THE DROP
Mastodon dropped *Marrow Deep*, their ninth album and first without founding guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, on Aug. 28, 2026 *†. Hinds left the band in early 2025 and died in a motorcycle crash that August — the record was made in that shadow, and Brann Dailor says the title means "as deep as you can get into a relationship" †.
WHAT TO KNOW
- First full-length since 2021's double album *Hushed and Grim*; runs about 65 minutes *.
- Written by the core trio — Troy Sanders, Dailor, Bill Kelliher — with new guitarist Nick Johnston and keyboardist Joao Nogueira *†.
- Guests: Josh Homme on "Snakes for Dinner," Geezer Butler on the intro to "The Vanishing," Nate Newton and Randy Blythe on "A Vampire's Demeanor," Neil Fallon on closer "The Three Fates" *.
- Prog metal and sludge mixed with psych, stoner and mellower prog-rock, plus expanded keys and synths *.
- "Your Ghost Again" is a tribute to Hinds; "Ruins" came out of Hurricane Helene *.
THE TAKE
That guest list isn't tourism — Butler, Homme and Fallon are all players who fit Mastodon's psych-and-sludge lane rather than crowding it, and Angry Metal Guy says Johnston "fills the Hinds void admirably, without simply replicating his admired predecessor" *. The one real warning flag is production: the same review calls the mastering compressed and overly clean, which is a rough thing to hear about a band whose heaviness has always lived in the low-mid grit *.