The estate of the late ex-Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds has issued a response after the band denied allegations it made in a lawsuit last week.

Hinds departed Mastodon in March last year before his shock death just months later. Since then, the band has released their first album since his passing, Marrow Deep.

Last week, news broke that the estate filed a complaint over the $80,000 buyout Hinds was entitled to when he left the group. It also alleged that Mastodon have used Hinds' image after his death to promote their new record.

Last week, Mastodon issued a statement saying they “strongly deny allegations of ill intent,” and that they would “vigorously defend what we believe is a meritless lawsuit.”

The latest statement from the Hinds estate elaborates on the context behind the lawsuit.

“Unfortunately, public discussion has largely focused on Mastodon’s inclusion of Brent’s image in artwork for a new album and has sometimes portrayed the lawsuit as an effort by his family to obtain a windfall,” the statement reads. “That is not what the case is about.

“After Brent was excluded from Mastodon, he sought an accounting, valuation, and orderly separation of interests he held in entities owned by the founding members. He passed away before that process was finished…Brent had not yet received compensation for any of his interests.”

The use of Hinds’ image, it then says, is only one part of the picture, but it matters “because it illustrates a broader commercial issue related to merchandising revenues.

“More specifically, it relates to whether Brent’s exclusion from the band discontinued his, and now his Estate’s, entitlement to share in Mastodon’s merchandising revenue.

“The remaining members maintain that Brent did not participate in Mastodon’s new album, yet the band chose to use a recognizable image of him to market that album and did so without the estate’s consent,” it continues. “This illustrates that Brent remains relevant to Mastodon’s brand even after his exclusion and death.

"The estate maintains that the band cannot fairly invoke Brent’s identity when it is commercially useful, while simultaneously denying the continuing relevance of his contributions when accounting for his interests.”

The statement concludes by acknowledging that Hinds’ legacy means a great deal to fans. It stresses that the lawsuit is not asking for “anyone to choose sides or diminish what Brent and his bandmates created together. Nor does it ask the public to judge anyone’s grief or intentions.”

Furthermore, it believes grieving one of heavy metal’s most unique guitar players and pursuing legal action can happen at the same time.

Brent’s family, it also claims, has been “subjected to personal attacks and harassment based on speculation and secondhand interpretations” and has called for “compassion and respect while the legal process moves forward.”

Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher, meanwhile, has detailed his difficulties working with Hinds in his final period with the band, and Troy Sanders has opened up on rebuilding the band with new guitarist Nick Johnston.

Bill Kelliher has looked back on his songwriting partnership with the late Brent Hinds, which he says felt like a “competition”.

Hinds’ exit from Mastodon in March last year sent shockwaves through the fanbase. His tragic death several months did the same. The band has since released their first record following his death, Marrow Deep.

Speaking in the new issue of Guitarist, guitarist and key songwriter Kelliher admits writing with Hinds was a rocky experience.

“I’m constantly writing. With Brent, it was always a competition, which I didn’t understand. It was one-sided with him,” he says. “He was interesting – a great fucking guitar player and songwriter – but it was difficult to write with him. With this new stuff, I’m writing all the time and putting riffs into my phone.

“But with Brent, after a while, he was just on his own wave… He just wasn’t into it any more. I was like, ‘Dude, how great is it that we get to go up on stage, have people buy our albums and worship you?’ But he just had this self-destructive streak.”

The band said they were unsure about speaking out about Hinds’ troubles, and the manner in which they reluctantly parted ways, given that he wasn’t around to contribute to the conversation. Still, Hinds’ legacy lacquers Marrow Deep – a record they see as a tribute as well as a fresh start. Sadly, something had to change.

“We were on totally different ends of the spectrum as far as guitar and personality,” Kelliher continues. “We did have a lot of things in common, but he was dangerous. I think that’s what made the Mastodon we were in the early days. He would just do whatever the fuck he wanted to do, but that got old after a while.”

After a relentless career that’s produced nine albums and six Grammy nominations, the band is an established institution. At 55, Kelliher is the oldest of the core group, and everything the guitarist says points towards them growing up, while Hinds was stuck in a destructive place. It’s hard to hear, but he says life in the band improved when he left.

“Honestly, it was like a big weight had been lifted,” Kelliher confesses of Hinds' departure from the band. “I was doing the lion’s share of the writing, but I always had to think, ‘Is Brent gonna like this?’ And pretty soon, he didn’t like anything that we would come up with.”

Hinds once said he hated heavy metal – a soundbite that went on to make many headlines. But that only scratched the surface of the effervescent and complex personality he was.

Now the band is facing a lawsuit from the late guitarist’s estate, claiming they financially benefited from his image following his death. The band has strongly refuted the claims.

They’ve also added another member to their live lineup, Baroness’ John Baizely. He’ll join them on their US tour with Deafheaven and Alcest.

Kelliher’s full interview features in the new issue of Guitarist. You can pick up print and digital copies from Magazines Direct.

Mastodon have broken their silence after it was announced the band is being sued by the estate of the late Brent Hinds.

“Sadly, a private business dispute with the estate of our dear departed friend Brent Hinds was made public,” the band’s statement read. “We strongly deny allegations of ill intent on our part and intend to vigorously defend what we believe is a meritless lawsuit.

“We don’t intend to speak publicly on this going forward, as we feel this wouldn’t honor Brent’s memory or the legacy of his musical gifts.”

Last week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that original Mastodon members Troy Sanders, Bill Kelliher and Brann Dailor are defendants in a filing that was lodged by the estate of their former guitarist.

The lawsuit lists a number of complaints, including the unauthorized use of Hinds’ image, and that the buyout of Hinds’ interest in merchandise was never finalized before his death.

As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, the estate alleges that Mastodon “selected and placed a recognizable image of Brent on the album cover of [new record]Marrow Deep and disseminated that cover to advertise, market, distribute, and sell physical albums, digital downloads and streams, merchandise, and related goods or services”.

Hinds’ estate also alleges that claims were made by the band about Hinds’ substance abuse, and that private information was made public after the guitarist’s death. Hinds, who left the band in March last year, died in August 2025 following a fatal motorcycle accident.

Mastodon’s response comes amid a further personnel shake-up. It has been confirmed the band had recruited Baroness frontman John Baizley to join their touring lineup.

Kelliher and co played an intimate warm-up gig over the weekend ahead of their upcoming Poisonous Weapons tour. Baizley was brought out to help close the set, but Mastodon confirmed his involvement would continue long term.

"We had a blast at the Earl last night!” Mastodon wrote on Instagram. “A great pre-tour warm up before we break out the lasers and LED screens.

“Our good pal, John Baizley from Baroness joined us, we had so much fun, we’ve invited him join us on stage during The Poisonous Weapons Tour to play a special set of Mastodon songs we haven’t played in a long time! We’re really excited to bring this special set on the tour. It’s going to epic! Who’s ready to party?”

Marcus King has a new signature model with Epiphone. Sure, he’s gotten behind self-branded instruments before – but this one is different. Personal, even.

“The El Dorado was the first guitar I have a memory of,” he says. “My dad gave it to me. It’s the first guitar that I remember strumming and being enthralled by.”

He says that the same footprint is in his new model. “When you play it, there’s an emotion to it. Some guitars have that and some do not. If you play 10 they’re all going to sound different. It depends on what the player is looking for. But there’s ample opportunity to find what they’re looking for with this guitar.”

King’s El Dorado signature is yet another step up for Epiphone, a once budget-focused company that’s been dabbling in an increased range of higher quality, yet still affordable, curios.

“It’s exciting to see a company like Epiphone do this,” King says, nodding to the company’s signature models with Dave Grohl and Joe Bonamassa, and its bang-on rendition of Peter Green’s Greeny.

There’s a lot of your personal history tied into your signature El Dorado acoustic.

Absolutely. I moved to Nashville in 2018. When I was packing up my guitars I mentioned to my dad, “I wish I still had my first guitar.” It was just one he’d had around for years, and then given to somebody. I assumed I’d never see it again.

So I was surprised when he came to visit me in East Nashville, and brought the El Dorado as a housewarming gift. I’d just acquired a 1981 Cadillac Eldorado – so those two happenings influenced me to name my [2020] album El Dorado.

Did you modify the original?

Before I took it on the road I took it to my friend Christy Carter at Carter Vintage Guitars. Christy personally put that Opry-style guard on there, just because I wanted a little Nashville flair. And there are some embellishments on there… You can see the South Carolina shape, mother-of-pearl inlay, and the Tennessee stars.

What was the trick to injecting the soul of that guitar into the signature model we’re seeing now?

Man, I just trusted Gibson to put together the best-sounding guitar they thought possible, you know? It sounds awfully good to me. But I’ve never put that much thought into what goes into the assembly process – other than, “How does the damn thing sound?”

There’s a lot of options out in acoustics. What sets the El Dorado apart?

It’s a hell of a looker! People see that guitar and they remember it. When I moved to Nashville, the words of my grandfather echoed in my ears: “Leave a lasting impression – make people remember you.” They may not remember your name, but they’ll remember that Cadillac parked outside, and that beautiful-looking guitar.

Are there additional signature guitars in the works with Gibson and Epiphone?

I don’t know how much I can get into it, but there have been some discussions. I’ve always got some ideas.

Elsewhere, you’ve switched from Orange, with whom you had a signature amp, to Marshall. What brought that on?

I really enjoyed working with Orange, but it was just time to try something new – I saw my buddy Eddie 9V playing through a Marshall, and it just sounded so damn good! I was really inspired to get back to that Allman Brothers influence. We tried some of the new products from Marshall, and I was just really excited about it.

Is there a signature model in the works with Marshall?

I’ve had my dad’s Plexi head out with me. I think it’s from 1970, and it’s a great-sounding head. He modified it and put the master volume in the back, and I’ve been playing that. I’d definitely be interested if Marshall wanted to do an amplifier with me. I’ve got some ideas.

What sort of ideas?

I like a little bit more compression in what the amplifier is giving me. I also prefer 10-inch speakers because there’s more of an attack. I think the 10-inch just suits my playing style, and it’s what I like to hear. But I also have some 12s up there; I like the combination of 10s and 12s. I’ve tried just about every configuration one could try.

Gear aside, you lost a good friend in Brent Hinds not long ago.

Man, I had Brent in my life for the better part of a decade. We became really good friends really quickly. And something indicative of his character is that anybody who knew him knew that if you were going to be friends with Brent, you knew it very quickly!

And we did become really good friends really quickly. He was a groomsman at my wedding, and just a good friend to talk to. He was a brother.

He was so passionate about his craft – and very unique as a player. Did you take anything away from his style and incorporate it into yours?

I loved how Brent was passionate about playing. But he was also sometimes like, “Oh, man, fuck it. Dude, let’s go do something else!” We never really spent much time talking about playing per se, but every now and then we’d nerd out about a Mark Knopfler solo.

We’d sit outside, get really stoned, and nerd out about a solo or two. But his playing style and his ability to bring chicken pickin’ into the metal realm, I was always really inspired by that. He also had a really good sense of melody, and was just a beautiful composer.

Not long ago, you had the chance to play Rory Gallagher's Telecaster and Jeff Beck's Yardburst. What was that like?

It’s always a heavy experience – it’s like there’s someone showing up, rather than an object, you know? I had the opportunity to play Jerry Garcia’s Tiger guitar and his Travis Bean model. And I played Freddie King’s 335 too.

I’ve had so many opportunities to play the guitars of people I’ve looked up to, and it always feels like there’s a little bit of the DNA still left on the instrument. It feels like you’re getting a visit from your heroes. You can feel the soul, if you’re open to it.

What’s next for you?

We’re gonna be touring up until the top of October, and then we’ll be back in the studio because I’ve been writing a bunch. I’ve got a lot of songs built up, so I’m excited to see what magic we can create.

• Head to King’s website for his tour dates, and visit Epiphone’s King page for details of his El Dorado signature acoustic.

Mastodon are reportedly being sued by the estate of the late Brent Hinds, which filed a civil complaint at the Fulton County Court, in Georgia, on September 3.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that original Mastodon members Troy Sanders, Bill Kelliher and Brann Dailor are defendants in a filing that lists a number of complaints, including the unauthorized use of Hinds’ image, that Hinds continued to have owned interests in merchandise, and that the buyout of these interests was never finalized before his death.

The estate also alleges that the surviving members of Mastodon made claims about Hinds’ substance abuse, and the complaint is made in regards to private information being made public after Hinds’ death

Hinds died in a motorcycle accident on August 20, 2025, aged 51. Just months earlier Mastodon had announced his exit from the band. Bill Kelliher told Guitar World it was like a marriage coming to an end.

“It’s been a fun, wild fucking ride, that’s for sure,” he said. “We achieved a lot of things that I never in a million years would have imagined. There’s been Grammys, touring with our heroes, like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Motörhead, and Tool. I cherish all of that. Like a marriage, sometimes people grow apart, and they get interested in other things. We wish nothing but the best for Brent in chasing his dreams.”

Hinds’ exit from the band was mutual. At least that was the story at the beginning. Hinds subsequently described his former bandmates as “horrible humans” and alleged that he was kicked out of the band (the estate alleges he had been notified of his departure via email).

Rumors of discord had been rife before Hinds’ exit. When drummer Brann Dailor appeared in public with a black eye, people jumped to conclusions.

“Brent texted me when that was all stirred up, and he was like, ‘Dude, I can’t believe people think I punched you in the face!’” Dailor told the Guardian in July.

Mastodon paid tribute to Hinds on their latest studio album, Marrow Deep. The cover art, an illustration by Paul Romano, features Hinds’ image.

This brings us back to some of his estate’s legal complaints.Hinds never contributed musically to the album. The estate is seeking compensation for its use on the album and merchandise sales.

The the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the estate alleges the band “selected and placed a recognizable image of Brent on the album cover of Marrow Deep and disseminated that cover to advertise, market, distribute, and sell physical albums, digital downloads and streams, merchandise, and related goods or services”.

Furthermore, it alleges that the $80,000 to buy-out offer for Hinds’ share of Mastodon’s business interests was never fully explained in their accounting, and the subsequently never cashed the check.

Marcus King may be going at a thousand miles an hour as the face of contemporary blues rock and Americana. However, between the release of his new signature Epiphone, the El Dorado, and his switch from Orange to Marshall, King is determined to pay homage to his late friend, Brent Hinds.

The Mastodon co-founder died in August last year at the age of 51 following a fatal motorcycle accident that left the guitar world grieving. King, who was both a long-time admirer of his work and a dear friend, looks back on their friendship and how life changed after Hinds’ untimely death.

“Man, I had Brent in my life for the better part of a decade,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview.

“We became really good friends really quickly. And something indicative of his character is that anybody who knew him knew that if you were going to be friends with Brent, you knew it very quickly,” he adds with a laugh. “And we did become really good friends really quickly. He was a groomsman at my wedding, and just a good friend to talk to. He was a brother.”

One of the top qualities that he admired about Hinds was how equally “passionate” and flippant he was about his playing.

“He was also sometimes like, ‘Oh, man… fuck it. Dude, let’s go do something else.’ We never really spent much time talking about playing per se, but every now and then we’d nerd out about a Mark Knopfler solo.”

“We’d just sit outside, get really stoned, and nerd out about a solo or two,” he illustrates. “But his playing style and his ability to bring chicken pickin’ into the metal realm… I was always really inspired by that. He also has a really good sense of melody and was just a beautiful composer.”

Hinds also recorded a guitar solo – one of his very last – before he died for King’s 2025 release Red Door.

“He slept on the living room couch for a week (or two, who's counting) with The Marcus King Band at the house they rented down in Macon, Georgia,” boutique American custom guitar shop Banker Guitars wrote on social media.

“Ever the stubborn perfectionist, he managed to do 278 takes before landing on the one he liked best.”

Guitar World’s full interview with Marcus King will be published in the coming weeks.

No discussion of Mastodon can ignore the sense of renewal running through the band’s latest release, Marrow Deep. Following the departure and tragic passing of longtime guitarist Brent Hinds, and with Nick Johnston stepping into the role, the Atlanta metal titans found themselves entering unfamiliar territory.

Hinds’ departure in early 2025 represented the biggest personnel change in Mastodon’s history. After 25 years together, the remaining members faced a decision that would ultimately shape the band’s next chapter.

“We knew the change had to happen,” says bassist Troy Sanders. “But we had absolutely no idea what the future looked like.

“We were prepared to do whatever it took. If that meant auditioning 500 people or spending months looking for the right person, then that’s what we were going to do. Finding the right fit was that important.”

Instead, the search barely had a chance to begin. Nick Johnston was the first person the band invited to Atlanta – not to audition, but simply to hang out.

“Our drummer Brann had met Nick years ago and always thought he was a great guy and an incredible player. So before we even talked about music, we just asked him to come and hang for a couple of days.

“At this point in our career, being a good human being is every bit as important as being a great musician. We wanted to know whether we’d actually enjoy spending time together.”

As fate would have it, the timing couldn’t have been more surreal.

“The day Nick arrived was the morning Brann’s mother passed away. Nick knocked on the door after flying into Atlanta, and we had to tell him straight away, ‘Hey… really nice to meet you, but Brann’s mom died this morning.’

“Nick immediately said, ‘I’ll turn around. I’ve got a friend nearby. I don’t need to be here.’ But we told him, ‘No, come in. Stay with us.’ Looking back, I think that told us everything we needed to know about his character.”

“When we finally got around to playing together, he walked in and said, ‘I know about 20 of your songs. Which ones do you want to play?’ We were like… ‘Wait, what?’ He’d already done all the homework because he’d been a fan for years.

“Nick said, ‘I’m not here to fill Brent’s shoes. I want to help write the future of Mastodon.’ That was exactly what we wanted to hear. At that point it was basically, ‘You’re in.’”

The band immediately hit the road, first touring North America with Coheed and Cambria before tackling a full European festival run. Another summer of overseas shows followed.

“Those have honestly been the three best tours of our career. The camaraderie, the energy, the appreciation – we all feel renewed. It doesn’t happen very often that something this significant changes, and somehow everything just clicks.”

That renewed confidence carried directly into the recording sessions for the new album. Rather than treating Johnston as a hired hand, he was encouraged to become a genuine creative partner.

“If we’d hit a section where something wasn’t working, Nick would jump in with ideas straight away. He wasn’t trying to dominate anything. He just genuinely wanted to make the songs better.

“He’d throw ideas into the room whenever he had them, but he’s equally happy if somebody says, ‘Actually, I think we should try something else.’ There’s no ego attached to it.”

For Sanders, adding another songwriter has subtly shifted the band’s musical vocabulary without sacrificing its identity.

“It naturally evolves the sound because another creative voice is involved, but it still sounds completely authentic. It never felt forced.”

Despite being one of modern metal’s most acclaimed outfits, Sanders insists Mastodon’s greatest strength remains its willingness to challenge one another.

“If somebody tells me I’m overplaying something, my response is usually, ‘Okay… what would make it better?’ I’m never precious about it.

“There are times where someone might say, ‘That vocal isn’t quite there,’ or, ‘That bass part could probably be simpler.’ You’ve got to be willing to hear that.

“If everybody’s trying to protect their own territory, you spend more time arguing than making music. We’re way beyond that.”

As anticipation builds around the new record, Sanders has deliberately stopped measuring success by sales figures or chart positions. Instead, he sees two distinct milestones.

