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

That forward-looking outro anchors the album\u2019s closing epic \u2013 a track that ultimately bridges the band\u2019s raw new reality with their signature move. Because for all of Marrow Deep\u2019s unvarnished realism, they couldn\u2019t completely resist the gravity of ancient myth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did squeak in some mythology anyway,\u201d Brann laughs, tracking the origin of the song back to the Greek Moirai \u2013 mythological sisters who spin, measure, and inevitably snip the thread of human life. \u201cI look at Brent and my mom as being similar in the way they both did a good job of hiding from that third sister with the scissors,\u201d Brann muses. \u201cOne of them on purpose, and one of them not on purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a telling inversion. Once, mythology was Mastodon\u2019s shield against the world. On Marrow Deep, it arrives only as a postscript, after the band have already bared their souls in plain English.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully,\u201d Brann continues, \u201cit ends the record on a hopeful note.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mastodon – In The Ruins (Official Video) – YouTube
\n\"Mastodon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Having navigated the brutal gauntlet of the last 18 months, the grief hasn\u2019t vanished, but for the first time in years, Mastodon feel bound together by something far greater than mere survival. They are looking to the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll five of us want to be here for all the right reasons,\u201d Troy says. \u201cAll five of us are very much in sync. We\u2019re all extremely happy to be here and so grateful for every fucking show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whenever someone rides by on a loud motorcycle, I think of Brent first. He was omnipresent in my life.<\/p>\n

Bill Kelliher<\/p>\n

If Marrow Deep serves as the definitive, bruising conclusion to a traumatic chapter, it also kicks the door wide open to a thrilling new era. Because Nick joined the fold after much of the album was already sketched out, the next Mastodon record will be the first built from the ground up by this newly minted five-piece \u2013 a prospect that electrifies Bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the next record, in another year or two, will showcase even more of Nick and me playing off each other,\u201d he says. \u201cToward the end of Brent\u2019s time in the band, I was writing most of the rhythms and song structures anyway, and he would come in like a finishing carpenter to add the crazy solos. It\u2019s a similar set-up with Nick, but Nick is much more receptive and absolutely full of fresh ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re never going to truly replace Brent,\u201d Brann says. \u201cHe was a unique unicorn to the 10th power. But Nick is his own kind of unicorn; I love that about him. I love his playing, and I\u2019m excited to dig in more with him writing-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t just the promise of new riffs that has breathed life back into Brann. Given all that\u2019s transpired, we ask him what\u2019s making him happy these days.<\/p>\n

\u201cBesides my awesome wife, my cool dog, and all my amazing friends?\u201d he replies. \u201cIt\u2019s my kickass band. I feel more confident than ever going onstage knowing that the show is going to be fucking awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Troy agrees: \u201cComing off the stage, we look around and get to hug and high-five, because we\u2019ve done this thing that I\u2019ve always called magic. It\u2019s just like, \u2018Oh, wow, that was unbelievable. So beautiful. Thank you. I love you.\u2019 \u2018Fuck, I love you too, man!\u2019 It\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mastodon&rsquo;s\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Katja Ogrin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cMastodon now is the band I\u2019ve always wanted to have,\u201d says Bill. \u201cIt\u2019s five guys who are all on the same page, who all want to be here, and who want to do what is best for the group. We love getting onstage, making people rock out, making awesome-sounding records, and continuously pushing ourselves. It\u2019s a joy to go out there and do what we do best, which is play some heavy-ass metal and prog rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scars are permanent, but the uncertainty is gone. Mastodon have spent a quarter of a century turning tragedy into high art, but the view down the road is no longer defined by what they\u2019ve lost \u2013 it\u2019s defined by the vast, uncharted territory waiting to be conquered. For a band who have spent their entire existence screaming into the void about death, loss, and the cruel impermanence of time, this might just be the most subversive outcome of all. Not mere survival, but glorious, undeniable renewal.<\/p>\n

Marrow Deep is out now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cGoing back to your question about what I feared most when parting ways with him,\u201d says Bill Kelliher,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-772781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}