The estate of late MASTODON guitarist Brent Hinds has filed suit against the band's three surviving members, claiming that Hinds was never bought out of his share of MASTODON and its related businesses before his death. The civil complaint was lodged in Fulton County Court in Atlanta on September 3 and first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to the filing, MASTODON sent Hinds a document summarizing the terms of his separation from the band, then wrote his estate a check for $80,000 as a buyout of his portion of it. Hinds never signed that agreement, and the estate says it has held off on cashing the check until a full accounting establishes what it is actually owed for his stake in the MASTODON companies.
The second strand of the complaint concerns likeness. Hinds played nothing on "Marrow Deep", the album MASTODON released this year, but its cover — built around the Three Fates, who spin and cut the thread of human life — hides his face beneath Atropos, the Fate who does the cutting, alongside that of Michele Jeanne Lawrence, drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor's mother, who also died in 2025. "Defendants selected and placed a recognizable image of Brent on the album cover of 'Marrow Deep' and disseminated that cover to advertise, market, distribute, and sell physical albums, digital downloads and streams, merchandise, and related goods or services," the estate writes.
The filing also takes aim at the documentary "The Mastodon In The Room", the 35-minute film we covered earlier this week, in which Dailor, bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders and guitarist Bill Kelliher addressed Hinds's death directly because they wanted fans to hear their account rather than the speculation around it. The estate accuses the three of disclosing "details about [Hinds's] private life that they learned in confidence — details he chose to keep private while he was alive," including the implication that a struggle with substance abuse led to his exit.
MASTODON responded on social media on Friday, September 11: "Sadly, a private business dispute with the estate of our dear departed friend Brent Hinds was made public. We strongly deny allegations of ill intent on our part and intend to vigorously defend what we believe is a meritless lawsuit. We don't intend to speak publicly on this going forward, as we feel this wouldn't honor Brent's memory or the legacy of his musical gifts."
The band announced in March 2025 that it and Hinds had "mutually decided to part ways" after "25 monumental years together". Hinds later said he had been thrown out and called his former bandmates "horrible humans". He had been in the lineup since 2000 and played on eight studio albums, from 2002's "Remission" through 2021's "Hushed And Grim".
Hinds died on August 20, 2025, when the motorcycle he was riding was struck by an SUV turning left at a junction less than two miles from downtown Atlanta. A police crash report concluded he was at fault, putting his speed at between 63 and 68 mph — roughly twice the limit at that intersection.