Four years after Grammy-winning album Emperor Of Sand, Mastodon released Hushed And Grim – the first double-length work of their career. Unknown to them, it would also be their last record with Brent Hinds, who was fired in 2025 and died in a motorcycle accident weeks later. In 2021 guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer-singer Brann Dailor told Prog about the sad event that inspired their eighth studio album.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Mastodon have had the perfect rock’n’roll journey. By the time the Atlanta quartet released their debut album, 2002’s Remission, the underground music scene was already aflame with anticipation. Their prog-inspired twist on the sludge of High On Fire and Neurosis enthralled live audiences from the word go; it earned them a deal with Relapse Records, one-time home to avant-garde superstars Baroness, Amorphis and The Dillinger Escape Plan.