“The first success is simply finishing the album and putting it out into the world. We’ve been living with some of these riffs for nearly two years. We finished recording almost a year ago, and now it’s finally being released.

“Of course we hope people love it. But we never expect anybody to love it. We’ve never written records to win over old fans, attract younger fans or chase a different audience. We write albums that satisfy the five of us first.

“If we’re hugging each other at the end of the process because we genuinely love what we’ve created, then hopefully enough people will connect with it, too. But that can’t be the reason you make it.”

His second measure of success is far simpler.

“It’s spending the next few years travelling the world and playing these songs live. When you walk onstage every night and feel that connection with thousands of people… that’s when you remember you’ve got the coolest job on Earth.”

With Mastodon officially announcing their long-awaited new album, Marrow Deep, months of speculation about the band's next chapter have finally come to an end. Yet for bassist Troy Sanders, a member of one of modern metal’s busiest bands, patience has always been part of the job.

“We genuinely viewed this as the most important record we’ve ever made,” says Sanders. “We nit-picked everything. We made sure every riff was the strongest it could be. We spent time figuring out who should sing what, whether parts were really serving the songs and whether everything fit together naturally.

“We’ve always challenged ourselves, and thankfully we still want to. We’ve never wanted to make the same album twice.”

Surrounded by Bill Kelliher’s intricate guitar riffs, the expressive lead work of new guitarist Nick Johnston, João Nogueira’s atmospheric keyboards, and Brann Dailor’s famously explosive drumming, Sanders viewed his role as providing the band's foundation rather than competing for the spotlight.

“I think I fit into the traditional rock bass-player model. That actually suits me perfectly because I’m not a flashy player and I’m not interested in forcing myself into the spotlight.

“If pulling something back makes the whole band sound bigger, that’s absolutely the right decision. It always comes back to keeping things simple.”

Sanders’ core bass arsenal has also remained unchanged, rotating between a Fender Jaguar Bass, his Fender Signature P-Bass, and a trusted Warwick that has featured on every Mastodon album and tour since 2009’s Crack the Skye.

“That Warwick just handles our low tunings better than anything else I’ve ever played. Those three basses are basically my entire world.”

One unexpected addition during sessions for the new album – their first since the departure of founding guitarist Brent Hinds – came courtesy of producer Kurt Ballou, who persuaded Sanders to abandon convention and run his bass through a Marshall guitar head and 4x12 cabinet.

“Kurt asked if I’d ever tried it and suddenly I’m running my bass through this old Marshall JMP guitar amp. It absolutely roared.

“It had this aggressive growl I’d never really heard before. That became part of the heavier blend throughout the album. It’s not sitting right on top of everything in the mix, but it’s there, adding another layer underneath.”

Despite being an enthusiastic pedal collector, for Sanders, years of experimentation almost always end in exactly the same place.

“Live it’s just a tuner and a Wren & Cuff Elephant Skin distortion, but I’ve probably got 50 pedals sitting on shelves in my practice space. Every time we make a record I’ll bring eight or 10 of them into the studio, but almost every time we finish by going, ‘Right… clean tone, dirty tone, done.’”

• Marrow Deep is available to preorder, out August 28 via Loma Vista

Nearly one year after Brent Hinds’ tragic death, Mastodon members are opening up about their complicated 25-year-relationship with the former lead guitarist – and the brain injury that nearly spelled the end of the band.

In an infamous accident that happened right after the 2007 MTV Video Awards, Hinds was involved in an altercation that resulted in a significant head injury that, for years, was rumored to have involved System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian – one that multiple sources have since dispelled.

“He, I guess, was kind of running around this casino and ended up just pissing off the wrong person,” says Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor.

“In his very drunken states, he would be a habitual line stepper. He crossed the line with somebody, from what I was told. This person said, ‘Don't do that to me,’ and he did it and got punched, and I think he fell over and hit his head, and I think that was what did the most damage.

“It was really, really, really scary, and we thought we might lose him then.”

“Yeah, we thought the band was over,” adds co-guitarist Bill Kelliher. “He's crossed the line; he's gone too far. He was really fucked up for a long time.” Hinds’ fellow band members even thought that the brain damage was going to be “irreversible” and “substantial.”

However, it also seemed like his recovery served as an intense period of inspiration for Hinds, who, according to Kelliher, was “playing acoustic guitar a lot” and had written an impressive number of songs.

“[We were thinking], man, maybe this is a good thing. Then, Crack the Skye happened, and it was like, wow – he came [up] with all these songs and riffs and ideas, and it was like this rebirth.”

“Every riff and song and composition that he brought in at that time, I was in absolute awe of it,” continues bassist Troy Sanders.

“It was next-level Brent; it was peak Brent, and if someone like Brent was really excited about something, it was on. All three of us, we [were] glued to him. That led to this magical, spiritual-like moment that became Crack the Skye.”

Released in 2009, Mastodon’s fourth studio album became one of their highest-selling albums to date – and marked a significant sonic shift for the band that many consider their masterwork.

“It was a very exciting time, looking back on it,” reflects Kelliher.

“It was a big jump for our band to go from Blood Mountain to Crack the Skye. I remember all of us saying we want to make a classic album that you can pull off the shelf in 20 years from now, 30 years from now, and go, ‘This record stands the test of time.’”

Mastodon recently released Your Ghost Again, their first song without Hinds. The track introduces new guitarist Nick Johnston, and serves as a taster of the band's album, slated for release later this year.

The group's The Poisonous Weapons Tour kicks off on September 16 in Orlando, Florida.

Mastodon have released their first single since the passing of former guitarist, Brent Hinds, and it finds the band grieving his death in a powerful manner.

Last year was a tumultuous period for the Atlanta Grammy winners, with Hinds’ tragic death coming just months after Mastodon parted ways with the band’s co-founder after 25 years.

Your Ghost Again, is the lead single from their forthcoming ninth album, Poisonous Weapons, and the first to feature their new guitarist, Nick Johnston.

The track is Mastodon at their best, hurtling through breakneck time signature changes with violent vivacity while exorcising heavy, cathartic emotions. Hinds isn’t physically on the track, but his memory is present and his spirit echoes through it.

“I kept seeing him out of the corner of my eye in the studio, where he would normally be with his guitar,” drummer Brann Dailor explains in a video posted to social media. “It kept catching me off guard, you know?Your Ghost Again is about how your mind plays tricks on you, especially soon after someone dies, and you’re in the places where they always were.”

Mastodon addressed Hind’s untimely passing after their first show since his death, but otherwise the band has remained largely quiet on the subject. They have their reasons.

“[This song] means a lot to me, and so I hope that that can translate to the fans that are grieving Brent,” Dailor says. “I understand that, from a fan’s perspective, we never really addressed it. We just couldn’t; it was too much.

“I know Brent’s not there, and I know it’s weird, and it’s hard, and some people might be like, ‘Well, I don’t want to listen to it because Brent’s not there, and I’m hurting about that,’ but we are too. I’m still unpacking it.”

Following a one-show stand-in from YouTuber and Mastodon superfan Ben Eller, the band recruited prog fusion ace Nick Johnston for the position.

Guitarist Bill Kelliher had previously confirmed that Johnston will feature on the new album and that the pair have been writing like crazy. Touring keyboardist João Nogueira is also part of a new-look lineup.

Mastodon will also tour the US with support from Deafheaven and Alcest later this year, with dates in September and October culminating on October 24 at Sick New World, Dallas.

See Mastodon for more.

Banker Guitars has revealed that the late guitar heavyweight Brent Hinds recorded a guitar solo with the Marcus King Band before his death last year.

Hinds was killed in a fatal motorcycle accident just months after he parted ways with Mastodon in March 2025.

It’s since been revealed that the guitarist died with a trove of unreleased solo material, while Banker Guitars believed his Marcus King guest spot was one of the last solos he ever recorded.

“For those who may not know, this song you are listening to has one of the last guitar solos Brent Hinds recorded,” the firm writes says on Instagram. The post features an image of Brent with his Banker Ironman SG copy. King’s Red Door is the tagged song.

“He slept on the living room couch for a week (or two, whose counting) with The Marcus King Band at the house they rented down in Macon, Georgia, while they were writing and recording their latest record, Darlin’ Blue at the legendary Capricorn Studios,” the post expands.

Darlin’ Blue was released last year, with the record charting King’s sobriety journey. Red Door is the final track of the newly released double-disc expansion of the album, Darlin’ Blue/No Room for Blue.

“Red Door was one that Brent collaborated on and performed on,” Banker confirms, “Ever the stubborn perfectionist, he managed to do 278 takes before landing on the one he liked best. These are some photos I took while hanging out and watching it all unfold for a couple of days.”

The pair had a tight relationship. Notably, Hinds joined King to play a Sabbath classic during a 2020 livestream, and King shared a heartfelt tribute to the guitarist following his passing.

Hinds played Banker guitars for several years, including a Goldtop Ironman complete with a Bigsby vibrato, which was a regular onstage fixture with Mastodon.

On Red Door, Hinds' final cut is a biting, ripper of a solo that bottles Brent’s one-of-a-kind, adrenaline-filled country-metal playing style in incredible fashion.

Canadian prog maestro Nick Johnston has since taken his place in Mastodon – and the gig has seen him reconfigure his signature gear. It has been confirmed he will feature on their next record.

King, meanwhile, has reflected on his earlier playing days, revealing he was once so drunk he forgot he bought a vintage guitar from a well-known store.

The 2026 Grammys took place last night (February 1) and proved to be something of a guitar music love-in. From Justin Bieber wielding a 1988 Yamaha RGX 612S, to Turnstile winning both Best Rock Album and, perhaps more controversially, Best Metal Performance, pop stars and quintessential rock bands alike were out in full force this year, flying the flag for the instrument.

The Ozzy Osbourne tribute (or should that be tributes?) took center stage across the weekend. Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll both honored the Prince of Darkness at record executive Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammys gala on Saturday night – with MGK opting for 2007's I Don’t Wanna Stop and the country star giving a heartfelt rendition of 1991's Mama, I’m Coming Home.

The award show’s own tribute took place on the actual Grammy stage, with an all-star lineup that included a Les Paul-laden Slash and Ozzy producer Andrew Watt brandishing an SG, Duff McKagan on bass, and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith on drums.

Post Malone – who collaborated with Ozzy on Take What You Want and It’s a Raid from Osbourne’s first new album in a decade, 2019’s Ordinary Man – took up vocal duties on an abbreviated rendition of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, a version that visibly left the Osbourne family fighting back tears.

Aside from the Prince of Darkness, this year's In Memoriam segment kicked off with a voiceover from Bruce Springsteen, paying tribute to Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson: “The last of the Wilson brothers may be gone, but he leaves behind so many great songs, and good vibrations.”

John Mayer also paid his respects to Dead & Company bandmate and Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir, also in a voiceover: “He understood songwriting to its core, having written and performed some of the most enduring music in American history.

“Bob was a messenger, not only for the music he made with the Grateful Dead, but for the tapestry of influences that birthed it … Bob has left us, but the songs he sang will remain a road map for a better, more meaningful life. See you down the road, Ace.”

Neo-soul pioneer D'Angelo was honored by a host of artists and contemporaries: Lauryn Hill – marking her first Grammys performance since 1999 – Raphael Saadiq, Anthony Hamilton, Leon Thomas, and Jon Batiste.

And while guitar stars, including the likes of Ace Frehley were included in the segment, Mastodon fans pointed out that Brent Hinds was noticeably omitted, with Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert and Zappa Plays Zappa bassist, Pete Griffin, taking to social media to call out the institution: “Shame on @grammys for not including my brother (and fellow Grammy winner) Brent Hinds in their ‘in memoriam’ segment.”

The omission seemed particularly odd, given Hinds had been nominated for no less than six Grammys, and won one in 2018 – Best Metal Performance for Sultan's Curse – during his tenure with Mastodon.

Yungblud, Ozzy’s mentee and part of the new vanguard leading rock into the future, won his first-ever Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance for his career-making rendition of Changes at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning concert.

“To grow up loving an idol who helped you develop your identity, not only as a musician, but as a man, is something that I’m truly grateful for,” he said in his acceptance speech.

“But then to get to know them and to form a relationship with them, and to honor them at their final show, and receive this because of it, is something that I and I think we are finding a bit strange to comprehend.

“We fucking love you, Ozzy,” he continued. “We would all like to thank Sharon, Jack, Kelly and Aimee [Osbourne] for this opportunity, and everyone at the Back To The Beginning show. Six generations of rock musicians came together in the name of our genre, in the name of Sabbath and in the name of Ozzy Osbourne.

“I deeply love this genre, it’s all I’ve ever known. I want to dedicate it to everyone in the guitar shop that I grew up in, and everyone in a guitar shop or in a bedroom with a dream. Rock music’s fucking coming back – watch out pop music, we’re gonna fucking get ya.”

And speaking of rock music's comeback, Turnstile bagged Best Rock Album for last year's triumphant album, Never Enough.

Accepting the award, frontman Brendan Yates commented, “The community we found through punk and hardcore music has given us a safe place to swing in the dark and land somewhere beautiful. So to our family, our friends, our partners, our peers, and to Baltimore, thank you. We love you.”

Perhaps more surprisingly, the genre-blending band also managed to win Best Metal Performance for Birds, beating the more metal through-and-through acts Dream Theater, Ghost, Sleep Token, and Spiritbox.

More standout guitar moments came by way of Bruno Mars, who, together with K-Pop star Rosé, delivered an overdriven rendition of their global hit APT.

Armed with a black Les Paul – as opposed to his signature Fender – Mars added some extra grit, as well as a squealing guitar solo, to the pop-punk-inflected track as the duo, who were nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, opened the show.

And it very much seemed like Justin Bieber went full-on Mk.gee with a stripped-down, guitar and looper performance of Yukon – from last year's album Swag (which, fun fact, included the contributions of both Mk.gee as well as his frequent collaborator Dijon).

Bieber’s guitar of choice was a left-handed purple 1988 Yamaha RGX 612S that definitely stood out on stage – an off-kilter choice that continues the trend of pop and indie stars à la Kesha and Phoebe Bridgers opting for ’80s and ’90s guitars more typically associated with metal or hardcore, whether for aesthetics or tone (or both).

Here's the full list of winners and nominees in the big four categories – and the guitar-adjacent ones:

Song of the year

Billie Eilish - Wildflower

Lady Gaga – Abracadabra

Doechii – Anxiety

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

Bad Bunny – DtMF

Hunter/x – Golden

Kendrick Lamar feat SZA – Luther

Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Record of the year

Kendrick Lamar feat SZA - Luther

Bad Bunny – DtMF

Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Doechii – Anxiety

Billie Eilish – Wildflower

Lady Gaga – Abracadabra

Chappell Roan – The Subway

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

Album of the year

Winner: Bad Bunny – Debí Tirar Más Fotos

Justin Bieber – Swag

Sabrina Carpenter – Man's Best Friend

Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Kendrick Lamar – GNX

Leon Thomas – Mutt

Tyler, the Creator – Chromakopia

Best new artist

Olivia Dean

Katseye

The Marías

Addison Rae

Sombr

Leon Thomas

Alex Warren

Lola Young

Best pop solo performance

Lola Young – Messy

Justin Bieber – Daisies

Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild

Lady Gaga – Disease

Chappell Roan – The Subway

Best pop vocal album

Lady Gaga – Mayhem

Justin Bieber – Swag

Sabrina Carpenter – Man's Best Friend

Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful

Teddy Swims – I've Tried Everything But Therapy Pt 2

Best pop duo/group performance

Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande – Defying Gravity

Huntr/x – Golden

Katseye – Gabriela

Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT.

SZA With Kendrick Lamar – 30 For 30

Best traditional pop vocal album

Laufey – A Matter Of Time

Laila Biali – Wintersongs

Jennifer Hudson – The Gift Of Love

Elton John & Brandi Carlile – Who Believes In Angels?

Lady Gaga – Harlequin

Barbra Streisand – The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume 2

Best rock performance

Yungblud ft Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, Adam Wakeman, II – Changes (Live From Villa Park) Back To The Beginning

Amyl and The Sniffers – U Should Not Be Doing That

Linkin Park – The Emptiness Machine

Turnstile – Never Enough

Hayley Williams – Mirtazapine

Best rock song

Nine Inch Nails – As Alive As You Need Me To Be

Sleep Token – Caramel

Hayley Williams – Glum

Turnstile – Never Enough

Yungblud – Zombie

Best rock album

Turnstile – Never Enough

Deftones – Private Music

Haim – I Quit

Linkin Park – From Zero

Yungblud – Idols

Best alternative music album

The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

Bon Iver – Sable, Fable

Tyler, The Creator – Don't Tap the Glass

Wet Leg – Moisturizer

Hayley Williams – Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party

Best alternative music performance

The Cure – Alone

Bon Iver – Everything Is Peaceful Love

Turnstile – Seein' Stars

Wet Leg – Mangetout

Hayley Williams – Parachute

Best metal performance

Turnstile – Birds

Dream Theater – Night Terror

Ghost – Lachryma

Sleep Token – Emergence

Spiritbox – Soft Spine

Best country solo performance

Chris Stapleton – Bad As I Used To Be

Tyler Childers – Nose On The Grindstone

Shaboozey – Good News

Zach Top – I Never Lie

Lainey Wilson – Somewhere Over Laredo

Best country duo/group performance

Shaboozey & Jelly Roll – Amen

Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton – A Song To Sing

Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson – Trailblazer

Margo Price & Tyler Childers – Love Me Like You Used To Do

George Strait & Chris Stapleton – Honky Tonk Hall Of Fame

Best country song

Tyler Childers – Bitin' List

Shaboozey – Good News

Zach Top – I Never Lie

Lainey Wilson – Somewhere Over Laredo

Chris Stapleton – A Song To Sing

Best contemporary country album

Jelly Roll – Beautifully Broken

Kelsea Ballerini – Patterns

Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter

Eric Church – Evangeline vs The Machine

Miranda Lambert – Postcards From Texas

Best R&B performance

Kehlani – Folded

Justin Bieber – Yukon

Chris Brown feat Bryson Tiller – It Depends

Leon Thomas – Mutt (Live From NPR's Tiny Desk)

Summer Walker – Heart Of A Woman

Best African music performance

Tyla – Push 2 Start

Burna Boy – Love

Davido feat Omah Lay – With You

Eddy Kenzo & Mehran Matin – Hope & Love

Ayra Starr feat Wizkid – Gimme Dat

Best Latin pop album

Natalia Lafourcade – Cancionera

Rauw Alejandro – Cosa Nuestra

Andrés Cepeda – Bogotá (Deluxe)

Karol G – Tropicoqueta

Alejandro Sanz – ¿Y ahora qué?

Best música urbana album

Bad Bunny – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS

J Balvin – Mixteip

Feid – Ferxxo Vol X: Sagrado

Nicki Nicole – Naiki

Trueno – Eub Deluxe

Yandel – Sinfónico (En Vivo)

I met Brent Hinds a few years ago at a Mastodon gig. For some reason, he was standing next to me at the public bar, waiting in line to buy a drink, rather than staying out of sight backstage, so I introduced myself as a writer for Guitar World’s sister magazine, Total Guitar, and bought him a beer and a shot.

We talked briefly before he headed backstage, but I couldn’t quite figure him out. My impression was that he was a bit of an introvert, perhaps not that good with new people – someone who saved his flamboyance for the stage.

