“Losing him has meant sitting with a type of grief we never expected”: Mastodon pay tribute to Brent Hinds with short film The Mastodon In The Room

Mastodon have shared a short film, The Mastodon In The Room, in which they pay tribute to and discuss their relationship with late former guitarist and vocalist Brent Hinds, as well as unpacking their collective grief over his death in a motorcycle crash last August.

The 35-minute film compiles clips of Brent’s time in the band, which we also see Troy Sanders, Bill Kelliher, and Brann Dailor watching and reacting to in an Atlanta cinema. While it spotlights his humour and his bond with his bandmates, it also highlights how his increasingly heavy drinking was a source of tension within the camp.

Watch it below:

In a message to fans to accompany the film, the band say: “As we enter a new chapter of Mastodon we want to do this the right way and talk about Brent. We’ve all seen the clips, headlines and speculations, but we haven’t told our own story in our own words about our 25 year relationship.

“It isn’t easy to talk about Brent, he was our family, someone we all loved wholeheartedly. He was a wild man, our wild man, and that came with some challenges. Both things are true and we aren’t interested in chasing one truth over the other. Losing him has meant sitting with a type of grief we never expected. No more hugs, no more high fives, no more disagreements, no more making up. That part has been hard, it’s real.

“We put this conversation out there so you can hear it directly from us, you all deserve that.

“Thank you for the past 25 years of showing up for us and Brent.”

Mastodon released their first song since Brent’s passing, titled Your Ghost Again, last month and it directly deals with the fallout from his death.

"Your Ghost Again is about being in those familiar places you used to be with people, which for us is in the studio," Brann said upon its release. "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," Troy added. "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."

They’ll also be on tour with Deafheaven and Alcest across North America this autumn. Catch them at the following:

Mastodon's The Poisonous Weapons tour with Deafheaven and Alcest

September

16 Orlando, FL - Hard Rock
18 Asheville, NC - Asheville Yards
19 Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE
20 Louisville, KY - Louder than Life
22 Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hall
23 Boston, MA - House of Blues
24 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Paramount
25 Washington, DC - Anthem
27 Montreal, QC - MTelus
28 Toronto, ON - Rebel
29 Buffalo, NY - Buffalo Riverworks

October

1 Detroit, MI - Fillmore
2 Chicago, IL - The Riviera
3 Minneapolis, MN - Palace
6 Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex
7 Boise, ID - Revolution
9 Oakland, CA - The Fox
10 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium
11 San Diego, CA - The Sound
14 Denver, CO - Fillmore
16 Des Moines, IA - Val Air Ballroom
17 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
18 Memphis, TN - Satellite Music Hall
20 Cleveland, OH - Agora
21 Greensboro, NC - Piedmont Hall
22 Atlanta, GA - The Eastern
24 Dallas, TX - Sick New World Dallas

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