Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Blabbermouth, Mastodon drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor offered an update on the band’s new album. According to him, the effort is “finished.” A 2026 release is expected.

Dailor said the following:

“We’re very excited about it. It was a hard record to make. It was a very emotional time for us. I lost my mom, we went through all this turmoil with Brent [Hinds], and then he passed away. It’s been tough. It’s all in the music, it’s all in the songs, and I’m excited to release it and get it out there into the world because we’ve been sitting on it for a while. A lot of this stuff, at least the skeletons of what this album is, we’ve been sitting on for two years now. A lot was going on.”

He also confirmed that Brent Hinds will not appear on any of the new material:

“No. It’s all new stuff. Toward the end, unfortunately, it was hard to get him to come down to the [practice] space. He was interested in doing other stuff, which was fine. It was a confusing time. [Laughs] I was the one going, ‘Come on, man. Come down. Let’s riff.’ He was a free spirit. He wanted to ride his motorcycle around and go do this and that.

He was wherever the wind took him. Unfortunately, it was not down to the practice space to work on riffs. It was a little bit frustrating. I was okay with it. I was like, ‘Hey man, everyone can do whatever they want to do in their life. If you’re unhappy and not wanting to be here doing whatever, figure out what does make you happy and do that.’”