In his personality, Hinds – who died August 20 in a traffic collision in Atlanta at age 51 – was rather like the music of Mastodon. Their eight studio albums are epic, progressive and thought-through, but none of the music is easy to digest or understand, making the elevated commercial position they hold damn-near miraculous. Mastodon never recorded a substandard album, either. From day one, they were a force of nature.

A large chunk of Mastodon’s brilliance and success can be attributed directly to Hinds. Sure, his partnership with guitarist Bill Kelliher – also a phenomenal musician, who focused more on heaviness and riffs while Hinds tended more toward solos and weird textures – was among the most accomplished in metal.

But Hinds’ own songwriting and performing was unique to itself; he blended genres deliberately but effortlessly, denying that he was anything as limited as “a metal guitarist” in GW and elsewhere.

Hinds was born in Helena, Alabama, in 1974 and listened to country musicians as a kid, later namechecking Johnny Paycheck and Jerry Reed, in particular the latter’s guitar playing.

He attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts and later moved to Atlanta, where he joined bassist Troy Sanders’ band, Four Hour Fogger. The two musicians later formed Mastodon with Kelliher and drummer Brann Dailor, who they’d met at a High On Fire show, initially performing as a quintet with singer Eric Saner.

A demo led to a deal with Relapse, and when Saner quit, an unusual setup developed in which lead vocals were alternately delivered by Sanders, Hinds and Dailor; a debut album, Remission (2000), attracted immediate attention and Mastodon rapidly built a profile.

March of the Fire Ants was an immediate fan favorite, demonstrating the group’s unorthodox but compelling set of influences – think Metallica and Rush meet Isis and Neurosis, plus Hinds’ love of country guitar – and a fanbase swiftly coalesced.

The ambitious concept album Leviathan (2004), based on Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick, has become a 21st-century milestone for its progressive-metal mastery, appearing in several best-of-the-decade polls.

High-profile tours with Slayer, Lamb of God and Slipknot took the Mastodon message to the public and, after a compilation called Call of the Mastodon, a step up to the Warner label took the band even further.

High points that remember from Mastodon’s early-2000s trajectory include Colony of Birchmen from Blood Mountain (2006), featuring Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age; the psychedelic inspirations of Crack the Skye (2009), featuring Hinds’ amazing hybrid picking on Divinations; tours with Metallica and Dethklok; and their soundtrack to the 2010 movie Jonah Hex.

Curl of the Burl from The Hunter (2011) nabbed a Grammy nomination, Mastodon toured America with Opeth and Ghost in 2012, and your kids leaped off their cinema seats in excitement that year when a blast of Island was heard in Monsters University.

The upward trend continued with Once More ’Round the Sun (2014); appearances by Hinds, Dailor and Kelliher as undead adversaries in Game of Thrones in 2015; Emperor of Sand (2017), on which Hinds’ pentatonic mastery is on display on Roots Remain; and an EP called Cold Dark Place – inspired, said Hinds, by the end of a relationship.

“I wrote some pretty dark, beautiful, spooky, funky, ethereal, melancholy music, which also sounds like the Bee Gees a little bit,” Hinds said with typical sly humor. A 2019 cover of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven came from a similar place of sadness – the death of manager Nick John – and Mastodon’s most recent LP, Hushed and Grim, appeared in 2021.

Hinds didn’t talk much about his personal life, although we do know the title track of The Hunter was written for his brother Brad, who died on a hunting trip in 2010.

Occasionally he alluded to past trauma (“There’s hurt and anger that have afflicted us through our lives… the only way we can deal with it is to have these songs that go out to our fallen brothers and sisters”) and he also discussed a Xanax addiction with GW in 2022.

“I used to have constant anxiety about getting in a bus accident or a plane crash,” he said. “And then big crowds of people give me anxiety. So I’ve lived with anxiety for 20 years, and I was hooked on Xanax for 15 years, and I had to wean myself off of it a little bit at a time because it was compromising my breathing…

“One time I couldn’t get it and I had two seizures. So I finally weaned myself off. It took years, but recently I discovered that you need to be anxious and fucking deal with it and that keeps you on your toes and motivated to keep doing shit. Now I try to feed off the anxiety and play guitar.”

Despite Hinds’ issues, his guitar partnership with Kelliher was among the most creative of metal’s last two decades, but that’s not to say the two men operated as one; indeed, their creative processes differed radically.

“We’re opposite sometimes,” Kelliher told GW in 2024. “When I write songs I’ll spend months piecing them together, whereas Brent says, ‘Let’s jam in the studio.’”

Those differences often paid huge dividends, he told us. “Once in a while, he’ll hear something in what I’m showing him and he’ll come up with his own interpretation. And sometimes he’ll do something that will totally surprise me. Like, I’ll put a bridge in there and I assume he’ll play a solo over that.

“Then he’ll come in the next day and play his part and when I come back in, I’m blown away when I listen back because he put the solo somewhere entirely different, like over a midsection, which I thought would be instrumental. I’ll be like, ‘Whoa, wow! I wouldn’t have put it there, but that’s cool. That sounds killer.’ When it works, it’s a very cool thing to hear because it shines a whole new ray of light on the song.”

Still, those differences in personality and creativity didn’t exactly make it easy for Kelliher, as he diplomatically told GW.

“When Brent writes stuff – and I’ve told him this before – it’s like he’s writing as if he was the only guitar player in the band, because it’s just wild,” he said.

“So I’m trying to learn it and trying to play it over and over. I’m like, ‘Dude, this is really hard.’ He’ll go, ‘Oh no, it’s not hard. Your stuff is hard.’ I’m like, ‘Well, your stuff is hard because it’s almost like you’re playing a guitar solo the whole time.’”

He continued: “It’s very hard for him to teach me stuff and tell me what he’s doing. He doesn’t have any patience for sitting down and showing me what to do. When he plays, I have to video record his exact finger positions on my phone. And then I’ll learn it. But it changes a lot, too.

“I’ll work really hard and learn something one way and then by the next practice he’s changed it, which he can do. It’s his riff until we record it.”

Hinds understood that his own playing was complex, telling GW, “I like to sprawl out in a song. I think living in the city and being cramped around people causes these unconscious decisions for my songwriting.

“The only case scenario I have to really spread out is in a song. Having the kind of sound I have, when I play and get into it, I get kinda lost, and before I know it 13 or 15 minutes have passed.”

The complicated nature of Hinds’ compositions was in itself a challenge, Kelliher said. “There’s a song on Blood Mountain, Capillarian Crest, and when it gets to the midsection he’s playing completely crazy stuff. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not even going to try to play that because I’m going to give myself an aneurysm if I try to learn it.’ And then I got to the point where he was doing something really complicated and I went, ‘Okay, I’m never going to play something exactly like you because we’re different kinds of guitar players.’”

Gear-wise, Hinds was a Flying V guy to the core, often playing a silverburst model made by the Gibson Custom Shop, although he also played Les Pauls and SGs. Epiphone made him a signature V when Gibson failed to do so. “I’m pretty disgruntled with the Gibson people,” Hinds told us in 2016. “But Epiphone, if I could give them all a hug or a Valentine’s card, I would!”

The Hinds V is a tough instrument out of necessity; one of his most memorable GW quotes was, “I emphasized to them that I’m gonna wank, spank, slobber, bleed, bend, crunch and crush all over this fucking thing, and the guitar’s gonna need to be able to handle the monster behind it.” He also owned a pedal company, cunningly named Dirty B Hinds.

Mastodon was, despite their prolific output, just one outlet for Hinds. He released a split double album in 2011 from not one but two projects, Fiend Without a Face and West End Motel, and the following year formed a supergroup called Giraffe Tongue Orchestra with members of the Dillinger Escape Plan, Jane’s Addiction and the Mars Volta.

Another all-star project titled Legend of the Seagullmen, featuring Tool drummer Danny Carey, came in 2018.

Hinds either quit Mastodon or was fired from the group five months before his death. The official statement announced that they had “mutually decided to part ways,” a non-explanation that neither he nor the other band members subsequently clarified, as is so often the case in this legally sensitive era.

The group replaced him firstly with YouTuber Ben Eller and then with Nick Johnston, who did a sterling job at Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell show, Back to the Beginning, in Birmingham, England, on July 5.

Sadly, Hinds’ last words on the subject of Mastodon were bitter ones. In June he wrote (on Instagram), “I won’t miss being in a shit band with horrible humans” and later added in response to a live video from 2012: “My guitar sounds great, but Troy and [Dailor] sound absolutely horrible. They are way out of key. Embarrassing and they kicked me out of the band for embarrassing them for being who I am.

“But what about who they are? They are two people that can’t sing together live or anywhere else in the world. Everything they try to sing in the studio is manipulated by Autotune because they’re incapable of singing in key.

“Only I know who they really are,” he continued. “They are the biggest fans of themselves... I’ve never met three people that were so full of themselves. It’s disgusting.”

Kelliher rose above all this, writing in tribute, “We had our good and bad times, just like in any relationship… I didn’t think you’d be taken from us like this, [with the] absolute loss of a true, one-of-a-kind guitar wizard extraordinaire. You were a brother, we were a family, you were a wild man not to be tamed.”

A sad ending to a unique trajectory, then, and equally sadly, not the first or the last time that genius has proved a terminal obstacle to creative collaboration.

Hinds’ wild-card nature was summed up in the words of Shirley Manson of Garbage, who wrote: “I am utterly devastated to learn of your death… the world is so much less wild and free and beautiful without you in it. Rest easy my brother. Keep me a seat at the bar, will you?”

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

A former bandmate of Brent Hinds has revealed the existence of a trove of unreleased solo material that was written and recorded by the late heavy metal guitar great.

In August, Hinds was killed while riding his Harley Davidson in a fatal motorcycle accident at the age of 51, prompting an outpouring of tributes from the wider guitar world. A few months prior, Hinds had left Mastodon – the outfit with whom he put his singular guitar style on the music map.

It was a style that took country music and other far-reaching influences into heavier waters, and one that took metal guitar into uncharted territory. And, according to Duane Trucks – a former bandmate of Hinds – more of that music exists in the form of an unreleased solo record that Hinds had created before his death.

“Brent’s got an entire album that hasn’t seen the light of day,” Trucks says in the new issue of Metal Hammer. “He sent me the whole album of tunes and it’s cool as shit.”

Trucks, who played drums in Hinds’ psychobilly side project, Fiend Without a Face, adds of the guitar great’s influence and legacy, “You rarely meet someone with so many facets who does things in such an honest, vulnerable way.

“He really fucking meant what he was playing. It was not a put-on. He wasn’t just doing this for a cheque.”

Speaking to Guitar World in 2022 about his unique approach to metal guitar, Hinds reasoned that his style had been shaped in such a unique way because he didn’t consider himself a metal guitarist in the first place.

“I’m not a metal guitarist,” he said. “Sometimes I stumble upon a metal riff and I’ve been influenced by [post-metal] bands like Isis. I get it where I can fit it, but I’m an oddball when it comes to the metal scene.

“I love country. My favorite country singer/songwriter is Johnny Paycheck and my favorite guitar-playing country artist is Jerry Reed. So I try to incorporate some country licks here and there. And sometimes I’m clever enough to find out where they can go in a tasteful manner.”

Last week, Mastodon – who recruited YouTuber Ben Eller and prog virtuoso Nick Johnston in the interim following Hinds’ departure – seemingly confirmed their new permanent guitarist after Bill Kelliher named the player who’d be featured on their next album.

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Metal Hammer.

Mastodon look to have ended speculation over the identity of their new full-time guitarist by confirming that their next album will feature parts written and recorded by Nick Johnston.

The Canadian prog shredder joined the band as a touring guitarist earlier this year, following the shock departure of founding riff-wizard Brent Hinds.

The announcement came just days before they were due to play at the Tool in the Sand festival in the Dominican Republic, with YouTuber and Mastodon superfan Ben Eller drafted in as a last-minute stand-in.

Afterwards, the band’s other guitarist, Bill Kelliher, told Guitar World that they wouldn’t be rushing to find a replacement and revealed what the Atlanta Grammy winners were looking for in their next guitarist.

Fans didn’t have to wait long to see who was next in line, with Schecter signature artist Nick Johnston tapped up for their tour with Periphery and Coheed & Cambria.

However, it seems he’s here to stay, with Kelliher revealing that Johnston has become involved with the writing process for the follow-up to 2021 double album, Hushed and Grim.

“Even before Hushed And Grim was finished, I still had extra songs, and then I just kept writing more and more and more,” he tells Blunt Mag. “So now we’ve got, like, 20-some ideas.

“I own a studio, so we’ll demo the stuff at my house, and we'll bring it to my studio with my engineer. Then we bring in Nick and João [‘Rasta’ Nogueira], the keyboard player, and we start jamming the songs and say, ‘You wanna add something? Please add whatever you want in here.’”

He adds that the material that has been written thus far is “mostly Brann [Dailor, drums/vocals] and me.” Yet, he reveals he's outwardly looking to both Johnston and Nogueira for contributions. He also hints that Johnston is part of the long-term picture.

“It still needs the touch of the other guys, but there are also these whole new songs that Nick is bringing in,” he develops. “So it’s a combination of both. It won’t be until the next record, after this one, I think, where it really will be more Nick being in there. He’s gonna be on the new record, for sure, yes. He’s writing like crazy. I’m writing like crazy.

“We’re so full of energy. We just don’t wanna get lost. I’m, like, ‘Let’s concentrate on the songs that we have that we had before Nick joined and get those out with their help.’ It’s a little lopsided still, because he’s only just joined the band. But it’s still gonna be fucking awesome. I’m so excited. Everything that we’ve been demoing is incredible.”

As things stand, there has been no official confirmation of Johnston’s position in the band beyond what we’ve seen him do on stage, but Kelliher’s words seem to all but confirm his permanent place in the band.

The band's former guitar player Brent Hinds tragically passed in a motorbike accident in August. Brann Dailor led the tributes to the man they wrote “beautiful music” with for a quarter of a century.

Talking to Guitar World in 2022, Hinds said he was the “oddball” of the metal scene, highlighting country players who have had the biggest influence on his one-of-a-kind playing style. Johnston has big shoes to fill, but it sounds like there is harmony in the Mastodon camp, something the band have been desperate for in recent months.

A new police report has been released concerning the tragic death of Mastodon co-founder Brent Hinds, which states that the guitarist was at fault in the motorcycle crash that took his life on August 20.

Preliminary reports suggested that the driver of an SUV failed to yield while making a left turn at the intersection of Memorial Drive SE and Boulevard SE, consequently colliding with Hinds.

However, according to the newly released crash report, the investigators also found that Hinds was speeding – going between 63 and 68 mph, roughly twice the speed limit at the crash site.

“After conducting time distance calculations of the Motorcycle and assessing the changes in velocity of the BMW it was deemed that Hinds was traveling between 63 and 68 mph. Video of the intersection was used for the calculations. The video clearly depicts the crash. Hinds was at fault for the crash,” reads the investigator's statement.

The same report also includes what appears to be conflicting statements by one of the witnesses and the driver of the SUV. The driver asserts that “she was positive the light was green” when she made the left turn, while one of the witnesses told the police that it was red “when he looked to the light when everything happened.”

Brent was “breathing and moving with visible injuries to his head, arms, and torso” when the police arrived, ultimately “perishing from his injuries” at the hospital.

This past weekend, a memorial walk was held in Atlanta in honor of Hinds, with longtime Mastodon bandmates Bill Kelliher – who shared his own personal tribute to Hinds – and Brann Dailor among those who gathered to celebrate the life of the influential guitarist.

The band also honored Hinds onstage at their first live performance since his death.

Several details surrounding the fatal motorcycle accident on August 20 that led to the death of former Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds have been revealed.

In a police report filed by the Atlanta Police Department, new details have emerged that state Hinds was riding a Harley Davidson on the night he was hit by a BMW SUV. The driver reportedly “failed to yield while turning left [at the intersection of Memorial Drive SE and Boulevard SE, near downtown Atlanta] and collided into the male victim.”

As per newly released witness statements, the driver of the SUV was “positive the light was green” when she turned and remained at the scene until police arrived. However, a witness told responding officers that the light appeared to be red and that, while Hinds was “driving fast,” the driver of the SUV did not have the right of way and failed to yield in time.

The police report confirms that when the responding officer arrived on the scene, Hinds was still “breathing and moving with visible injuries to his head, arms, and torso,” and ultimately perished due to these injuries at the hospital.

While details of his funeral have not yet been publicly announced, the lauded guitarist's obituary states that a “celebration of life will be held in Atlanta at a later date” and that, “in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alabama School of Fine Arts.”

As for Mastodon, the band recently honored Hinds onstage at their first live performance since the guitarist's death. Bill Kelliher, Hinds former guitar foil, also shared a personal tribute to Hinds.

Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher has made his first statement following the tragic death of his former bandmate Brent Hinds last week in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 51.

“It’s been hard to get a grip on my emotions this week,” Kelliher wrote on social media. “We had our good and bad times just like in any relationship. All that we accomplished after that first fistfight in the van 25 years ago. I didn’t think you’d be taken from us like this, absolute loss of a true one of a kind guitar wizard extraordinaire.

The statement continues, “Keeping up with you taught me a lot. You were a brother, we were a family, you were a wild man not to be tamed, you could f*ck up bowling ball with a feather.

“You weren’t perfect but you were always DIRTY-B!! Your vagabond/gypsy/wild child lives on through your music, I will miss your crazy ass Manimal.”

Brann Dailor, Mastodon's drummer, publicly addressed Hinds' death at the Alaska State Fair on Friday, August 22, delivering a speech that focused on the group's relationship with Hinds and his long-standing legacy.

Furthermore, the band posted a public statement on social media, saying they are “heartbroken, shocked, and still trying to process the loss of this creative force with whom we’ve shared so many triumphs, milestones, and the creation of music that has touched the hearts of so many.”

Hinds, one of Mastodon's co-founders and co-leaders for a quarter of a century, played a pivotal role in pushing the boundaries of metal guitar and cementing the band as a trailblazer in the genre.

Following his passing, tributes have poured in from all corners of the guitar world, honoring his life and further cementing his far-reaching legacy.

Mastodon have paid tribute to their former guitarist, Brent Hinds, at their first show since his passing, with drummer Brann Dailor praising his talents and the legacy he’s left behind.

The guitarist, who in March parted from the band he co-founded 25 years ago, died in a motorcycle accident last week, sending shockwaves through the rock world. He was 51.

“We lost someone very special to us, one of the most beautiful, creative people that we've ever come across,” Dailor told the crowd at the Alaska State Fair on Friday, August 22, with an image of Hinds displayed on a screen above him. “We loved him so, so, very much. We had the ups and downs of a 25-year relationship. It's not always perfect, it’s not always amazing, but we were brothers to the end.”

There had been animosity over the nature of the split, with Hinds saying he was forced out of the band only a few weeks ago. Youtuber and Mastodon fanatic Ben Eller took Hinds' place for the band's show at the Tool in the Sand festival, just days after his departure was confirmed. Since then, prog fusion maestro Nick Johnston has assumed his role.

But during his speech, Dailor focused on the group’s relationship with Hinds, and, with his voice breaking several times, it’s clear how much his death has shaken the Mastodon camp.

“We really loved each other, and we made a lot, a lot of very beautiful music together,” Dailor continues. “I think that that’s gonna stand the test of time, evidenced by you people here tonight. So, we will continue to play Brent’s beautiful, beautiful music that he helped us make.”

