Brann Dailor has explained why MASTODON decided to address Brent Hinds's death directly in "The Mastodon In The Room", and admitted he came close to arguing against it.
"Of course, I had huge question marks about putting out this documentary," the drummer said. "I was, like, 'That's pretty personal.' And Brent's not here to defend himself. And so I didn't like that part of it either, and I talked about that with everybody. I was just, like, sort of on the fence about it."
What tipped him was the alternative. Hinds was fired in March 2025 and attacked the band publicly in the months that followed; he died in a motorcycle accident five months after the split. "We left our fans with all these questions because Brent obviously attacked us in the press. And I knew that that was coming, and I address that in the video as well. And I knew that he didn't mean that."
"But we couldn't come out and be, like, 'Oh, R.I.P., Brent. We love you. And here's our new record,' and that's it. I felt like we had to address it and just be honest, and that's all we were," he continued. "We didn't really spill any tea about him. I don't think we threw him under the bus at all. And we didn't even touch the tip of the iceberg with that whole very complex relationship."
Dailor pushed back hard on the idea that the firing was casual. "If we say nothing, the fans are just left with, like, 'Oh, I guess they're just three shit human beings in a terrible band.' I just think it's ridiculous thinking that myself, Troy and Bill just woke up one day and said, 'Hey, let's fire Brent. Let's get rid of one of the greatest guitar players ever, and let's just be dicks and do that. What do you guys say?' 'Yeah, high five, let's go do that.' It's ridiculous."
He was not angry at Hinds, he said, and had assumed the rift would eventually close. "I really honestly thought that — I don't know if it would be a year, I don't know if it would be two years or whatever happened, but that we would eventually squash it. And I don't know if we would've jammed again, but we probably would've, I would imagine. But it just sucks that we won't have that opportunity."
The timing made it worse. Dailor's mother died in February 2025, weeks before the split. "It was one of the hardest parts of my life, going through that — before he died even. Because my mom had just died, and it sucked. And then that happened. I hated it. I really fucking hated it, but I was doing my best."
Both losses are the thematic core of "Marrow Deep", the band's first album without Hinds and the first to feature guitarist Nick Johnston, with substantial contributions from keyboardist João Nogueira.