Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Mastodon‘s upcoming ninth studio album is the result of a long and difficult journey, as per theprp. In 2025, the GRAMMY Award-winning progressive sludge metal band severed ties with guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds. The band declared at the time that it would not include any of his writing contributions, but they also promised to keep working on this record without him. Then, in August of last year, Hinds lost his life in a motorbike accident in Atlanta, Georgia. It turns out that drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor had lost his mother during the previous few years, so it wasn’t the only loss the band’s camp had to deal with. Dailor just revealed that work on the record is finished in an interview with Blabbermouth.net.
We’re very excited about it. It was a hard record to make. It was a very emotional time for us. I lost my mom, we went through all this turmoil with Brent, and then he passed away. It’s been tough. It’s all in the music, it’s all in the songs, and I’m excited to release it and get it out there into the world because we’ve been sitting on it for a while. A lot of this stuff, at least the skeletons of what this album is, we’ve been sitting on for two years now. A lot was going on.
Additionally, Dailor reiterated that Hinds did not contribute to the record.
No. It’s all new stuff. Toward the end, unfortunately, it was hard to get him to come down to the [practice] space. He was interested in doing other stuff, which was fine. It was a confusing time. [Laughs] I was the one going, ‘Come on, man. Come down. Let’s riff.’ He was a free spirit. He wanted to ride his motorcycle around and go do this and that.
He was wherever the wind took him. Unfortunately, it was not down to the practice space to work on riffs. It was a little bit frustrating. I was okay with it. I was like, ‘Hey man, everyone can do whatever they want to do in their life. If you’re unhappy and not wanting to be here doing whatever, figure out what does make you happy and do that.’
Dailor revealed that the band will release the album later this year, with more information to come, in a social media statement posted today, May 10.