Several Hinds-written songs, including Ghost of Karelia and Steambreather, littered the band's 16-song setlist. It ended with a cover of Black Sabbath’s Supernaut in tribute to Ozzy Osbourne.

“We formed this band together and traveled the world together, slept in a van together, laid our heads down on beds of fucking kitty litter. [We] got way too drunk to remember anything the next day about a thousand, million times over and over again with the love that we shared and the beauty, all the audiences that we played for, all the stages we stepped on.

“I don't know,” Dailor then said. “We're just at a loss for words. We're absolutely devastated and crushed to lose him and to be able to never have him back again. But you guys made it okay for us to come on stage and do this tonight. So that was for fucking Brent, okay? Thank you guys so much.”

In the wake of his passing, the band said they were “heartbroken, shocked, and still trying to process the loss of this creative force with whom we’ve shared so many triumphs, milestones, and the creation of music that has touched the hearts of so many.”

On Monday, August 25, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher offered up his own statement on Instagram, writing, “It’s been hard to get a grip on my emotions this week. We had our good and bad times just like in any relationship. All that we accomplished after that first fistfight in the van 25 years ago.

“I didn’t think you’d be taken from us like this, absolute loss of a true one of a kind guitar wizard extraordinaire. Keeping up with you taught me a lot. You were a brother, we were a family, you were a wild man not to be tamed, you could f*ck up bowling ball with a feather.

“You weren’t perfect but you were always dirty-b!! Your vagabond/gypsy/wild child lives on through your music, I will miss your crazy ass Manimal.”

Tributes have also come pouring in from elsewhere, showing the mark he left on the people he met, and those who fell in love with his music and virtuosic, one-of-a-kind guitar playing.

Lamb of God's Mark Morton described him as “a bottle rocket of creative spirit and emotion” in a wounded, heartfelt post, and Marcus King asked St Pete not to judge him too hard as “his heart was golden.” Meanwhile, actor Norman Reedus revealed the pair had gotten matching Lemmy tattoos on the day the Motörhead maverick died as he reflected on their longtime friendship.

The guitar world has lost one of its most authentic, wildly unique, and inimitable spirits.

Earlier this week, Brent Hinds died following a fatal motorcycle accident in Atlanta. In the wake of such sudden and tragic news, the guitar world has taken to social media to pay tribute to Hinds, honoring the music and memory of one of metal guitar’s most singular players and unique characters.

In a post from Mastodon – the band with whom Hinds played for a quarter of a century – the group wrote, “We are in a state of unfathomable sadness and grief. Last night, Brent Hinds passed away as a result of a tragic accident.

“We are heartbroken, shocked, and still trying to process the loss of this creative force with whom we’ve shared so many triumphs, milestones, and the creation of music that has touched the hearts of so many. Our hearts are with Brent’s family, friends, and fans. At this time, we please ask that you respect everyone’s privacy during this difficult time.”

Their sentiments were echoed by a wave of Hinds’ peers and friends, with Mark Morton penning an especially emotional tribute that highlighted the late guitar great’s character as well as his musical output.

“Brent Hinds was a bottle rocket of creative spirit and emotion. He would absolutely crack me up with his meandering, stream of consciousness banter,” he wrote. “Brent was a motherfucker on six strings. He heard things that nobody else heard… so he’d bring them to life so that we could all hear them too.”

“He was an enigmatic human being who played by no one’s rules and was one of the greatest guitarists of our generation,” offered Converge. “Knowing him was a privilege. Anyone who ever met him had a story about it afterwards because he truly was one of a kind.”

Matthew Hughes of Banker Guitars – a close friend of Hinds’ with whom he worked, wrote, “It’s gonna take some time for me to fully process the loss of my friend, and I’m not sure that I ever will.

“Brent Hinds was one of the most uniquely gifted people I’ve ever known, there is no one who heard or interpreted music in the way that he did. His guitar playing was always balanced on the edge of chaos, but its roots were firmly planted in country and blues.

“He told me once that after he was gone, he just wanted to be remembered for bringing country music into metal. I think that is an undeniable truth for anyone who has ever listened to Mastodon.”

Marcus King – another close friend of Hinds who played regularly with him – shared a collection of photos of the two together, alongside a powerful tribute that read, “Brent Hinds became one of my best friends the moment we met and a brother soon after.

“Brent stood beside me when I married my wife. I’ll always be thankful to have lived at the same time as such an incredible person and musician. St. Peter dont judge him too harshly, his heart was golden.”

More tributes to Brent Hinds can be found below.

Brent Hinds has died at the age of 51 following a fatal motorcycle accident that occurred earlier this week in Atlanta.

News of Hinds’ death was reported by Atlanta News First, which initially confirmed an individual had died as a result of the accident on Wednesday (August 20) night. A report from Fulton County medical examiner’s office later identified Hinds as the deceased.

According to the police report, the accident took place at around 11:35pm on Wednesday night. Hinds was killed while riding a Harley Davidson when the driver of a BMX SUV failed to yield while making a turn at the intersection of Memorial Drive and Boulevard.

“Upon arrival, officers located an unresponsive male who was involved in the collision,” the report reads. “The male appeared to be operating a Harley Davidson during the time of collision. The investigation remains active at this time.”

News of Hinds’ sudden and tragic death has been met with an outpouring of tributes, with the likes of Zach Myers and Adam Jones all honoring the memory of one of metal’s most singular guitar players.

Born in 1974, Hinds is best known for his work with Mastodon, which he co-founded in 2000 with Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor. Through his work with the band – with whom he recently parted ways – Hinds established himself as one of the standout metal players of his time.

His former Mastodon bandmates have expressed their “unfathomable sadness and grief” over the news.

“We are heartbroken, shocked, and still trying to process the loss of this creative force with whom we’ve shared so many triumphs, milestones, and the creation of music that has touched the hearts of so many,” they posted on social media.

Brent Hinds has once again broken his silence following his surprise departure from Mastodon, claiming that his exit was by no means amicable.

Earlier this year, Mastodon announced that they had “mutually decided to part ways” with Hind, though reports of a not-so-mutual split emerged months later when Hinds wrote in an Instagram comment, “I won’t miss being in a band with horrible humans”.

Hinds has now returned to social media with another explosive message concerning his former bandmates, claiming Bill Kelliher and the rest of the Mastodon members kicked him out of the band.

In a response to a video of Mastodon performing Crack the Skye in 2012, Hinds wrote (via Billboard), “My guitar sounds great, but Troy [Sanders, bass and vocals] and prawn [drummer and vocalist Brann Dailor] sound absolutely horrible. They are way out of key. Embarrassing and they kicked me out of the band for embarrassing them for being who I am.”

As for his former bandmates themselves, Hinds reserves some choice words, adding, “But what about who they are? They are two people that can’t sing..together live or anywhere else in the world. Everything they try to sing in the studio is manipulated by autotune because they’re incapable of singing in key.”

Hinds then doubled down on his previous sentiments concerning the Mastodon crew.

“F–k these guys,” Hinds continued. “Only I know who they really are. They are the biggest fans of them self’s [sic]. I’ve never seen anyone in my life look in the mirror more than Troy Sanders. He thinks he’s God’s gift to anything. I’ve never met three people that were so full of themselves. It’s disgusting.”

It is now the second time Hinds has come out and claimed that his exit from Mastodon was not as mutual as the band first announced. That messaging starkly contrasts with the words of Hinds’ former guitar partner Bill Kelliher, who – although accepted that they had grown apart – implied they parted ways on good terms.

Speaking to Guitar World about Hinds’ exit, Kelliher commented, “It’s been a fun, wild fucking ride, that’s for sure. We achieved a lot of things that I never in a million years would have imagined. There’s been Grammys, touring with our heroes, like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Motorhead, and Tool. I cherish all of that.

“Like a marriage, sometimes people grow apart, and they get interested in other things. We wish nothing but the best for Brent in chasing his dreams.”

After Hinds’ exit, Mastodon first turned to YouTuber Ben Eller, and then fusion virtuoso Nick Johnston, to fill the position. Johnston recently spoke to Guitar World about his experiences stepping up for the role.

It’s been a whirlwind few months for progressive fusion virtuoso Nick Johnston, who was recruited to join Mastodon following the surprise departure of Brent Hinds after 25 years. It turns out he has another guitarist, a handful of drummers, and a casual coffee hang to thank for paving the way to the gig.

Hinds left Mastodon in March, with YouTuber and Mastodon fanatic Ben Eller temporarily stepping in for their Tool in the Sand Festival appearance just days later.

Remaining guitarist Bill Kelliher then offered insight into the group's personnel shift, saying it was “amazing that we made it 25 years with the four of us” before revealing that the band was in no rush to find a permanent replacement. He also outlined the criteria for their next recruit.

All this unfurled during the two-month gap between their Eller-aided festival slot and the opening night of their tour with Periphery and Coheed & Cambria. Fans enthusiastically theorized over who they thought would be in place for those shows, but few people would have expected to have seen Nick Johnston – the Schecter-endorsed, prog-tinted solo artist – step up to the plate.

“I used to hang out with Brendon Small [Dethklok, Metalocalypse]. He was a mentor to me early on when I was trying to understand the industry,” Johnston exclusively tells Guitar World after several weeks on the road with the band. “One day, Brann [Dailor, Mastodon drummer] came along to one of our coffee hangs and we hit it off.”

Kelliher has said that Mastodon aren’t just looking for another great guitarist for him to spar with. “You gotta be somebody who we all get along with and can stand the true test of time,” he says. Johnston feels he might tick more than just that box.

“I’ve worked with great drummers, so I felt like he knew me because of that, having seen names like Gavin Harrison, Marco Minnemann, Thomas Lang, and Benny Greb,” Johnston ponders.

With Harrison – who has played with Porcupine Tree and King Crimson – Johnston showed his technical expertise on the collaborative track Sorcerer. Minnemann and his Aristocats bandmate, Guthrie Govan, featured on Silver Tongued Devil from Johnston's 2014 album, Atomic Mind.

The mix of rapport and respect found Johnston in Dailor’s good graces.

“Brann told me I’d be the first person he’d call if anything ever came up,” he continues. “That’s what he did! We’ve become really close over the last few months.”

It’s unclear whether Johnston will become a permanent fixture in the band or if his stay will end when their current run of tour dates finishes. Mastodon are keeping their cards close to their chest, but for many, it seems the perfect match on paper, and on stages, such thoughts are being compounded in style.

Meanwhile, Hinds has said, “I won’t miss being in a band with horrible humans,” as he adjusts to life away from the band.

Former Mastodon electric guitar player Brent Hinds has seemingly taken to social media to call out his old bandmates – even going as far as calling them "horrible humans".

The exchange happened on Instagram, when Hinds commented on a post that celebrated Mastodon’s 2014 album, Once More ‘Round the Sun, with the caption, “11 more trips ‘round the sun since this was released!”

Hinds comment has since been deleted, but it said, “I want [sic] miss being in a shit band with horrible humans.”

It’s safe to say the unexpected interjection has sparked a lot of debate in the comment section. The fact it was deleted has fuelled even more speculation, with fans commenting, “Where’s Brent’s comment all over the news?” and “Are they now just deleting comments regarding Brent Hinds?”

Hinds' exit from the group was announced by the band on March 7, with a statement shared on social media reading: “Friends and Fans, After 25 monumental years together, Mastodon and Brent Hinds have mutually decided to part ways. We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared and we wish him nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavors.

“We are still very inspired and excited to show up for fans in this next chapter of Mastodon. As we move forward, all 2025 touring plans will remain intact. We look forward to seeing you on the road.”

The departure was announced just days before the band’s performance at Tool's festival in the Dominican Republic – with Ben Eller, a YouTube guitar educator and long-time Mastodon expert, drafted in as Hinds' last-minute replacement.

Since then, Guitar World has spoken to Mastodon’s other guitarist, Bill Kelliher, about what led to the departure. While he didn’t share the exact details, he asserted that, “We’re not going anywhere. We’ve been around a while; this is all I really have. I live and breathe it.

“It was 25 long years. Like a marriage, sometimes people grow apart and they get interested in other things. It was time to part ways. And we wish nothing but the best for Brent in his endeavors – chasing his dreams and doing what he likes to do. We look forward to a new chapter of Mastodon.”

Brent Hinds shows no sign of taking a pause, as the guitarist donned a beaten-up Tele and a cowboy hat for his first show sans the metal giants, with his psycho-billy surf project, Fiend Without A Face, on March 21.

The narrative surrounding Mastodon’s newly vacant electric guitar spot has taken a fresh twist, with Nick Johnston becoming the latest stand-in following Brent Hinds' departure.

In early March, the Atlantan prog metallers announced they had parted ways with founding guitarist Hinds. The news broke just days before Mastodon's appearance at the Tool in the Sand festival in the Dominican Republic.

Three days later, YouTuber Ben Eller was on stage with the band, having learned 17 songs in double quick time specially for the set. Though he went into the show expecting the worst, Eller was blown away by the warm reception his involvement got from the Mastodon community.

However, Eller has now been drafted out for the band’s latest run of shows, as Bill Kelliher continues his search for their next full-time recruit.

Enter Nick Johnston – a prog-minded instrumentalist shredder who has been conquering the guitar world with his signature Schecter Strat-a-like, and who has cemented his reputation as one of the finest guitar talents of his generation.

Owing to the apparent stylistic differences between Johnston's own music and Mastodon's back catalog, it makes for an interesting pairing indeed.

Johnston's first major solo album was 2016's Remarkably Human, and it put his tasteful but intricately virtuosic sound on the map, after he featured on Polyphia's Champagne. two years earlier.

He also guested on Periphery's Clear EP that same year, playing on The Parade of Ashes. Johnston has since played on Intervals and Scale the Summit tracks, and he released another album, Child of Bliss, last year.

Given Johnston's sheer virtuosity and versatility, Mastodon's selection – despite the genre gap – is incredibly astute, and going off footage of the band's performance at the Sonic Temple Festival on May 9, he certainly has the chops for the gig.

Dissecting his sonic DNA with Guitar World, Johnston has cited the likes of Pat Metheny, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Jeff Beck as key influences, and has previously spoken about how writing on a piano first can make his guitar playing more interesting.

“When you take away the guitar, your usual tricks and licks are gone. There is no comfort zone,” he says. “I find my guitar lives these days more like the icing on the cake. My favourite songwriter is Pat Metheny and he’s talked about it too, choosing to mainly compose on piano. You can really hear someone’s sense of harmony when you pull the shapes away.”

There will be factions of the Mastodon fanbase sad to see Eller, who smashed his one-off show with the band despite a mishap with a stage wedge, no longer involved. But there's no denying Johnston's suitability for the role, either.

Eller himself, meanwhile, has voiced his support for the appointment. Posting a photo of himself with Johnston and Kelliher on Instagram, he says, "Starting to think Bill has a thing for hunky brunettes. My friend Nick Johnston is a hell of a cool guy."

As with Eller, the extent of Johnston’s involvement is shrouded in mystery, but it would be a surprise if he doesn’t at least see out their current tour with Periphery and Coheed & Cambria.

The future of the band, and who will come to fill Hinds’ spot permanently, remains to be seen, with Keliher happy to take an exhaustive approach to get the right player for the job.

“I’m as serious as a heart attack with Mastodon, he told Guitar World. “I’m not ready to give it up yet. So, we’re going to keep looking”

Hinds, meanwhile, has wasted no time in getting back on stage, and he has plenty more shows lined up.

Brent Hinds has played his first show since parting ways with Mastodon earlier this month, and three of his bands are set to play together next month as he keeps himself busy with life away from the progressive metal giants.

Hinds' Fiend Without A Face project, described on their Bandcamp page as “psychobilly surf music with a little country twist,” played 529 in Atlanta, Georgia on March 21, as the guitarist looks to create some distance between himself and Mastodon. It's been a whirlwind month for all involved.

Mastodon posted an official statement on March 7, announcing the end of Hinds’ 25-year tenure in the band, just days before they were due to perform at the Tool in the Sand festival in the Dominican Republic.

In a surprise move, YouTuber and Mastodon fanatic Ben Eller was drafted in for the show, having been asked to “learn 17 Mastodon songs immediately”. Mastodon had already reassured fans that all 2025 tour dates would be fulfilled.

Eller said he went into the show expecting a backlash, considering Hinds’ deep-rooted history with the Grammy-winning act. That left him “unprepared for the level of positivity and kindness,” he received from the fan base, as Mastodon got its post-Hinds era off to a flyer – save for Eller going “ass-over-teakettle” after an incident with a stage wedge.

Hinds, meanwhile, donned a cowboy hat and a wonderfully beaten-up Telecaster for his new-era-kickstarting show. As footage shows, the performance leans heavily into the country stylings he's slowly introduced into Mastodon's repertoire in recent years with tracks like Jaguar God and The Beast.

Three of his bands – West End Motel, Fiend Without A Face, and Dirty B & The Boys – will join together for a show at The Garden Club in Atlanta, GA on April 18th.

Mastodon’s remaining guitarist, Bill Kelliher, likened their relationship with Hinds to a marriage, saying, “Sometimes people grow apart, and they get interested in other things,” while admitting “It’s amazing that we made it 25 years with the four of us”.

Going off Hinds' immediate schedule, it certainly looks like the talented guitarist is stepping away from metal with his trio of other projects.

Kelliher, meanwhile is unsure on Eller’s future in the band, revealing they will continue looking for the perfect replacement. He's also underscored the vital credentials he's seeking from the next permanent member.

The band have tour dates with Periphery and Coheed & Cambria in May, and have just announced a string of UK and European shows around their appearance at Black Sabbath’s blockbuster farewell show in July.

Whoever steps up to the plate, Kelliher is certain they will be “lightyears ahead of me” when it comes to lead playing. Matching his riff work will be a far taller order.

In recent interviews, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher had been talking about new music – a subject Brent Hinds hadn’t been covering while, going by his social media posts, he was on his own trip. So perhaps the announcement of Hinds’ departure from the band shouldn’t have been the shock it was for many.

Kelliher, Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor said they and Hinds had “mutually decided to part ways,” adding: “We are still very inspired and excited to show up for fans in this next chapter.”

Speaking to Guitar World, Kelliher refuses to be drawn on details, but vowed: “We’re not going anywhere. We’ve been around a while; this is all I really have. I live and breathe it.”

On the subject of a new guitarist, he says the trio were looking for “someone who’s easy to get along with, and who really has a desire to play. And they’ve got to have the right stage clothes as well: black t-shirt, tight jeans!”

The band’s attitude is one of “onward and upward,” he continues. “I’ll continue writing, looking forward to new Mastodon material and the Coheed and Cambria tour coming up. I like being out there on the road. Hopefully, people will enjoy all the new music we’re working on. That’s all I can really hope for.”

What’s the status of Mastodon with Brent Hinds’ departure?

“It was 25 long years. Like a marriage, sometimes people grow apart and they get interested in other things. It was time to part ways. And we wish nothing but the best for Brent in his endeavors – chasing his dreams and doing what he likes to do. We look forward to a new chapter of Mastodon.”

You pivoted quickly, with YouTuber Ben Eller filling in at your most recent show.

“When we knew what was going down, and we had this show in the Dominican Republic, we had to find someone really quick who we could trust to play the songs.

“Ben and I have been friends for many, many years on the internet. We met at a Mastodon show 20-something years ago when he was a young dude and he was a fan. He showed me an old picture of us loading the van back in the touring van days, when we played Knoxville when he was a young kid, and he’d got a selfie with us!

