Brann Dailor, drummer and vocalist for Mastodon, confirmed that his band has finished recording their new studio album.
Still without a revealed title, the work will succeed Hushed and Grim (2021), and will be the group's first release not to feature guitarist Brent Hinds, who left the band in early 2025 and subsequently passed away after suffering a motorcycle accident last October.
In an interview with Blabbermouth, Dailor commented that it was "a difficult and emotional album to make" due to events surrounding the band in recent years. In addition to Hinds' death, the musician cited the loss of his mother.
“We’re very excited about this. It was a difficult record to make. It was a very emotional period for us. I lost my mother, we went through all this turbulence with Brent, and then he passed away. It’s been difficult. It’s all in the music, it’s all in the songs, and I’m excited to release it and present it to the world because we’ve been holding onto this for a while. A lot of this stuff, at least the skeletons of what this album is, have been held back for two years. A lot has happened,” he said [transcription via TMDQA].
Mastodon's new album will not feature Brent Hinds
When asked if the late guitarist had participated in the new Mastodon album, the drummer denied it and assured that there would be "new material," due to the difficulty of getting Hinds into a recording studio.
“In the end, unfortunately, it was difficult to convince him to come to the rehearsal room. He was interested in doing other things, which was great. It was a confusing time. [Laughs] I was the one who kept saying, 'Come on, man. Come down. Let's improvise.' He was a free spirit. He wanted to ride his motorcycle around and do this and that. He went wherever the wind took him. Unfortunately, he didn't come to the rehearsal room to work on the riffs.”.
It was a little frustrating. But I was okay with it. I thought, 'Man, everyone can do what they want with their life. If you're unhappy and don't want to be here doing whatever it is, find out what makes you happy and do that,'" he concluded.
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