MASTODON On Personal Tragedies Which Inspired Lyrics On 'Marrow Deep': It 'Made Sense' To 'Turn These Dark Things' Into Something Bright And Beautiful'

During an August 6 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", MASTODON singer/bassist Troy Sanders, drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher spoke about the band's long-awaited new album, "Marrow Deep", which will arrive on August 28 via Loma Vista Recordings. The LP marks MASTODON's first full-length effort without founding guitarist/singer Brent Hinds, who was fired from the band in March 2025 and died five months later in a motorcycle accident. "Marrow Deep" was co-produced by MASTODON at the band's own West End Sound in Atlanta with Patrik Berger (Lana Del Rey, Charli XCX) and Kurt Ballou (HIGH ON FIRE, CONVERGE) and was mixed by Andrew Scheps (Adele, BLACK SABBATH, METALLICA). "Marrow Deep" is also notably the group's first full-length to feature new guitarist Nick Johnston alongside significant contributions from keyboardist João Nogueira.

Referencing the fact that the deaths of Hinds and Dailor's mother, Michele Lawrence, in February 2025 are the thematic core of "Marrow Deep", Brann said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Obviously we didn't want the album to be about what it's about, and we would take all the songs and all the lyrics back if we could have our people back, but that's not the situation.

"We started really writing for this record maybe a couple of years ago, and then we interrupted that writing to go on the 'Leviathan' [20th-]anniversary tour [of MASTODON's sophomore album] with LAMB OF GOD around the States," he explained. "And around the end of that tour, we decided, 'Okay, we're gonna hunker down and really start writing.' And that's where we experienced some turmoil with our brother Brent, and I, unfortunately, lost my mother. And we were kind of working away on stuff, and it was tough. Then we went to Europe for a summer tour. We were diligently working on the material, getting it ready to go into the studio in September [of 2025], and unfortunately, another tragedy — we lost Brent at the end of August. But we still had to go into the studio in about a week after losing Brent and kind of thought that maybe it was not the best idea. We weren't sure, but it ended up being exactly what we needed to kind of go in there and lean on each other and just dig in on these songs and put every little bit of all of these couple of tragedies that, unfortunately, visited us into the music, into the lyrics, into everything about it, and to just power through and, like I said, lean on each other to get through and come out the other side with this album that we're all very proud of but is very emotional for us."

Asked about the experience of writing two albums in a row about the loss of people who were close to them — MASTODON's 2021 LP "Hushed And Grim" was released three years after the death of the band's longtime manager and friend Nick John, who passed away in September 2018 from pancreatic cancer — Troy said: "One thing that we did early in our career when we wrote 'Crack The Skye' is — both Brann and myself, who are now the co-lyricists of the band, and we collaborate to write lyrics — since 'Crack The Skye', it's been therapeutic and very helpful when we can channel all the things happening in our real life to the lyrics. We try to draw stories around them. But to channel this authentic sadness of the real-life situations that we're going through, it makes sense to us. It's helpful to us. And on the flip side, it's very relatable to anyone that cares to listen, because we're just human. We're not bigger or better than anyone else. And when we turn these dark, tragic things lyrically into something that we hope to be bright and beautiful that lives forever, that's an achievement that we're shooting for. So we've been not shying away from doing that, from a lyrical standpoint. And for this record especially, 'Marrow Deep', I didn't know where my head and brain and heart were, and I don't know about Brann — I think he was in a similar situation; we were just kind of lost in this — but it was very, very, very helpful for me to process all this information, putting my heart to my pen, pen to paper, and then that paper through the microphone when we're demoing vocals and actually tracking the record. So, yes, it was dark. It was shrouded with sadness. But now that it's been months since we finished the record and it's about to come out, I listen to it with a lot of pride, feeling that it was very successful personally and with my bandmates. So, yeah, it's bizarre that we do this quite often, but I find it to be pretty powerful and very, very, very helpful."

As for how his musical contributions helped bring Brann's and Troy's lyrical themes to life, Bill said: "Well, honestly, I am the riff guy. I constantly am just writing, writing, writing. And when I'm writing, typically I'm not really thinking about, 'Oh, this...' I mean, except for there were a few songs on there when Brann's mom passed away that I was thinking of kind of honoring her with some of the riffs that I was writing — not lyrical content, 'cause I don't do that; I'm riff, riff, riff. But I'm always thinking it's gotta be dark, it's gotta be sad, non-happy, just because I know something bad's gonna happen, and it's not gonna fit with the lyrical content, unfortunately. So I'm always going for that dark, spooky kind of riffage.