“I’ve been watching his videos and giving him some tips on certain Mastodon parts that he didn’t quite get. He would hit me up, like, ‘How do you play Falling Torches? It’s kind of muddy in the mix.’ So we’d been sending videos back and forth. To me, he was obviously the first choice to play at least that show.”

How did the band and Ben prepare for the show?

“We had a couple of practices, maybe four. That guy’s got a mind like a trap, man – he remembered all the stuff. He did a terrific job. I mean, no-one can ever replace someone like Brent, who’s a very special guitar player. But I feel like Ben did the best he could, and we were all super-stoked.”

Mastodon has more shows planned, which you’ve said won’t be canceled. Will Ben fill in for those shows and the foreseeable future?

“We have a tour with Coheed and Cambria coming up in May, and we’re going to fulfill that. And we’re going to finish up our new record. I’m not sure what our future is with Ben. Maybe we’ll try a couple of other people out. It’s too early to say.”

Will the new record feature contributions from Brent or is it just you, Brann, and Troy?

“It’ll be the three of us. It’s stuff the three of us have written together.”

The decision to change lineup must have been difficult.

“It’s amazing we made it 25 years with the four of us. Traveling the world, trying to stay the course, having everybody agree – that we managed to do it this long, I feel like that’s a feat in itself. And yeah, you could never replace any of us because it’s the sum of four parts.

“But that doesn’t mean there’s not someone out there that has stuff to offer in a new direction. I think I’ll just leave it there, you know? It was a hard decision we all had to make.”

What can you say about the legacy of Mastodon’s first 25 years?

“It’s been a fun, wild fucking ride, that’s for sure. We achieved a lot of things that I never in a million years would have imagined. There’s been Grammys, and touring with our heroes like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Motorhead and Tool. I cherish all of that.”

What are you looking for in a guitar partner and bandmate?

“You gotta be somebody who we all get along with and can stand the true test of time. Living together in a little bus for fucking months at a time – it’s got to be someone who can do that. There’s more variables than just, ‘Oh, this person is a great guitar player.’

“We’ve got to be able to have a beer with them, go out to dinner with them, feel them out and make sure they’re Mastodon material. Like, can they hang, for sure – but it’s got to be someone who has a unique style and is very serious about it.

“I’m as serious as a heart attack about Mastodon. It’s my life. It’s all I really know. I’ve got all my eggs in this basket. So we’re going to keep looking and we’ll find the right person when the time is right and ready.”

Does Brent’s departure mean you’ll be playing more leads and less rhythm guitar?

“We’ll have to see. My lead guitar skills are decent enough – but whoever we get is going to be light years ahead of me. So it depends on the part and the song and if there are certain leads that I write that I want to play.

“If the other guitarist is like, ‘Hey, I wrote this,’ and I like it better than what I wrote, we’ll use his part. I definitely write for the best of the song and what’s best for the band.

“I don’t get my feelings hurt when someone’s like, ‘That riff is not that great.’ It’s like, ‘Okay, I’ll just write another one or change it.’ That goes for leads as well. So, as long as it’s what’s best for the song, it doesn’t matter who plays it. As long as it fits, it’s awesome.”

Have there been any updates to your stable of signature gear?

“ESP just sent me a prototype of a reverse Sparrowhawk. I’m not sure if that’s going into production; they just did a one-off for me for now. Victory Amplification and I are working together on a new Bill Kelliher signature model, which has been going on for a few years now.

“I’m not sure when and if it’s going to come out, but it’s kind of like the Super Kraken MKII. I’m going to have a couple because I use that amp along with my Friedman Butterslax in combination.

“But there’s a couple of tweaks with the Victory that I’d like to see. And I may be doing a guitar pedal – like a distortion pedal, with High Wind Pedal Company.”

Is it exciting to be embarking on a new chapter with Mastodon?

“It’s just one day at a time and getting out there. I don’t look too far into the future, you know? When I do, I get kind of lost and lose sight of today. So I just try to keep my head in the game.”

• Mastodon are on tour starting in May.

Ben Eller has spoken to Guitar World about his surprise live performance with Mastodon, after the esteemed YouTuber was drafted in last minute to replace the outgoing Brent Hinds.

It’s been a frantic week in the Mastodon camp. First, the band announced that founding member Hinds had departed, and two days later, YouTuber Ben Eller was filling his boots during their Tool Live in the Sand set.

Eller was tasked with learning “17 Mastodon songs immediately” as the prog metal outfit committed to seeing out their live dates.

Eller may not be a regular live performer but his work as a Youtuber and Mastodon obsessive, which often sees him dissecting the band’s complex and nuanced guitar work, made him an ideal fit for that show.

His future in the band may be shrouded in uncertainty, but that didn’t stop Eller from enjoying his moment in what could prove to be a significant footnote in the band’s history – even if he was wary about the reaction his inclusion would get.

“A couple of years ago, Bill [Kelliher, guitarist] reached out to me via email, saying how much he enjoyed my channel and the Stuff Mastodon Does video I made,” Eller tells Guitar World of how their friendship first blossomed.

“We've stayed in touch ever since. He's as much of a gear nut and riff chaser as I am, so we're constantly sending each other bands, pedals, amps, and stuff to check out.”

Asked if there was any hesitance in accepting Mastodon’s call for help, he goes on: “I went into this looking at it as one of the coolest things I could ever get to be a part of, but also knowing that the backlash could potentially be brutal, especially given how incredible and important of a player Brent has been for the history of the band.

“I was absolutely unprepared for the level of positivity and kindness I would receive from the fans after the gig,” Eller continues. “I cannot believe how accepting and wonderful they've been; it's overwhelming!”

Even for someone as well-read in the lore of Mastodon as Eller, being gig-ready in record time would have been a tall order for most players. Reflecting on the show, Eller has plenty of fond memories.

“The show was a blast,” he recalls. “The energy from the band and the crowd was incredible. Like any live show, you've gotta be prepared to be surprised, though. We were all having some trouble with interference affecting our in-ear monitors, but the show must go on, even if you can't hear anything.”

Speaking to GW last week, Bill Kelliher remained coy on Eller’s future in Mastodon, and asserted the band will search far and wide to find Hinds’ replacement.

“I’m as serious as a heart attack with Mastodon,” Kelliher noted. “It’s my life. It’s all I really know. I’ve got all my eggs in this basket – and I’m not ready to give it up yet. So, we’re going to keep looking, and who knows? We’ll find the right person when the time is right and ready.”

As things stand, it’s unclear whether Eller will still be in the fold for any of Mastodon's upcoming dates, or if a full-time successor will have been crowned by then. It’s possible that the band could take inspiration from Smashing Pumpkins, whose open audition received 10,000 applications to fill their vacant guitar spot last year.

Kelliher has also reflected on Hinds' exit, saying, “It’s been a fun, wild fucking ride, that’s for sure. We wish nothing but the best for Brent in chasing his dreams.”

It’s been a rollercoaster week for Mastodon fans. Last Friday, right before the metal stalwart’s set at the Tool in the Sand Festival, it was announced that Brent Hinds had left the band.

Esteemed YouTuber and Mastodon mega-fan Ben Eller was drafted to replace the band’s co-founding guitarist of 25 years to play the gig, but at the time of writing it is still unclear whether Eller’s appointment is temporary or permanent.

In a new interview with Guitar World, Mastodon’s remaining electric guitar player Bill Kelliher stays coy on that particular topic, but he does offer some key insights into what the band will be looking for when it comes to selecting Hinds’ full-time successor.

It sounds simple enough, really: “Someone who is easy to get along with, and who really has a desire to play – and can play well,” he says.

Expanding on his point, Kelliher goes on, “Obviously, you gotta be somebody who we all get along with and can stand the true test of time. Like, living together in a little tour bus on the road for fucking days and months at a time, it’s got to be someone who can do all that.

“And that’s another variable,” he adds. “Like, ‘Oh, this person is a great guitar player, why don’t you hire them?’ It’s like, ‘Well, they gotta stand the test of time.’ We’ve got to be able to sit down and have a beer with them, go out to dinner with them, you know, feel them out, and make sure they’re Mastodon material.

“Like, can they hang, for sure, but it’s got to be someone who has a unique style, and is very serious about it.”

Ultimately, it sounds as though the search for Hinds’ successor will come down to a few key points: how good they are as a guitar player, how good they are as a person, and how seriously they are ready to commit themselves to the Mastodon way of life.

“I’m as serious as a heart attack with Mastodon,” Kelliher says. “It’s my life. It’s all I really know. I’ve got all my eggs in this basket – and I’m not ready to give it up yet. So, we’re going to keep looking, and who knows? We’ll find the right person when the time is right and ready.”

Whether that will be Eller or someone else, Kelliher remains tight-lipped: “We do have some more shows coming up. We have a tour with Coheed and Cambria coming up in May, which, you know, we’re still going to fulfil that.

“We’re going to finish up our new record; I’m not sure what our future is with Ben or if we’ll try a couple of other people out. Not really sure yet; it’s too early to say.”

Bill Kelliher has opened up on Brent Hinds' surprise departure from Mastodon, after the band's co-founding guitarist announced he would be stepping away from the metal stalwarts after 25 years of service.

The news came just days before the band were set to feature at Tool’s namesake Tool in the Sand festival in the Dominican Republic. In a surprise move, well-respected YouTube guitar educator and long-time Mastodon obsessive Ben Eller was drafted in, having been tasked with learning 17 songs “immediately”.

Now that the dust has settled on a mic drop moment that has sent shockwaves through the metal community, Guitar World caught up with Kelliher – Mastodon's remaining guitar player – to get his response.

Speaking about the legacy of Mastodon’s first 25 years with Hinds, Kelliher said, “It’s been a fun, wild fucking ride, that’s for sure. We achieved a lot of things that I never in a million years would have imagined. There’s been Grammys, touring with our heroes, like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Motorhead, and Tool. I cherish all of that.

“Like a marriage, sometimes people grow apart, and they get interested in other things. We wish nothing but the best for Brent in chasing his dreams.

“You know, it’s amazing that we made it 25 years with the four of us,” Kelliher then confesses. “I mean, it’s like being married to three other dudes, traveling the world, trying to stay the course, and having everybody agree.

“That we managed to do it this long, I feel like that’s a feat in itself. You could never replace any of us because we [are the] the sum of four parts.”

Yet, sentimentality aside, Kelliher has an eye on the band’s future, both immediate and long-term.

“That doesn’t mean there’s not someone else out there that has stuff to offer in a new direction,” he pivots. “I think I’ll just leave it there, you know? It was a hard decision we all had to make. It’s just… it was just time.”

It’s unclear how big of a role Eller will play in the band. Mastodon will hit the road with Periphery and Coheed & Cambria in May, and it is currently unclear if he is in line for those shows or whether a full-time successor will have been appointed by then.

Kelliher remains cryptic for now, adding that “we look forward to a new chapter of Mastodon”.

That next chapter doesn't look to be too far away. Speaking to Guitar World last year, he revealed that writing for the follow-up to 2021’s double album Hushed & Grim is already underway.

Mastodon shocked the guitar world last week when the progressive metal heavyweights announced that founding guitarist Brent Hinds had left the band.

Now the story has taken a fresh turn: the band recruited well-respected YouTube guitarist Ben Eller for their set at the 'Tool in the Sand' festival over the weekend (March 9).

The news of a mutual parting of ways after 25 years came on the eve of the event at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with the group reassuring fans that “all 2025 touring plans will remain intact” despite Hinds’ departure.

Considering how important dual guitar parts are to Mastodon’s thick, sludgy sound, questions were raised about whether Bill Kelliher would go it alone for the upcoming shows, or if a replacement was lying in the wings. It turns out Eller was drafted in for the job, with video footage from the event showing him professionally weave through the band’s twisting guitar parts.

It seems there was at least a little coordination involved from the Mastodon camp, seeing as Hinds’ departure was announced just before the show. That apparently gave enough time for Eller to be sworn in, but the timeline seems a tight one.

“Can you learn 17 Mastodon songs immediately?” bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders had told the crowd of Eller’s involvement mid-set; clearly, he didn’t have any time to lose.

The band opened with Pain With an Anchor, with classics like Megalodon, Ghost of Karelia, and Blood & Thunder later featuring.

A little mystery still lingers around the Mastodon camp and, surprisingly, at the time of writing, Eller’s social channels are suspiciously quiet. So, is Eller a stand-in or Hinds' permanent successor? Mastodon are due to hit the road with Periphery and Coheed & Cambria in May and will also feature at Black Sabbath’s blockbuster farewell show this summer. We likely won't have to wait long to find out.

Eller is perhaps best known for his 'This is Why you Suck at Guitar' video series. Like so many metal guitar players, he first first fell in love with Metallica, before discovering guitar virtuosos à la Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen. He has over 500,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Several of his videos have seen him deep-dive into Mastodon's guitar work and what makes it so brilliant. He previously stated that the band's tectonic plate-shaking Leviathan record “instantly became one of my favorite records of all time” when he first heard it in 2004. As such, his intimate knowledge of the band's material and the dizzying array of nuances therein has made him a shrewd choice, if only in the short term.

“We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared and we wish [Brent Hinds] nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavors,” Mastodon's statement read. “We are still very inspired and excited to show up for fans in this next chapter of Mastodon.”

Speaking to Guitar World last year, Kelliher discussed how his and Hinds’ playing styles oppose one another. Often across the band’s history, that’s proven to be a winner – Kelliher’s precision playing and Hinds’ more erratic, country-inspired stylings bring a lot of flavor to the band’s collective broth.

“We’re opposite sometimes,” he admitted. “When I write songs, I’ll spend months piecing them together, whereas Brent says, ‘Let’s jam and write whatever on the spot in the studio.’

“That sometimes works for me, but I generally want to be organized and try out every possible avenue of where the songs can go.”

Mastodon have parted ways with Brent Hinds, the band announced on social media today (March 7). Hinds co-founded the metal band with guitarist Bill Kelliher, bassist Troy Sanders, and drummer Brann Dailor in 2000.

Writing on Instagram, the band said, “Friends and fans, after 25 monumental years together, Mastodon and Brent Hinds have mutually decided to part ways.

“We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared and we wish him nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavors. We are still very inspired and excited to show up for fans in this next chapter of Mastodon.

“As we move forward, all 2025 touring plans will remain intact,” the statement continues. “We look forward to seeing you on the road.”

Neither the band nor Hinds provided a specific reason for the departure.

Mastodon are scheduled to perform this weekend (March 7-9) at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

The band have a full scheduled American tour beginning in May, and a run of European festival dates scheduled for this summer.

In a 2024 interview with Guitar World, Bill Kelliher said that he had begun writing riffs for a new Mastodon record, which would serve as the follow-up to the band's first double album, 2021's Hushed and Grim.

“I’m feeling really good about everything because I have a lot of ideas,” he said at the time. “But my ideas always sound homogenous at first, so I have to trust my instincts that they’ll get to a point where they actually sound different. It’s baby steps right now, especially coming off a grand double album.”

In the same interview, Kelliher reflected on his and Hinds' different songwriting approaches, saying, “We’re opposite sometimes. When I write songs I’ll spend months piecing them together, whereas Brent says, ‘Let’s jam and write whatever on the spot in the studio.’

“That sometimes works for me, but I generally want to be organized and try out every possible avenue of where the songs can go.”

Mastodon guitarists Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher recently endorsed UK amp manufacturer Victory. The news has now been followed by a video ad from the brand in which the guitarist takes on the role of ‘Super Sheriff’ Dirty B. Hinds and arrests local players for tonal crimes.

While you’d be forgiven for thinking Hinds rates pretty low on the list of metal players who’d find work in the forces, he takes on the role with some gusto. And also a taser.

As such, the COPS-style parody clip shows him rolling around Atlanta in his Sheriff Hinds County vehicle, confiscating amps from bewildered guitarists and tackling “audio perverts”, complete with voiceover. Choice sample: “The perp realises he’s getting the harshest punishment of all – listening to a total stranger dick around on guitar.”

Usually, Sheriff Dirty B. Hinds generously offers to replace the illegal gear with a Victory Sheriff guitar amp. The clip also makes clear that he is not actually affiliated with any real law enforcement agency, though that won’t stop him from “aggressively distributing the Victory Sheriff amp”.

The clip also features a couple of cameos that eagle-eyed/eared players might spot, in the form of Royal Thunder’s Mlny Parsonz and the band Order of the Owl.

Both Hinds and Kelliher have endorsed Victory Amps’ newly revamped Sheriff line, in particular, with Hinds opting for the VS100 Super Sheriff head and Kelliher favouring the Sheriff 25.

If Dirty B. Hinds’ law-making mayhem has caught your attention, head to Victory Amps for more information on the Sheriff Series.

UK guitar amp specialist Victory Amplification has announced two new additions to its Sheriff amp series – both of which appear to have caught the attention of Mastodon’s Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher.

The new Sheriff 25 and VS100 Super Sheriff build on the line’s British rock voicings, replacing the existing Sheriff 22 and Sheriff 44 models.

But more on the specifics later on, because the bigger story appears to be the new models’ endorsement by both Mastodon guitarists.

Kelliher was seemingly confirmed by Andertons boss man Lee Anderton, who shared a photo of Bill next to a stack of Sheriff heads and thanked Victory for setting up an interview.

Hinds, meanwhile, could be spotted over on Victory artist relations Alex Auxier’s Instagram account, accompanied by a VS100 Super Sheriff and the caption, “Something is happening here and I’m so stoked to show you.”

Media agency Newmerica were also tagged in the post – its latest image shows Brent Hinds in a car branded with “Sheriff Hinds County”, so it looks like we can expect another madcap Brent promo video in the near-future.

The Mastodon men’s signing is notable given their previous signature amp releases – Kelliher has long been faithful to his Friedman Butterslax head, while Brent Hinds released his own low-power Orange Terror head. We’re intrigued to see how far the relationship with Victory goes, and whether new signature gear could be in the offing.

Tonally, it makes sense that the pair would make the jump. While the Sheriff features a lower-gain Plexi-esque vintage channel, it also offers a JCM-inspired ’hot rod’ option that is likely to appeal to metal guitarists of all stripes.

As for the new offerings, the Sheriff 25 is available as a 25-watt head ($1,449/£1,199) or 1x12 combo with Celestion G12H anniversary speaker ($2,229/£1,899).

The VS100 Super Sheriff, meanwhile, comes as a head only, and delivers a pair of modes per channel: clean and crunch, as well as gain and more gain.

Two versions of the VS100 will be released: a wooden sleeve model ($2,369/£1,999) and a wide-body wooden head ($2,499/£2,099) to pair with Victory’s 4x12 cabinets.

Other features include a Presence control and Bass Focus switch, as well as a rotary knob for Bass Focus on the amp’s rear.

Naturally, there’s also an onboard FX loop, footswitchable channels and modes, plus bias test points and a wealth of speaker outputs. And as with all of Victory’s gear, the amps are designed and hand-built in the UK.

For more information on the new models, head over to Victory Amps.

While we’re on the subject of Mastodon gear, we’re still waiting on Bill Kelliher’s ESP double-cut Silverburst signature model, although he did release his latest set of signature pickups, the uber-versatile Mojotone Hellbender, last month.

The term ‘riff lord’ is arguably one that’s thrown around a little too loosely in this day and age. Not, however, when used to describe Matt Pike – the man who took doom music to new levels of heaviness in Sleep and won a Grammy in 2019 for his work with High On Fire. 

