Mastodon’s Brann Dailor, Bill Kelliher, and Troy Sanders have spoken out about continuing the band following the departure of Brent Hinds. The three members addressed critics and fans in a cover story interview, discussing the pressure of moving forward without Hinds, the backlash surrounding his replacement, and their commitment to keeping Mastodon alive.
“I’m excited to see what people think about it,” Dailor said. “I felt a different kind of pressure from this record because it’s just been the four of us for so long. With this one, I can tell that people are like, ‘Let’s see what you got, we don’t think you can do it.'”
Kelliher addressed the criticism directed at new member Nick Johnston, pushing back against those who questioned the band’s direction.
“The first show we had with Nick, everyone was trying to point out how he doesn’t ‘sound like Brent’, or how ‘Mastodon was Brent’, and all this shit, which is not true,” Kelliher said. “Everybody wants to say bad things when something changes. As long as Mastodon is happy with what we’re doing, that’s the only thing that matters to me. I don’t write riffs for Joe Blow.”
Sanders reflected on the weight of Hinds’ legacy while making the case for why the band chose to press on rather than call it quits.
“As we go forward, we will always carry and recognise Brent’s legacy, without a doubt,” Sanders said. “We’ll never deny how huge of an influence, and how massive he was in the creation of Mastodon. But through the tragedy, there is triumph. I’m proud of us for not just feeling overwhelmingly pitiful for ourselves, or just collapsing and saying, ‘Hey, we had a good run.’ It would be doing a massive disservice to our own being to not continue – there’s so much life in us.”
The past year has been one of the most turbulent in Mastodon’s history. It has been marked by loss, grief, and a public reckoning with the circumstances that led to Hinds’ exit — and ultimately, his death.
Hinds departed Mastodon in March 2025 after 25 years with the band. Five months later, he died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 51. His passing came before the band had any chance at reconciliation, a reality that has visibly weighed on the remaining members.
To address the grief and confusion surrounding Hinds’ departure and death, the band released a 35-minute documentary titled The Mastodon in the Room. In it, Dailor, Kelliher, and Sanders explained that the decision to part ways with Hinds was made from a place of love. It was driven by concerns over his struggles with substance abuse and a need to set boundaries.
“I thought there’d be that turnaround where we’d meet, apologise, hug and say, ‘I love you,'” Dailor said, reflecting on the hope the band held for a future reconciliation that never came.
Johnston has since become a permanent member of the band. He contributed to Mastodon’s forthcoming ninth studio album, Marrow Deep, due for release on August 28, 2026. The album also features keyboardist Nira Nogueira as part of the expanded lineup. Among the tracks is “Your Ghost Again,” a single widely understood to be a tribute to Hinds, marking the band’s musical acknowledgment of his legacy within the new era they are building.
Marrow Deep is the first Mastodon studio record made entirely without Hinds. He had been a co-founding member and appeared on every release from their 2001 debut EP through to 2021’s Hushed and Grim. His absence from the record is significant, but the band has made clear that moving forward is not a rejection of what came before. It is, as Sanders put it, a refusal to do a disservice to the life still left in them.
Source: Kerrang!
