MASTODON's BRANN DAILOR Explains 'Marrow Deep' Album Title

In a new interview with iHeartRadio Canada's JD Lewis, MASTODON drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor was asked about the title of the band's latest album, "Marrow Deep", which was released 12 months after the death of former MASTODON guitarist Brent Hinds, who left the band acrimoniously at the start of 2025, as well as the death of Dailor's mother. Brann said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The marrow deep, it's as deep as you can get into a relationship. So, first and foremost my mother, but then a brother of 25 years. And when you kind of go deep into writing deeply emotional music with other people and you sort of bare your soul with them and have that primitive, ritualistic... You kind of tap into the children that still kind of live inside you. That's, I feel, as deep as you can get into a relationship."

Brann continued: "A lot of people are friends with, and they have friends, they have really close friends, and you're super-close friends, but there's something about creating art with another person that, for me, elevates a friendship past the normal hanging-out-and-helping-me-move friendship levels we got there. And for me, life is about the relationships that you've have and the relationships that you make. And so I was very lucky to experience some very, very deep personal relationships that gave me so much joy and satisfaction in my life. I was also very lucky to have a profound relationship with my mom. I know that not everyone has that, which is sad, but I was able to, so I'm very fortunate. And both those relationships are the deepest, marrow deep, and so that was what I felt should be the name of the record."

"Marrow Deep" arrived on August 28 via Loma Vista Recordings. The LP marks MASTODON's first full-length effort without 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.

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" was a song called "Snakes For Dinner", which features QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE's Josh Homme, who previously joined MASTODON on the band's classic 2006 song "Colony Of Birchmen".

Dailor, MASTODON singer/bassist Troy Sanders and guitarist Bill Kelliher 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.

During an August 6 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", Brann confirmed that the deaths of Hinds and Dailor's mother, Michele Lawrence, in February 2025 are the thematic core of "Marrow Deep". Brann said: "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."