His track record for writing earth-rumbling riffs has made him a modern-day equivalent to Tony Iommi – and much like the Black Sabbath legend himself, Pike’s ideas carry a galactic weight strong enough to have their own orbit.

This year he releases his debut solo record, brilliantly titled Pike vs The Automaton, via MNRK Heavy, the label which rebranded from eOne Heavy in September last year. 

Recorded over the past year or so, with the pandemic and lockdowns killing off an overwhelming majority of tour dates across the world, Pike describes the new music as a stroke of good luck that haphazardly arrived while the music industry was licking its deep wounds, of which there were many…

“Covid has been a weird time for everything,” he admits. “With all the lockdowns, plus all these Californian fires, I wasn’t getting together with people like I used to. But I had one friend called Jon Reid who was coming over a lot. We saw each other frequently even during lockdowns, jamming on just drums and guitar. We started getting some songs under our belt. It just went from there…”

The album also features some special guests, including Mastodon’s Brent Hinds on the track Lands, Todd Burdette from Tragedy on Throat Cobra and High On Fire bandmate Jeff Matz, who performed the Turkish electric saz heard on the album’s 11-minute closer Leaving The Wars of Woe. It was a surprisingly collaborative experience for a solo debut, explains the stoner metal legend.

“I started asking other people who might want to play on it,” Pike continues, “to focus on the strength of whatever instrument they played or whatever we were looking for. And I really made sure the tunes I’d written played to those strengths, making the right foundation to crisscross through all kinds of ideas. It was a lot of fun and kept me busy and out of trouble. 

“The studio would close for a bit, then open up again, so I’d work on three songs. Then it would close, and when it reopened I’d finish another three songs…”

Did this being your first solo album affect your approach to guitar leads at all?

“I think so. I took inspiration from my own guitar heroes, experimenting with the music that I liked, coming up with my own versions of it. For example, the first solo you hear on the record is supposed to be what would happen if Brian May played on that track for me… because I couldn’t actually get him to do it [laughs]! So I just did it myself. 

“There’s another song called Trapped in a Midcave, where I wanted a Michael Schenker kind of solo, which doesn’t sound anything like what I’d normally do. I think he’s definitely underrated as a guitar player. He has this strange diatonic Mixolydian thing going on. I love his shapes and runs. 

“I think I kinda nailed it in one take, though I didn’t analyze it too much. I remember everyone else if should I do a couple more versions and they were like, ‘Nah, you’re done!’ They wouldn’t even let me double it. Sometimes less is more, just get it done and move on to the next thing.”

Roping in Brent Hinds for Lands was a great move – he’s an incredible soloist, thanks to his mix of shreddy blues and chicken pickin’.

“He’s straight off the porch in Alabama. That’s what he sounds like… it’s the real deal! Give that man a banjo and he’ll blow your mind. Give him a guitar, he’ll blow your mind. Give him anything and he’ll blow your mind. He took the first solo on a song and it was so good I told him to keep on playing through the song, even over the parts with singing.

“He did some lap steel and slide, as well as this other Billy Gibbons-style solo. I was sat there thinking, ‘Fuck you! Really, man?!’ I had to go back and make my own guitar tones better, re-amping DIs and all the rest, just because he sounded so incredible. He did all his stuff at Mastodon’s studio. I think it gave all of us something to do.”

That song also showcases a softer side of you. How exactly did you write it?  

“Yeah, it’s different. I was jamming on a 12-string and Jon started playing along, not hitting his drums very hard. We were really liking where the music was headed. There were actually a couple of other tracks like that, we were going to have more of that on this album and I’d like to do more in the future. I’d like do more with Brent, too!

“The song is about this fuckin’ bad guy who is an asshole. You know how in the movies, the bad guy has his redemption moment where he comes to light? Well, in this story, it doesn’t happen. He just fuckin’ dies with no glory after a cheap life as a total piece of shit. That’s why the song ended up sounding like that.”

Most of the album, however, is centered around the low-end brutality you’re well known for, with not a huge amount of frequencies from the upper range…

“I tried to mix it up a bit because I wanted this album to sound different to Sleep and High On Fire. But essentially everything I play on is going to sound like me, in a weird way, shape or form. I tried to be as respectful as I could to my other bands – I didn’t want to step on any musical toes – and I think I did a pretty good job of it.

“Tone-wise, you don’t really hear any treble until the solos come in where I might kick in the wah pedal or [Daredevil] Atomic Cock. I like that pedal, because I can set the sweep to get the right sound for different parts of the solo, making it sound like Tipton and Downing from Judas Priest or King and Hanneman from Slayer. It can sound like two different guys going back and forth, having a talk through their shredding!”

Speaking of gear, what else did you have on the board?

“As far as pedals go, there’s always a lot of EarthQuaker stuff. I really like their Grand Orbiter Phase Machine – it has this really wide stereo phase and I think it’s one of the best out there. I also had quite a few delays, like the MXR Echoplex – one of the reissue ones with the tap tempo, plus a Carbon Copy. I’ll use one which is a shorter quick delay and another which is set long. You can create some interesting repeats by using them together. 

“There was also the Daredevil Bootleg delay, which is really cool because it dirties the repeats so they get more distorted. You can do some crazy shit with that. I managed to get my hands on an original Mu-Tron [phaser] that was in mint condition, brand new in the box. I got it off some DJ guy – after spotting it, I said, ‘I’ll give you money for that!’ That ended up on a lot of stuff. So there was a lot of phase and delay.”

And what were you using for your main guitars and amps?

“I used one of my '80s Laney heads, which has this massive depth. There was also a [Fender] Hot Rod and two Soldano SLOs, as well as this Yamaha that was made by Soldano before he started the company. It’s a combo, but you can put it through a cab. I used all of those amps in different combinations, as well as different mic’ing techniques to capture all the tones.”

“I played pretty much every guitar I owned. There was a Les Paul Recording for certain things, especially if I needed a little whammy bar. It doesn’t stay in tune for very long, so I would use it here and there for certain phrases. Gibson gave me an Explorer not long ago. I fuckin’ love that guitar – it’s just a stock one that I put my [signature] Lace Dragonaut pickups in.”

You’ve been known to play a fair few '70s Gibsons – tell us more about the collection…

“Yeah, there’s a 1974 Les Paul Custom I have that’s a three-pickup blonde, which is absolutely beautiful. That one has both Lollar Imperials and my Lace pickups, and I had it wired so you can run all of them at the same time. My other Les Paul is wired that way, too – that one’s a natural finish Artisan. I love those guitars, they’re so badass. 

“I also used my ‘76 SG with some Imperials and a Seger YG with Lace pickups, which is another guitar I love. It has a wider spread between the strings, which works really well for my hands. I own quite a few Les Pauls, to be honest, from old Customs to more modern ones like Supremes, of which I have a white and a black. There was also a lot of 12-string stuff in there, too!”

What do you look for in a Les Paul, when you’re in a guitar shop?

“There’s a lot of things I look for, but playability is always important. I’ll play a bunch of them for hours in a shop to make my decision. For me, it’s like trying on clothes [laughs]! Then I do my own little upgrades, like changing the pickups or putting in a titanium bridge, because I just shred through the stock ones really fast. The titaniums last a lot longer!”

Holy Mountain turns 30 in November. Which riffs are you most proud of and what's the secret behind your most classic Sleep riffs?

“I don’t really know! Back then, I didn’t really know shit. When we got into that mode of writing, it felt kinda doomy and gothy, while being punk rock at the same time. We went down the Black Sabbath route. I was studying a lot of music while we were making Holy Mountain, going to school for jazz theory so I could understand the links better between writing and improv. 

“I took those college courses just to get into that zone. I guess we had some magic that came out when we played. We were just kids coming up to the end of our teenage years.

“Al [Cisneros, vocals/bass] was listening to a lot of Weather Report and Rush, while I was probably spinning a lot of Sabbath. It just came out the way it came out. It’s definitely my favorite Sleep album. It was a great time. The Druid is a song I’m especially proud of, though I have to say all of the riffs on Holy Mountain are killer!”

• Matt Pike's debut solo album, Pike vs The Automaton arrives February 18 via MNRK Heavy.

Sleep/High on Fire riff machine Matt Pike has debuted new single, Land, an unexpectedly bluesy track electrified by the appearance of Mastodon six-stringer Brent Hinds.

Both guitarists lay down vibey solos in the song – Pike’s focuses on a spacey, Planet Caravan-esque modal approach, while Hinds digs deep into his well of psychedelic slow-blues leads, complete with lashings of phaser. The Mastodon man provides slide guitar throughout, too.

The track is taken from Pike’s forthcoming solo debut, Pike vs The Automaton, which is due out on February 18.

Pike recently discussed Hinds’ contributions to the upcoming record with Guitar World’s Amit Sharma.

“He’s straight off the porch in Alabama. That’s what he sounds like… it’s the real deal!” Pike enthused. “Give that man a banjo and he’ll blow your mind. Give him a guitar, he’ll blow your mind. Give him anything and he’ll blow your mind. He took the first solo on a song and it was so good I told him to keep on playing through the song, even over the parts with singing.

“He did some lap steel and slide, as well as this other Billy Gibbons-style solo. I was sat there thinking, ‘Fuck you! Really, man?!’ I had to go back and make my own guitar tones better, re-amping DIs and all the rest, just because he sounded so incredible. He did all his stuff at Mastodon’s studio. I think it gave all of us something to do.”

Described by Pike as a “psychedelic rock record”, Pike vs The Automaton was born of a desire to make music during the pandemic with drummer Jon Reid, and features a variety of guests, including Alyssa Maucere-Pike (Lord Dying / Grigax), Chad "Chief" Hartgrave, Steve McPeeks (West End Motel), Josh Greene (El Cerdo), Todd Burdette (Tragedy), and High on Fire's Jeff Matz.

Land is the second track to be released from the album, following the uncompromisingly heavy Alien Slut Mum.

Pike vs The Automaton is available to preorder now.

Earlier this week, Pike joined forces with Russian Circles’ Mike Sullivan to give Van Halen’s Unchained an altogether heavier makeover.

Over the past two-decades-plus, Mastodon have established themselves as one of the best post-2000 progressive, psychedelic metal bands. Born with an equal love of Melvins, Metallica, Rush and Neurosis, the Atlanta-based quartet have blown minds with their bleak, angular rhythms, abrupt tempo changes, meandering atmospherics and psychotronic imagery. 

And, like the best prog-rockers, Mastodon have crafted multifaceted concept albums that have journeyed through haunting fantasy and sci-fi scenes. They based 2004’s Leviathan on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. 

Two years later, Blood Mountain addressed the plight of a man stranded in a mountain range inhabited by terrifying creatures. In 2009, they wrote Crack the Skye about the cosmic visions of a comatose mind-traveler. 

And in 2017 they crafted Emperor of Sand around the story of a doomed man fleeing a death sentence in the scorching desert.

“When I do music, I do this thing to escape – pull a Houdini on myself and try not to think about things that are negative as fuck,” says lead guitarist and vocalist Brent Hinds, from behind the wheel of a car he’s driving to the airport to pick up his girlfriend. 

“I hate thinking about the horrible things that are going on in the world, and I hate knowing that they’re going on. So we’ve just created another space as an escape for ourselves and our fans.” 

On one level, that’s true. Mastodon’s music is complex and challenging, meandering through an escapist realm of sludgy riffs and atmospheric passages. The band’s eighth studio release, Hushed and Grim, Mastodon’s first double album, is both otherworldly and visceral. It’s also the group’s most musically diverse release to date. 

There are tumbling, trenchant metal cuts (Pain with an Anchor), expansive blues-embellished epics (The Beast), tribal and haunting soundscapes (Dagger), bereaved keyboard-laden songs (Skeleton of Splendor) and angsty, poppy numbers (Teardrinker). 

Yet, as much of a sonic journey as the band’s albums have been, Mastodon’s music has frequently stemmed from pain, helplessness and loss. Crack the Skye surfaced from mental images Hinds had after an assault in 2007 that left him in a coma and close to death; the record also addressed the tragic overdose of drummer Brann Dailor’s sister Skye. 

The title track of 2011’s The Hunter is an homage to Hinds’ brother, Brad, who died of a heart attack in 2010 while hunting. Mastodon’s 2017 record Emperor of Sand confronted the hopelessness and fear of mortality that was driven home after bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders’ wife was stricken with cancer (she has been in remission for years) and guitarist Bill Kelliher’s mother died of the disease. 

Tragically, the time Kelliher spent writing Hushed and Grim was also filled with misfortune and pain. Between the time the band finished Emperor of Sand and started working on the new album, their longtime manager Nick John died of pancreatic cancer, tour manager Bob Dallas passed away from an undisclosed illness and Kelliher’s wife was stricken with a rare disease (amyloidosis) and had to undergo intensive treatment. 

“I’ve realized that everything we do is from the heart, and a lot of it all stems from real pain and emotion from the death of loved ones and the sickness of friends and family, Kelliher says. 

“For some reason, we’ve been pulling our best stuff out of the most depressing emotional wreckage that happens in everyone’s lives. But I feel like our fans can connect with that.

“Everyone can connect with pain and suffering and losing someone. In a big way, Mastodon is the elephant in the room. We gravitate toward the sadness of life and write about it, and our fans gravitate toward that. And I think being able to relate to the kind of real-life sadness in our music gives them comfort.” 

The band’s deft combination of genuine melancholy and cathartic fantasy make Mastodon’s music too authentic and emotionally expressive to ever sound life self-indulgent prog-rock. 

Hinds and Kelliher are gifted guitarists, but neither is driven by a desire to show off. Their playing is more of an unveiling of their personalities. Hinds can be socially awkward and gets verbally tongue-tied, so he expresses himself through his multi-textural, variegated playing. And Kelliher is a chill dude who vents frustration and anger through artistic riffs and sheer volume. 

Though both players are unique and capable of reaching stratospheric heights, they don’t play for themselves. They play for the songs, and if that means deferring to their bandmates’ ideas, they have enough confidence in their musical and compositional skills to step down and let someone else shine. 

This is especially true for Kelliher, who has become Mastodon’s primary songwriter but who often gets overlooked since he’s not one of the band’s three singers (Hinds, Sanders and Dailor). 

“Brent’s the quote-unquote lead guitarist, and he sings, so of course he gets all the attention,” says Kelliher with a shrug. “And he’s a wild man, which makes him, even more, the center of attention. So I mean, whatever. I don’t mind standing in the back and not getting all the accolades. It’s fine with me. Everyone in my band knows who does what, and I’m totally cool with my role. And I love what we do.” 

A few days before Mastodon’s first dates to support Hushed and Grim, Hinds and Kelliher openly discuss the effects of writing in Covid-mandated isolation, their reservations about making a double album, the way their notably different guitar styles mesh – and the creative inspiration of suffering.

The songs on Hushed and Grim are eclectic and developed, ranging from rumbling and riffy to serene and almost delicate. Did you make an effort to create an album more sonically diverse than those on Emperor of Sand? 

Hinds: “Nah, man. I just like to do lots of things. I play in different bands aside from Mastodon and they’re all different. I never want to repeat myself, so I wasn’t thinking of that last album at all when we did this. 

“For this record, we wrote at home because we were bored and there wasn’t much going on because we were in lockdown. So you’re stuck at home all the time with yourself and your thoughts. So this was more of an internal exploration for me. 

“You look inward to the inward journey, and I would play so much guitar that it would just sweat blood and guitar all day long and I would come up with all sorts of different stuff, and it all found its place here and there.”

Kelliher: “I’m always playing and writing anyway. I’ve got volumes of voice notes and Pro Tools sessions of me just riffing out. When we got off the Emperor of Sand touring cycle two years ago, I was almost welcoming Covid because it was like, ‘Okay, well, now we have a bunch of time off and we don’t have anything on the horizon. It’s time to take a well-needed rest from all the touring on the last record and write the next record.’

“And we were well prepared. We already had skeletons for a lot of the songs. And I was totally cool with going into my studio in my basement and trying all kinds of stuff to make some new songs. So, I wrote a bunch of the new album and Troy wrote some songs, which was a first, and Brent wrote two.”

Did you start writing with the intent of putting out a double album? 

Kelliher: “We wrote about 25 songs, but 10 weren’t completely finished. So we went in with the 15 that were closest to being done. We were going to record 12 and use 10 for the record. We planned to do a rough demo of everything and pick out which 12 were the best. But we wound up recording all 15. We’ve never been a double-album kind of band. 

“We’ve always joked that doing a double album is a curse, and how you don’t want to do a double album or else your band is going to fall apart. But unless you progress and try things differently each time, what‘s the point? 

“And I just felt like every song is fucking awesome. At one point we thought of putting 10 songs on the album and doing a five-song EP later, but the songs all sounded like they needed to be together. They were in the same vibe and they’re all related, like brothers and sisters. So we just said, ‘No, we can just split up the family. Let’s do a double album.’”

Hinds: “I would prefer this more just to be an album instead of a double album. I would have cut some stuff out, but whatever. It is what it is. We’ve got all this time on our hands and Troy broke his songwriting cherry on this and wrote four really nice songs that showed a lot of growth and pushed the boundaries into a double album.”

Brent, how do your songs differ from Bill's? 

Hinds: “A lot of times my stuff is really long. I like to sprawl out in a song. I think living in the city and being cramped around people causes these unconscious decisions for my songwriting. The only case scenario that I have to really spread out is in a song. Having the kind of sound I have, when I play and get into it, I get kinda lost, and before I know it 13 or 15 minutes have passed.”

You have a rockabilly side project (Fiend Without a Face) and you’re a big fan of country music. Do you think you bring those influences into Mastodon? 

Hinds: “I’m not a metal guitarist. Sometimes I stumble upon a metal riff and I’ve been influenced by [post metal] bands like Isis. I get it where I can fit it, but I’m an oddball when it comes to the metal scene. I love country. My favorite country singer/songwriter is Johnny Paycheck and my favorite guitar-playing country artist is Jerry Reed. 

“So I try to incorporate some country licks here and there. And sometimes I’m clever enough to find out where they can go in a tasteful manner. I had been working on the first riff of Peace and Tranquility for a while because it was a departure outside of what I normally write. 

“I was listening to Animals As Leaders and I got inspired by them to write that first bit. And then all the other stuff fell into place after I had my medicine.”

Bill, have you always been a metal player? 

Kelliher: “I don’t know. I grew up on a lot of punk rock, and when I’m writing songs, I usually take the punk or garage rock formula – verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, end. 

“I always loved the Ramones and bands that wrote a sick riff and then they’d go away from it before they’d bring it back around again. That’s been my formula for a while. With this new record, I did delve into some new territory. 

“Sickle and Peace has some Stanley Jordan-type guitar playing. It was almost an accident. I was playing in that style and Brann went, ‘What is that?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know. I’m just messing around.’ He said, ‘That sounded cool,’ and he started humming what I had been playing, and then I wrote it from that.”

Do you and Brann frequently work on songs together? 

Kelliher: “We work really well together. When he and I get together down in my studio at my house, I feel like I shine because he brings out the best riffs in me. Just like with Emperor of Sand, we spent a lot of time building the foundation of Hushed and Grim. 

“I’d start playing something and a lot of times, if I got stuck, he’d start humming something that would go with what I did, and the two parts would fit together really well.”