"It would be a disservice to our fallen family members, friends, to Brent, to Michele, if we didn't make the album a tribute to them," Bill explained. "It's cathartic in a way. I lost my mom during 'Emperor Of Sand', and that was... When I write riffs, for instance, like 'Roots Remain', I put my heart and soul into the choice notes that I pick and I play, because every time I play those riffs and those songs, it brings me to think of her. And it's the same with every album. Each album and song is a moment in time, a snapshot of where we are. And I just try to facilitate that in my songwriting, as far as the riffs and the rhythms and the overall feel of everything, and then peppered in with when Brann and I and Troy, on the last few records, really dial it in. It becomes this, in my mind, a masterpiece, and this record is no different. We have to talk about what's happening in our lives. You gotta get off your chest and honor these tragedies. And with Nick John, there's no way we could have made a record and not mentioned him. That's all we were thinking about. I mean, he was one of my closest friends in the world. I feel like every record — we're getting older, and it's, like, man, we're turning into this kind of grief-stricken band, but at the same time, on the good side of it, the upside, it's what our fans kind of expect. 'Cause I read a lot of the responses, the message boards, when people are, like, 'Man, now I feel what you meant when you guys sang this in 'Crack The Skye'' or the riff in this song, and it really brings tears to my eyes. I'm, like, 'Jesus, man, you understand. You got it.' And it's therapeutic. It's like medicine. So this album, I'm so proud of it, all the work that we put into it and the years of writing. 'Cause when I first put it all together, I'm, like, man, 'Is this any good? It all sounds like one big homogenous blob right now.' But then I bring it to the other guys, and we all chip away at it, and all the lyrics and everything are on there, and then the subject matter, all of a sudden, it was like a right-hand turn. It was just, like, 'Whoa, man.' We just lost Michele, and now we've lost Brent... Brent had just left the band, and it was just, like, all these crazy things going on."

Asked if any of Hinds's musical ideas that were written prior to his exit from MASTODON made it on to "Marrow Deep", Brann said: "Unfortunately not. Really, for the last few records, we would try to get him to come down and contribute, but he was just kind of off doing his thing. He was riding his motorcycle around. But we would always keep writing, and we would text him or I'd call him and say, 'Hey, we're gonna be down there at the space. We're gonna be writing. So, just letting you know. And if you wanna get down there with us and get your hands dirty, you're more than welcome. We want you to be more involved.' But he had a lot going on in his life as well, and he was going through some things personally that were tough, and so we understood that, and we were just giving him as much grace as we could and just always leaving the door open. But also, we are three creative people that the faucet just doesn't turn off, and so we just wanted to be, like, 'Hey, man, we're gonna keep on writing, and we're very excited for you to get in on this stuff,' and always left that door open. But, unfortunately, for the last bunch of months of touring and while we were working on the skeletons of the songs that became 'Marrow Deep', he just was kind of nowhere to be found within those writing sessions. And as a result, we don't have any material from him that is on the new record. So it's solely the three of us kind of creating everything from the ground up, and then getting the new members involved towards the end to sort of, quote-unquote, 'punch up' the songs that existed and really get them to be as good as they possibly could be with some fresh and new energy with João and Nick Johnston on guitar."

MASTODON will celebrate the "Marrow Deep" release with the upcoming "The Poisonous Weapons Tour", a nationwide run of dates with support from DEAFHEAVEN and ALCEST. Kicking off September 16 in Orlando, the trio of bands will cut their way across the full country before closing out October 24 at Sick New World Dallas.

The second single from "Marrow Deep", a song called "Snakes For Dinner", features QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE's Josh Homme, who previously joined MASTODON on the band's classic 2006 song "Colony Of Birchmen".

Sanders, Kelliher and Dailor remembered Hinds in a recently released documentary titled "The Mastodon In The Room". In the emotional feature, the three musicians addressed Brent's passing directly, saying they wanted fans to hear their story after seeing the speculation and headlines surrounding his death.

Photo: William Lacalmontie