It has been nearly five years since Mastodon released their eighth album Hushed And Grim. Since then, a lot has happened in the camp. 2025 saw the departure of founder Brent Hinds, tragically killed in a motorbike accident on 20 August 2025. The band had previously been part of the Back To The Beginning show at Villa Park in July 2025, with guitarist Nick Johnston and keyboardist João Nogueira subsequently announced as permanent members of the band in early 2026.
Mastodon – Marrow Deep
Release Date: 28 August 2026
Words: Paul Hutchings
An initial listen of Marrow Deep is pleasing. Spend hours with it, as I have been fortunate enough to do, and it emerges as an absolute monster.
The band’s explorative development of their progressive style is mixed with flashbacks to those earlier, harder-edged songs from their formative years, although anyone wanting a return to Mother Thruster and March Of The Fire Ants is likely to be disappointed.
The band have pulled in some high-level help, with not just Josh Homme adding vocals but several other big names contributing, and that is before we even mention a certain Geezer Butler providing bass intro on The Vanishing.
It is often the case that personal challenges and events tie in with Mastodon albums. It is nothing new for them to reflect on periods of loss, grief and rebuilding. Crack The Skye featured a tribute to drummer Brann Dailor’s sister Skye as well as being the first album he sang on. Today he is an integral part of the broader, more melodic vocal style of the band.
“It’s rare that we don’t have some sort of tragedy that helps fuel the artistic vessel that is Mastodon,” Troy Sanders says. “There’s only been one or two records that weren’t of completely serious subject matter. But for Brann and me as lyricists, it does really create something very honest and authentic and relatable because we’re not afraid to share things that everyone else goes through as well.”
A new era for Mastodon, but still the distinctive sound that sets them apart from their peers. There are moments of reflection and poignancy.
Your Ghost Again, the lead single from the album, stands as a tribute not only to Hinds, but also to Dailor’s mother, Michele Lawrence, who also passed in 2025.
This reflection is continued in Snakes For Dinner, with the lyrics ‘When you left, you took the moon and stars. When you left, you took our hearts and minds’ deeply personal but also applicable to anyone who has experienced loss. It is here that Homme adds his part.
It is a classic Mastodon track that opens things up, though. Deep, layered keys nestle amongst big riffs of Bill Kelliher and Johnston on Barbarians Blood, with extra percussion from Converge drummer Ben Koller, whilst the first genuine progressive moments follow on the infectious and perfectly crafted Poisonous Weapons.
A gloriously chaotic movement that has shades of The Hunter’s tonality, Sanders and Dailor’s vocal interplay work well. The intricate work on Your Ghost Again is highlighted by Dailor’s usual high-intensity drumming, which drives the band forward at pace. Sanders’ anguished roars contrast with Dailor’s cleans. It is an emotional piece. The introduction of Nogueira’s keys brings a real Opeth flavour to parts of the album, and for me, that is no bad thing at all.
“When we were in the studio recording, I kept seeing Brent,” Dailor explains. “I’d see him on my right holding the guitar because that’s where he’d usually be. It’s the same with my mom. I keep seeing her.
“And you get a little jolt of excitement because you think you’re actually seeing them, but then you remember they’re not here and it takes you down a notch. So, it’s these big relationships for me that became the subject matter of the song. I was just singing about what I was seeing, and I was seeing ghosts.”
Unlike the sprawling Hushed And Grim, an album that I admit took many plays to get to grips with, the punchy five-minutes of tracks such as Out Like A Lamb and the more balanced and measured recent single In the Ruins (well worth checking out the animation on this one) hit home quickly, albeit they grow exponentially with repeated plays.
Whether the purists of the Remission and Blood Mountain era will be enthralled by the liberal keys that genuinely add a full and thick layer is debatable, but this is a band who are in full flight and whose musical genius is incredible. Out Like A Lamb rolls into a magnificent keys vs guitar duel, which is a delight.
Travel through this enthralling release, and you will arrive at A Vampire’s Demeanour, which has the bonus of gang vocals from Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe and Converge bassist Nate Newton.
One of the more reckless and wild tracks, it does cast you back to the likes of Blood Mountain and Leviathan in its raw power, albeit there are passages of gentle progressive play that add a counterweight to the overall savagery of the track.
It leads neatly into the thunderous bass intro by Butler on The Vanishing. Awesome work from any angle and a perfect lead into the second-longest track on Marrow Deep. It is a bluesy, sludgy ride which flirts with the Sabs’ Planet Caravan. The psychedelic feel and harmonies, featuring Gojira’s Joe Duplantier on roars, transport you to another place.
It is The Three Fates that concludes Marrow Deep. The longest song on the album, Clutch’s Neil Fallon lends some spoken word to the most progressive and expansive track, whose theme runs throughout the album, the three Fates in Greek mythology, who were believed to determine our destiny.
As Dailor explains, this is an album where two people were determined to outsmart the Fates. “My mom was pretty sick for most of her life, but she kept dodging bullets left and right over and over again. And Brent cheated death more times than I can remember.”
With the Fates encompassed into the album artwork created by longtime Mastodon collaborator Paul Romano, this is the entire package.
It has an instant appeal, but living with it, even just for a few days, has affirmed its place in my top five of 2026.
Mastodon release Marrow Deep on 28 August 2026 via Loma Vista Recordings. Pre-orders are available from i.mastodonrocks.com/marrowdeep.