Can you write with the whole band or is it easier to work when it’s just you and Brann? 

Kelliher: “It was really hard to do that because of Covid, but it’s tough when you get all four guys in the room and we try to agree on one thing. For me, the writing process is a lot easier when I get together with Brann and we just spitball ideas and say, ‘This is cool for now as a placeholder. Maybe we’ll change something later.’ 

“And then later I’ll put everything under a microscope and over-analyze every riff and every part of the song and change things that need to be changed. But that’s what makes it great.”

Do you work on a song until it’s done and then move onto the next one? 

Kelliher: “I never just write one song all at once. Everything happens in pieces. I’ll write a song or a riff and then another riff. And then sometimes the song has to go on the back burner for a couple months until I can come up with something that jives with what I’ve already done.”

Did you mess around with a bunch of different gear? 

Kelliher: “There were a couple main guitars that I favored a lot. I used my ESP Sparrowhawk a lot. And I used my Friedman Butterslax [100-watt, three-channel amplifier head] and a Marshall JCM800. 

“And we used old-school analog pedals. I had a Friedman BE-OD Deluxe [overdrive] and an MXR Sugar Drive pedal I really like.”

Hinds: “I just use what I got – Gibson Flying V, Les Paul, SG and my signature V. And I got Marshall JMPs and my Diezel 12-gauge [cabinets]. My friend let me borrow his '50s Fender tiny 30-watt combo amps, and I played most of the guitar solos on those. 

“We had two of them slaved together, which sounded cool. And I used some KHDK pedals, but I came out with my own pedal company, Dirty B Hinds, and I’m using the Mastodrive and all these pedals I’m designing with my friends.”

As guitarists, you two have such different playing styles, which is part of why the music sounds so innovative. Is it ever hard to figure out who should play what? 

Hinds: “We just play what we write. For this album, I didn’t go for sheer aggression because I don’t think I stumbled across too many heavy metal riffs that were really angry. Bill is the master of the metal riffs and he provides the heavy. 

“But heavy stuff comes from the heart, and when you’re all tuned down to D and are running through a fucking Marshall stack, all of a sudden everything’s heavy, even though your point might be to bring on some melancholy shit or some really delicate stuff. 

“It’s all about the tonality of the instrument sometimes. So we each do our parts separately and then show them to each other ’cause we’re not a jam band. We’re more like choreographed acrobatics.”

Kelliher: “Normally I’ll write the rhythm and the harmonies ’cause I’m really into harmonies. And if it’s my song, I’ll write the lead and I’ll tell Brent, ‘Hey, this is what I did for that. Can you play it?’ Nine times out of 10, he’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ 

“But once in a while, he’ll hear something in what I’m showing him and he’ll come up with his own interpretation. And sometimes he’ll do something that will totally surprise me. Like, I’ll put a bridge in there and I assume he’ll play a solo over that. Then he’ll come in the next day and play his part and when I come back in, I’m blown away when I listen back because he put the solo somewhere entirely different, like over a midsection, which I thought would be instrumental. 

“I’ll be like, ‘Whoa, wow! I wouldn’t have put it there, but that’s cool. That sounds killer.’ When it works, it’s a very cool thing to hear because it shines a whole new ray of light on the song.”

Brent, is it exciting for you to see what Bill does with your songs? 

Hinds: “I don’t know. I mean, sometimes you get up on the horse and you can ride pretty well. Then other times the horse is faster and it’s hard to stay there. You’ve just got to keep yourself in practice and keep trying to ride it until you get something you like.”

Kelliher: “When Brent writes stuff – and I’ve told him this before – it’s like he’s writing as if he was the only guitar player in the band because it’s just wild. So I’m trying to learn it and trying to play it over and over. I’m like, ‘Dude, this is really hard.’ 

“He’ll go, ‘Oh no, it’s not hard. Your stuff is hard.’ I’m like, ‘Well, your stuff is hard because it’s almost like you’re playing a guitar solo the whole time.’”

Do you discuss how you can complement his unorthodox playing? 

Kelliher: “It’s very hard for him to teach me stuff and tell me what he’s doing. He doesn’t have any patience for sitting down and showing me what to do. When he plays, I have to video record his exact finger positions on my phone. And then I’ll learn it.”

“But it changes a lot, too. I’ll work really hard and learn something one way and then by the next practice he’s changed it, which he can do. It’s his riff until we record it.”

What if you can’t figure out what he’s doing? 

Kelliher: “That happens a lot. There’s a song on [2006’s] Blood Mountain, Capillarian Crest, and when it gets to the midsection he’s playing completely crazy stuff. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not even going to try to play that because I’m going to give myself an aneurysm if I try to learn it.’ 

“And then I got to the point where he was doing something really complicated and I went, ‘Okay, I’m never going to play something exactly like you because we’re different kinds of guitar players.’ So we play the same parts in different ways. I’ll try to lock into what he’s doing and do something underneath it that makes the part more interesting. That usually works out well.”

Your longtime manager – and your tour manager – died between the release of Emperor of Sand and the completion of Hushed and Grim. And Bill, you said your wife was diagnosed with a rare disease. Mastodon have been through so much loss and pain over the years. Does the music help you get through it? 

Kelliher: “When I’m writing songs, I’m thinking about those people and dredging up the emotions I feel from missing them. That comes from a real place, and people know that and they can feel that and connect to it. 

“I recently got a message from a guy who said, ‘I lost my wife to cancer two years ago. She loved your music, and thank you for all that you do and for your music.’ It’s fucking sad, but we’re a real band and we write songs about real subject matter. And it seems like every record gets deeper into that world.”

You visit that world, for sure, but the music seems like it takes the listener to another place that’s almost otherworldly and majestic, so the melancholy that’s in the music and the messages about mortality resound in an epic way. 

Kelliher: “I agree, and I just feel that with every year that passes and the more writing that we do, the better we get at it and the more we’re able to show that range of emotion. And now we can go from this crazy riff into the super-sad riff, or an evil, evil riff and it all works. 

“That’s a natural evolution that comes from being together so long. It’s funny because there are fans out there that go, ‘Oh, [2002’s] Remission is your best album,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, okay. I’m glad you like it, but I was just learning how to write a song back then. We were just spitballing. Now, we know what we’re doing.’

“I’ll try a riff and right away I’ll know, ‘Nah, it doesn’t work for us.’ That’s why Brann and I write so much together because we can actually spitball with each other and go somewhere without spinning our wheels.”

Hinds: “It’s not just sadness. I mean, there’s hurt and anger that have afflicted us through our lives. And the only way we can deal with it is to have these songs that go out to our fallen brothers and sisters and are dedicated to our friendship with the people that aren’t lucky enough to still be here with us. 

“But, for me, I think there’s a lot of anxiety in there, too. I feel like the road is dangerous and home is not, but we usually have to tour all the time. I used to have constant anxiety about getting in a bus accident or a plane crash. And then big crowds of people give me anxiety. 

“So I’ve lived with anxiety for 20 years and I was hooked on [the anxiety Benzodiazepine] Xanax for 15 years and I had to wean myself off of it a little bit at a time ‘cause it was compromising my breathing. 

“Of course, I was partying on it and it’s really bad to do that. I was never prescribed things so I was buying from people on the streets all the time. One time I couldn’t get it and I had two seizures. 

“So, I finally weaned myself off. It took years, but recently I discovered that you need to be anxious and fucking deal with it and that keeps you on your toes and motivated to keep doing shit. Now I try to feed off the anxiety and play guitar.”

Bill, can you talk about what happened with your wife, who is in remission from her condition? 

Kelliher: “It was crazy. She was getting tired all the time and her heart was beating out of control. Then, in the middle of the night she wakes me up and she goes, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.’ 

“She was going into AFib (Atrial Fibrillation) [which often causes palpitations, shortness of breath and fatigue]. We took her to the emergency room. The doctors gave her some medicine to slow her heart back down. Then they X-rayed her heart and saw her heart walls are really thick and there was some protein buildup that turned out to be amyloidosis, which is this crazy, rare disease that has a high mortality rate. 

“We looked it up online and saw that patients have an average of six months to live from the moment of diagnosis. And we were like, ‘You’re fucking kidding me!’ She’s 48. She’s normal. She eats very healthy and takes care of herself. So what the fuck? We went through the Mayo Clinic and she did chemotherapy for a year, which was fucking horrible.”

This happened while you were writing and recording Hushed and Grim? 

Kelliher: “Yes, and there’s nothing you can do except watch your wife suffer and try to soothe her. In the back of my mind, I was always thinking, ‘Fuck, man, if don’t know what I’ll do if I lose her. I’d be completely lost in this existence without her. How am I gonna raise my kids without my wife around?’ 

“But she had the chemo and now she’s doing really well. But you just never know how life can sneak up on you. You think you’re healthy one minute and the next minute you’ve got this crazy rare disease. And now, every little ache or pain – or if she gets tired – we’re like, ‘Oh man, is the disease coming back?’ And that’s fuckin’ scary.”

How were you able to focus and create when your wife was ill? Was it cathartic to work when she was resting?

Kelliher: “I think it has become that way. When my mom was dying in hospice I was by her bedside with my laptop and a guitar. I was overdubbing a lot of the stuff in the Emperor of Sand demos. And this time, I was just on this writing binge. I don’t know if it was cathartic because I was still extremely sad that she was so sick, but it brought out this fire in me to write and write and write.”

Brendan O’Brien produced your last album, Emperor of Sand, as well as Crack the Skye. This time, you worked with David Bottrill, who has produced albums for Tool and Peter Gabriel. 

Hinds: “We’re really good friends with the Tool guys. We told them we were looking for a producer and they worked with him before and had a great experience. They were like, ‘This guy is the man!’ 

Kelliher: “Honestly, we were pretty happy with the way Crack the Skye turned out and Emperor of Sand, so we were ready to work with Brendan O’Brien again. He’s a great guy and a great producer. 

“But Warner Bros. wanted us to talk to some other people who wanted to work with us. Dave Bottrill was one of them, and he was very proactive. We got on a Zoom call with him and immediately he was like, ‘All right, I’ve listened to all your demos and I’ve got some ideas.’ 

“He had a million notes and specific suggestions for every song. That impressed us. And he’s a very intelligent guy, very pleasant to work with, and he knew how to circumvent any problems in a way that would keep everybody happy, which is what we needed.”

Were there any particular talents or techniques that David used to make Hushed and Grim better? 

Kelliher: “There were a couple songs where David had this idea of playing five guitar tracks of the same thing, but adjusting the tuning from A-440 to 442, 445, 446. Every one of them was just a little bit out of tune and created this wall of clean guitar with this natural chorus effect on it. That was very cool. 

Hinds: “We tend to go fast a lot. We don’t really know how to slow down. So David helped us out with that. Also, there were times when a song would be really long and it would be in the same key for too long. So he would suggest changing keys and doing more of a classic turnaround – go into another two chords to get back to your starting chord. It was very intelligent stuff. 

“When it was all over with, I was definitely... Dave is a new friend of mine now. I love Brendan to death, but I’m glad we went with someone else to get a different perspective on the music. I’m glad I can call David a friend, too.”

• Hushed and Grim is out now via Reprise Records.

Prog metal fans the world over have likely given Mastodon's new album Hushed and Grim at least a few spins, but the Atlanta quartet brought the fresh material to the masses earlier this week with a performance of Teardrinker on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

Appearing on Tuesday's episode of the talkshow, the band treated the studio audience to a dual electric guitar-laden heavy metal masterclass, with highlights including a dizzying solo from guitarist Brent Hinds and even a bass solo from Troy Sanders.

Footage from the performance has now been posted online – watch it below.

While Bill Kelliher opts for his signature ESP Sparrowhawk, Brent Hinds can also be seen wielding an unidentifiable model from the Japanese company.

Hinds' guitar sports a double-cut shape, with a matt black finish, two humbuckers and, unusually, what looks to be a Jazzmaster-style floating tremolo – all of which has us pondering: is Brent Hinds ESP's next signature artist?

It's not the band's first ESP signature model tease this month, either; Bill Kelliher used demos for his STL ToneHub Pack as an opportunity to debut his own new Silverburst double-cut from the company.

The band's Seth Myers performance comes hot on the heels of the news that Mastodon have been nominated for a Grammy. They are up for the Best Metal Performance award for their track Pushing the Tides, and are up against the stellar competition of Deftones, Dream Theater, Gojira and Rob Zombie.

Mastodon's new album Hushed and Grim arrived last month via Reprise Records. Described by the band as their “most ambitious body of work to date”, the record – which follows 2017's Emperor of Sand – comprises 15 tracks and clocks in at almost an hour and a half.

Speaking to Talking Metal earlier this year, guitarist Bill Kelliher explained that they went into the process of creating the album “with open minds”, and as a result produced their “fullest‑, biggest-sounding record” so far.

Despite the four-year gap between official studio releases, Mastodon also released another album, Medium Rarities – a collection of cover tunes, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides and live recordings – in 2020.

In a Guitar World interview earlier this year, Kelliher paid tribute to Metallica as they celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Black Album. He recalled touring with the metal giants on a series of dates supporting their 2008 album, Death Magnetic, and shared insight into their grueling work ethic.

“They really work for it,” he said. “They had a mobile practice room, like a shipping container, that went everywhere with them. And every day they would open it up three hours before the gig with Pro Tools set up and everything mic'd up.

“I’m not kidding, they would play for three fucking hours before they played on stage for another two fucking hours. I think it was called the 'Tuning and Attitude' room. They’d be playing different songs every night so they’d be jamming through different setlists while we were sitting around drinking beer and picking our noses!”

Marcus King is in the midst of his four-night full-production livestream, Four of a Kind, Live From Nashville, and now video footage has appeared from the third episode in the series, which featured Mastodon electric guitar player Brent Hinds joining the Marcus King Trio for what was touted as a “full-blown rock show.”

And rock it was, as evidenced by this scorching take on Black Sabbath’s Electric Funeral, with Hinds and King squaring off for a shred-fest on a pair of Banker V electric guitars.

You can check out the performance above.

As part of the Four of a Kind series, King also recently announced a gear auction with Orange Amplifiers to help raise money for MusiCares.

The auction is divided into three separate “rigs,” and features autographed guitars and basses, as well as amps, accessories and other goodies. For more information or to place a bid, head to the Marcus King Band.

The final installment of Four of a Kind, Live From Nashville, meanwhile, will be livestreamed August 3 and features the Marcus King Band performing The Last Waltz alongside Jennifer Hartswick Devon Gilfillian and more. 

Tickets can also be purchased from the Marcus King Band. 

Marcus King has announced a four-night full-production livestream series titled Four of a Kind, Live From Nashville.

Each show will feature a unique performance concept with guests including Mastodon electric guitar player Brent Hinds, Billy Strings, Jennifer Hartswick, Devon Gilfillian and more.

The series will air every Monday at 8:00 PM Tennessee time on July 13 through August 3 and benefit MusiCares.

Said King, “Putting on Four of a Kind is a welcomed challenge for the band and I. After a few months off the road and some time to recuperate, we want to get together and make some music. It is all very new to us, performing with no audience and still trying to bring the same energy as a full live show.

“With some help from some of our closest friends and new ones too, a lovely crew of masked, socially distanced and socially conscious people, we’re excited to have something we can all feel proud of and share with you all!”

The first episode will feature the Marcus King Band performing their recent record El Dorado in full. 

Episode two will see King joined by friends Billy Strings and Maggie Rose for an all-night jam, while episode three features Brent Hinds, who will join the Marcus King Trio for a “full-blown rock show.”

The final episode, meanwhile, boasts a star-studded lineup, with the Marcus King Band performing The Last Waltz alongside Jennifer Hartswick Devon Gilfillian and more.

All net ticket proceeds will be donated to MusiCares, with tickets priced from $10 to $40 for all four nights.

There’s also a Full House promotion of all four nights and a poster for $50.

Additionally, the Spotify COVID-19 Music Relief project, created to amplify the efforts of organizations that focus on helping those most in need, will match donations alongside other benefits, up to a collective total of $10 million.

To purchase tickets for Four of a Kind, head to Marcus King Band.

Mastodon have been celebrating the 10th anniversary of their fourth album, 2009’s Crack the Skye, all year with new merch, a vinyl picture disc of the record and a co-headlining tour with Coheed and Cambria on which they’re playing the full track list.

Additionally, they’ve been releasing weekly episodes chronicling the making of the record. Above, check out the fourth episode, which focuses on guitar playing and gear.

Regarding how he approached his leads on the record, Brent Hinds says, “Here’s how I’ll write guitar solos: I don’t. I just put my brain on autopilot and pick up the guitar and say ‘Play this song.’ ”

Remarks Bill Kelliher, “I always try to harmonize…not everything, but anything that’s single notes or whatever, I feel like, ‘I’m gonna harmonize the crap out of that.’ ”

They also delve deep into the “immense” arsenal of guitars and amps they had to work with on the record, which included Leslie speakers, vintage Strats and Teles, a purple Marshall JMP and a JCM 800 reissue that was, according to Kelliher, “100 watts of pure fuckin’ metal.”

Says Hinds, “The gear is definitely why I get out of bed in the morning.”

Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds has joined up with online musical instrument marketplace Reverb.com to sell off items from his personal collection. According to Hinds, all the gear for sale has been used in the studio and onstage with the band.  

"There comes a time in your life when you have to get rid of everything and for me, that time is now," Hinds told Reverb. "The music gear I’m selling in my Reverb shop is legitimate shit. All of it was heavily used—all over the world on tour, in the studio, and beyond. A lot of early Mastodon work was created on this gear."

Among the items featured in the Brent Hinds Reverb Shop are:

- A one-of-a-kind Robert Randolph Custom Sierra 13-string pedal steel guitar that Hinds bought from renowned pedal-steel guitarist Robert Randolph over a decade ago and played on Once More ‘Round the Sun and Cold Dark Place.

- A cream 1981 Gibson Flying V electric guitar that has traveled all over the world with Hinds and Mastodon.

- A First Act Custom Shop Lola Double Neck electric guitar played on Crack the Skye and used live during the tour that supported the same album. Hinds helped design the guitar, which is the only one in existence.

- A Hammond Colonnade full-sized church organ used on every Mastodon record made up until Crack the Skye was released.

- A black 2008 Gibson Flying V ‘67 Reissue electric guitar used on tour and to record several of Mastodon’s earlier records, including Oblivion and Crack the Skye.

- A black Dean V 79 Classic electric guitar and a red Calzone standing road case, both of which were used extensively on tour.

The Official Brent Hinds Reverb Shop will launch on August 23. All items in the shop will ship with a signed and embossed Certificate of Authenticity. For more information, head to Reverb.com.

Mastodon have made sort of a habit out of surreal music videos (if you don't believe us, check out the clips for "Steambreather" and "Show Yourself") and their latest clip—for the Emperor of Sand track, "Clandestiny"—is no exception.

The clip was directed by Ariel Costa (Led Zeppelin, Green Day,) and features rocket launchers, robot monsters and a nefarious emperor. You can check it out above.

"We don’t have to stick to anybody’s idea of what we should sound like," Mastodon's Bill Kelliher told Guitar World about Emperor of Sand in a May 2017 interview. "People try to tell us all day long, 'You guys need to write another Remission!' But we play what feels fucking cool at the time."

For more on Mastodon, be sure to follow along on Facebook.

