The Atlanta behemoths return with a tribute to Brent Hinds. "I kept seeing him out of the corner of my eye in the studio..."
Mastodon have surprise-released a new song, Your Ghost Again, the first track from their forthcoming, as-yet-untitled new album.
It's the first music to be released since the death of guitarist Brent Hinds last August. In a video on Instagram accompanying the announcement, the band said the song was a tribute to their friend, and is in part an expression of gratitude for what he brought to their lives.
"Your Ghost Again is about being in those familiar places you used to be with people, which for us is in the studio," says drummer Brann Dailor. "I just kept seeing [Brent] out of the corner of my eye, where he would normally be with his guitar. It's about that: your mind plays tricks on you, especially so soon after someone dies and you're in the places where they always were. You just see them."
"My portion of the song, lyrically, is all about Brent, and for Brent," adds bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders. "The bridge lyrics are two lines of pure gratitude towards Brent. It's all the gifts from you, now you can take them back where you must go, meaning you came into my life, you exposed me to things that blew my mind, together we conquered thousands of stages around the world, had magical moments that we can never repeat again, but all the beauty that you brought it still remains, always will, and it's just a line of gratitude because that's important that we include Brent."
Guitarist/vocalist Bill Kelliher says that, "We wanted to pick a song that sounds like Mastodon, and that has all the things in there, because it's the first impression of what people are gonna hear. It speaks about things that have just happened and people passing, I could go deep but I don't want to because a lot of that shit's personal."
On the album – which features credits to new guitarist Nick Johnston and keyboardist João Nogueira – Brann says he hopes it's part of the grieving and healing process for fans as much as it has been for the band.
"Hopefully this album helps everybody. Hopefully they can find some piece of it that speaks to them about it. I know Brent's not there and it's weird and it's hard, and some people might be like, 'Well I don't wanna listen to it because Brent's not there and I'm hurting about that', but we are too. Big time.
"It means a lot to me, and I hope that's able to translate to our fans and people who are grieving, too. I understand that, because we never really addressed it. We just couldn't. And to the fans I'm just sorry that I wasn't able to be more for them when that happened, because I couldn't. For myself, I'm still unpacking it."
Mastodon play Download festival June 12 - 14.