When it comes to building mini and micro amps, Orange has consistently crushed the competition ever since they introduced their very first Terror model. Over the years, countless companies have joined the war on Terror, but Orange has always stayed one step ahead by introducing a steady stream of new models that expand the Terror-fying sounds and flexibility of their amps.

Orange’s new Brent Hinds Terror amp head is the company’s second artist signature Terror model, featuring a design based on the popular Rocker 15 Terror but with modified gain structure and different EQ voicing. Like the Rocker 15 Terror, the Brent Hinds Terror is an impressively versatile two-channel “lunchbox” amp with high-gain tone that’s certain to please Mastodon fans, but with its expanded tonal palette it’s also an amp that deserves a closer look from guitarists who play almost any style of music.

FEATURES
The Brent Hinds Terror is a 15-watt, all-tube, two-channel head with two EL84 tubes in the power amp section and four 12AX7 tubes for the preamp and effects loop sections. There's a Natural channel that is just that—the unembellished, natural sound of the power amp itself without any added gain or EQ, bypassing all of the amp’s front-panel controls with the exception of its own separate volume control.

The Natural channel is voiced with more bass than the same channel on the Rocker 15 Terror, resulting in darker, warmer overall tonal character. The Dirty channel kicks in a three-stage gain circuit and provides greater tone-shaping flexibility through the Dirty channel’s own set of three-band EQ, volume and gain controls to the left of the Normal channel’s volume control. Channels are selected via the front-panel toggle switch or with an optional footswitch that plugs into a ¼-inch jack on the rear panel.

A half/full power toggle switch on the front panel selects 15 or 7 watts of output power when the rear-panel bedroom/headroom switch is set to “headroom” or 1 or .5 watts of output when the “bedroom” setting is engaged. The rear-panel also includes a mono effects loop with individual ¼-inch send and return jacks, two ¼-inch 8-ohm speaker output jacks and one ¼-inch 16-ohm speaker output. Like its Terror model predecessors, the amp is housed in an all-metal chassis with a chrome-plated carrying handle on top. A padded black nylon carrying bag is also included. The graphics and “pictograph control markings are the same as that of the Rocker 15 Terror, with the only differences being the product name and Hinds signature and face tattoo graphics rendered in orange paint.

PERFORMANCE
Although the Normal channel has only a solitary volume control, its tone is anything but stripped-down. Providing the shortest possible path between your strings and the power amp, the sound is simply big, rich and fat. The Natural channel is perfect for guitarists who use pedals to shape their tone—it’s like the purest white canvas that soaks up every color in vivid detail. Fully dimed, the Natural channel’s volume control provides a slight amount of overdrive crunch that can be pushed into harmonic bliss with a clean boost pedal.

With the Dirty channel’s treble, midrange and bass controls dialed all the way down, the tone incredibly starts where most mini amps reach their peak. The good news is that the tone only gets better and better from there. The Dirty channel can generate a mammoth amount of bass with more balls than the Denver Nuggets’ equipment manager, and the treble gets progressively more sparkling and crisp without ever sounding harsh, shrill or thin.

STREET PRICE: $749
MANUFACTURER: Orange Amps, orangeamps.com

• Similar in overall design to the Orange Rocker 15 Terror, this model delivers more gain and customized voicing with more bass and more versatile EQ-shaping capabilities.
• The Half/Full and Bedroom/Headroom switches let users select 15, 7, 1 or .5 watts of output to provide full dynamics at volume levels ideal for the stage, recording or practice.

THE BOTTOM LINE
With its pure, unadulterated Natural channel and incredibly massive sounding and versatile Dirty channel, the Brent Hinds Terror is truly a mini amp with bigger balls and more massive tone than many full-size heads.

Last week, we showed you the wild music video for Mastodon's "Steambreather." Now, the band have premiered the far more intimate, behind the scenes video for "Toe to Toes."

Here, you get a front row seat to virtually every aspect of the song's creation: from the tracking of the guitars, to the solos, to the vocals, to the drums and even the hand claps. You can watch it below.

Mastodon is set to release their new album, Cold Dark Place, on September 22 via Warner Bros. You can preorder it here.

For more about Mastodon, check out our interview with Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher from the May 2017 issue of Guitar World.

Time seems to be on Mastodon’s side. Together now for 17 years without a single blip in their lineup, the Atlanta-based alt-metal four-piece is still as tight personally as they are musically.

“It’s our job to stay together,” says singer-guitarist Brent Hinds. “And we’re not married to one another, so that makes it easier.”

He lets out a throaty laugh, then elaborates on the band’s lasting chemistry: “I think what helps the most is being adults and respecting each other’s personal space. Plus, we’ve got the same goal, which was to be in an awesome band that takes over the world. My bank account says we’re not quite there yet, but we’re working at it.”

Co-guitarist Bill Kelliher affirms that the task of staying together has been the band’s biggest shared goal since their first rehearsal.

“We all felt it right away,” he states. “We said, ‘That’s it. No one is allowed to quit unless we all quit.’ A lot of bands break up for silly reasons. One member decides to hang out with his wife, or he doesn’t want to be on tour so much, and then things fall apart. But we made that pact: No one can leave unless we all leave. That’s how we do it.”

The subject of time informs Mastodon’s eighth album, Emperor of Sand, on which the group (which also includes singer-bassist Troy Sanders and singer-drummer Brann Dailor) explores a narrative that tackles life’s ticking clock. Mortality was briefly addressed on 2011’s The Hunter (the title song was a tribute to Hinds’ brother, who was killed in a hunting accident), but here it’s the focal point, and once again, the band channeled real-life heartbreak (the cancer-related death of Kelliher’s mother last year, along with two recent cancer diagnoses within the Mastodon family) into art.

Responding to such tragedy, Dailor constructed a thread concerning a sultan wandering the desert who’s been handed a death sentence by the grim reaper, i.e. the “Emperor of Sand.” While it might not be labeled the feel-good record of the year, Emperor of Sand contains some of Mastodon’s most ambitious and musically rich performances yet.

Below, you can read an excerpt of our Mastodon interview from the May 2017 issue of Guitar World. For the complete story, plus a feature on Mastodon's pedalboards, pick up the new issue at newsstands or the Guitar World Online Store.

Brent, last year you told Guitar World that the new album would be a double, the first disc being one that you wrote and the other one written by the other guys. What led to it being a single disc?
BRENT HINDS The double album is coming. The records just aren’t going to come out at the same time because that’s the death of any band. This one’s Emperor of Sand, and then Cold Dark Place comes out on Record Store Day in June. I was just trying to play clever; that way I can get people to purchase two albums instead of one.

Speaking of albums, you guys are still big advocates of the full-length format. For a lot of artists, albums are going the way of the dodo bird.
HINDS Not with us, man. Not me. I’ve been making albums since I was 14 or 15, and I’m still making them at 43. There’s no way I could quit making albums. Even if they didn’t exist, I'd be that guy holding on and making them exist.

BILL KELLIHER We’re holding on to albums like the balding guy with the comb-over who’s clinging to his youth. [laughs] But it’s true: We’re all older guys, and we grew up listening to records and vinyl. You have these sessions where you sit down and grab your bong and put on your record. You don’t just listen to one song in the middle. You listen to side one from beginning to end, and then you flip the record over and listen to the other side. That’s what we’re all about.

Can you elaborate a bit on the concept of Emperor of Sand?
HINDS The concept means there’s only one certainty in life, and that certainty is we’re all gonna die.

KELLIHER For us, and for me certainly, each concept record comes from a personal place. When I first started writing this record, I got a phone call that my mom had a seizure. My dad passed away 20 years ago, so I always made sure I was super-close to my mom. The seizure happened right when we got back from touring. She was diagnosed with brain cancer—glioblastoma. I knew it was a death sentence, so I was thinking, How much time do we have?

HINDS These events in our lives kept unfolding. [Troy Sanders’ wife] Jez had breast cancer, Bill’s mom’s had brain cancer, and now Brann’s mom has lung cancer. These very horrific and unfortunate events unfold in your life kind of enter the music. When you sit around and discuss a concept record, it’s like you’re really having a conversation about your family.

So it all becomes a form of therapy…
KELLIHER I set up in my mom’s house to be with her, and I had my guitar. I would play and write—it was a distraction I needed. I built a studio in my home, and I got a drum set, so I started doing demos. I was just working away and trying to come up with riffs and stuff, trying to make the best record I could.

And then things started happening with Brann’s mom. He would come over and we’d have coffee, and it was like, “How’s your mom doing?” “You know, how’s your mom doing?” We would talk about life and death and what it really meant. We kind of put it all into a concept. Brann started talking about the “Emperor of Sand,” the one who controls your destiny. I was thinking of sand moving through the hourglass. My mom didn’t get to do all the things she wanted to do, so you know… You can’t waste your time. Don’t let it slip away from you.

On that note, Brendan O’Brien doesn’t waste time in the studio, does he?
KELLIHER No, he doesn’t. He works quickly and he has great ideas. We felt awesome about Crack the Skye. We loved it; it was great. We worked with some other guys—Nick Raskulinecz is so cool; he’s like a big cheerleader—but we were trilled to get with Brendan again.

HINDS We did this whole album in a month. I love that. Some guys take so long ’cause they smoke pot or they have ADHD or something.

KELLIHER Brendan turns a one-dimensional picture into a three-dimensional painting. You know what I mean? He makes the record sound like it has shading in the corners, and you can see around things. I can see these things flying by in my head. Brendan adds keyboards and Mellotrons. He gives things a soundtrack kind of feel.

Let’s get into some of the songs. Singling out riffs is kind of silly, because there’s so many great ones, but “Sultan’s Curse” is a real doozy.
KELLIHER And you know, I’ve had that riff hanging around for probably six years.

Six years? And it’s never wound up in a song until now?
KELLIHER It didn’t have any friends. It was just a lone wolf. So I had that riff, and then I had the last riff, and then I had the bridge. But it needed time to come together. The riff was fucking awesome, but I just couldn’t get the verses or the chorus. But you know, you can’t force things. Even if you have a sick riff, you need the rest. That one took time to take shape, but it turned into a great song to start the album with.

Brent, you’ve described “Show Yourself” as being “outside the box” for Mastodon. Why is that?
HINDS ’Cause it’s such a happy song. It’s simple and it gets right to the point. You don’t have to sit around waiting for something to happen. Other songs take you on more of a journey. This one…you’re kind of right there.

KELLIHER It’s more of an oasis in the middle of a dense forest of music. It’s like, “Okay, we’ve got a nice, straight-ahead rocker.” To me, that’s the cool thing about Mastodon: We don’t have to stick to anybody’s idea of what we should sound like. People try to tell us all day long, “You guys need to write another Remission!” But we play what feels fucking cool at the time.

For the complete story, plus a feature on Mastodon's pedalboards, pick up the new issue at newsstands or the Guitar World Online Store.

GOLD AWARD

If you’re a fan of the Flying V or Mastodon lead singer/guitarist Brent Hinds, chances are you already said, “Shut up and take my money!” the second that you laid eyes on this beautiful Epiphone Ltd. Ed. Brent Hinds Flying V Custom.

If that and the awesome allure of the Silverburst finish didn’t instantly get you (what’s wrong with you?), then perhaps you might be swayed by its combination of vintage Flying V and classic Les Paul Custom features.

Actually the Epiphone Brent Hinds Flying V Custom is loaded with so many cool features that there’s not just one reason to consider adding it to your arsenal, but if you’re still sitting on the fence you should also know that it has Hinds’ skull graphic logo in neon green on the back of the headstock. Game over.

FEATURES

With its glued set-in mahogany neck and mahogany body with V-shaped string-through-body tailpiece, the Epiphone Brent Hinds Flying V Custom is inspired by the timeless 1958 Flying V design. Like the first V, it also has two humbucking pickups, a pickguard covering only the lower half of the body, a master tone and individual volume controls, and 22-fret neck with a 24 3/4–inch scale.

Even the neck’s slim, rounded profile is based on that of a 1958 V. However, it also shares several features similar to a Les Paul Custom, including the ebony fingerboard with block inlays, multi-layer body and headstock binding, bound fingerboard, top hat knobs with metal inserts, and “split-diamond” headstock inlay. The most significant customized touch (besides the skull logo, of course) is the pair of Lace USA Brent Hinds Signature Hammer Claws humbuckers that give this guitar its own distinctive grind and growl.

PERFORMANCE

The Epiphone Brent Hinds Flying V Custom offers everything there is to love about a Flying V and more. Sure, it can be a little neck heavy and uncomfortable to play when sitting down, but who wants to sit when you have an awesome beast like this in your hands? The medium jumbo frets and slim neck profile provide the ultimate in playing comfort, and if you’ve ever played a V I don’t have to tell you that the entire fingerboard lies in waiting like a weak country begging for conquest. The Hammer Claws pickups are the reason this guitar is a must buy, delivering soulful midrange and solid bass thump that sounds equally awesome clean or distorted to oblivion.

LIST PRICE: $1,332
MANUFACTURER: Epiphone, epiphone.com

• The Lace USA Brent Hinds Signature Hammer Claws humbuckers deliver incredible detail and dynamics whether playing clean or with high-gain distortion.

• High-quality hardware includes the Epiphone LockTone Tune-o-matic bridge and Grover Rotomatic 18:1 tuners.

THE BOTTOM LINE: With its Silverburst finish, combination of Flying V and Les Paul Custom features, and awesome-sounding Lace USA Brent Hinds Signature Hammer Claws humbuckers, this guitar is quite possibly one of the coolest Flying Vs ever conceived.

Brent Hinds can be a hard man to track down.

If he’s not touring the world with Mastodon, jamming in the California desert with pal Jesse Hughes from Eagles of Death Metal or hewing trees into life-size totems at his Atlanta home, you might find the guitarist woodshedding with his new side project Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, a group of heavy music all-stars that also features Dillinger Escape Plan shredder Ben Weinman and Alice in Chains vocalist William Duvall.

Which is all to say the guitarist is often, and rightly so, inaccessible for phone calls.

Guitar World has been hunting Hinds to get the story on his new collaboration with Epiphone: the Ltd. Ed. Brent Hinds Flying-V Custom. After a few days of missed connections Hinds finally picks up the phone in New Jersey, where he’s been testing his new guitar during rehearsals with Giraffe Tongue Orchestra for their live debut this August at the Reading Festival in England.

“For five days in a row—from one in the afternoon to midnight—I’ve been playing the new GTO stuff, which goes from very melancholy to cascading to distorted to clean,” says Hinds. “And this guitar’s shining like a diamond!”

Hinds has long been associated with Flying Vs, and throughout his career with Mastodon he’s employed classic Gibson 1979 and ’82 models, as well as a Flying V Silverburst made for him by the Gibson Custom Shop. Though an agreement to create a Brent Hinds production series V was never reached with Gibson, the folks at Epiphone stepped up and the guitarist couldn’t be more smitten with the partnership. “I’m pretty disgruntled with the Gibson people,” Hinds admits. “But Epiphone, if I could give them all a hug or a Valentine’s card I would!”

Hinds’ Custom Shop Silverburst served as the starting point for the Epiphone design, and after a few rounds of prototypes they delivered exactly what he was after: a classic Flying V body style in mahogany with a killer Silverburst finish, “1958” rounded-profile mahogany set neck with a 24.75-inch scale length, ebony fingerboard, 22 medium jumbo frets and classic V headstock adorned with Hinds’ signature skull logo on the back. The Flying-V Custom is also equipped with his high-output Lace Brent Hinds Hammer Claws Humbuckers.

Because of his aggressive playing style, one of Hinds’ main design requirements for Epiphone was that his guitar needed to withstand myriad abuses and stay perfectly in tune. The company addressed his concerns by adding an Epiphone LockTone Tune-o-matic bridge, a traditional V tailpiece with a classic string-thru-body design, and Grover Rotomatics 18:1 ratio machine heads, which provide an incredibly accurate turning ratio.

“I emphasized to them that I’m gonna wank, spank, slobber, bleed, bend, crunch and crush all over this fucking thing and the guitar’s gonna need to be able to handle the monster behind it,” Hinds says. “But I’ve been playing the piss out of it and the guitar didn’t break a sweat on the tuning issues, going from drop A to drop B to standard 440.”

While Hinds is currently busy prepping GTO for their live shows and forthcoming as-yet-untitled full-length debut (which is scheduled for release later this year), he reveals that as we speak Mastodon are also working on a follow-up to their last album, 2014’s Once More Round the Sun.

“It’s shaping up to be a double album,” says the guitarist. “One is an album I wrote myself, and recorded with [drummer] Brann [Dailor] and [bassist/vocalist] Troy [Sanders] during the Once More Round the Sun sessions. My part is called Cold Dark Place, and it has to do with a nasty breakup that I went through. I wrote some pretty dark, beautiful, spooky, funky, ethereal, melancholy music, which also sounds like the Bee Gees a little bit. [laughs]

“The other guys are writing another album, which I haven’t even heard yet so I can’t tell you what it sounds like. But I’ll come in to give some noodle-y leads here and there. And for sure I’ll be recording with my new signature Flying V…while standing on top of a chair with a werewolf mask on. And that’s not a joke; I really do that. I never sit down to record. You can’t sit down and play a Flying V, everyone knows that.”

Epiphone has introduced its Ltd. Ed. Brent Hinds Flying-V Custom, a new signature model designed by Brent Hinds, lead singer and guitarist of Mastodon.

Hinds is renowned as one of the greatest guitarists of his generation, and now Epiphone is proud to welcome him into the House of Stathopoulo’s elite group of signature artists with his own take on his favorite guitar, the Flying V.

The Epiphone Ltd. Ed. Brent Hinds Flying-V Custom features a mahogany body with a Silverburst finish, a mahogany neck with a rounded 1958 profile and an ebony fingerboard. The Brent Hinds Flying-V Custom has the same classic body profile as the original historic Flying-V first released in the late 1950s.

Hinds’ Flying-V is powered by Lace USA Brent Hinds signature Hammer Claws Humbuckers, designed by Brent to unleash a bright attack with a smooth midrange crunch, along with balanced lows and highly responsive dynamics. On the back of the headstock is Epiphone’s "2016" Limited Edition symbol and Brent Hinds’ signature “Skull” logo.

• As with all Epiphones, the Ltd. Ed. Brent Hinds Flying-V Custom comes with Epiphone’s Limited Lifetime Warranty and world-renowned 24/7/365 Gibson Customer Service.
• “I love Flying Vs and I love my Epiphone,” Hinds said. “It’s perfect and it’s cooler than all the other guitars.”

For more information, check out the video below and visit the guitar's page on epiphone.com.

Orange Amplification has teamed up with Mastodon's Brent Hinds and Killers be Killed’s Juan Montoya in their latest video.

When Bobby’s dad decides to spoil his son with a surprise gift under the Christmas tree, he can't begin to guess where Bobby’s dreams will take him.

When Bobby unwraps his Orange Micro Dark amp, his imagination runs wild with excitement. Orange’s new video takes you on Bobby’s journey through his career. Where does his dream take him? Will he snap out of his daze or fall victim to the vices of a rock and roll lifestyle?

Featuring Hinds as the tattooist and Montoya as Satan, Orange’s video is a moment to escape the sweetness of many Christmas offerings yet still indulge that little part of us all that wants to believe in the extraordinary. This light-hearted story brings to life the power of this astonishingly small amp, showing off its huge potential and massive sound through the imagination of a child.

To find out more about the Micro Dark and its brothers, visit orangeamps.com/micro-dark.