Mastodon have just released “Your Ghost Again,” their first new song without Brent Hinds, who tragically died in a motorcycle accident a little over five months after the band parted ways with him last year.
Throughout it’s four-and-a-half-minute runtime, the song engages all of Mastodon’s hallmarks, seesawing between angsty moments and swirling psychedelia with Brann Dailor‘s forceful drumming maintaining a constant edge to the music.
“Your Ghost Again is about being in those familiar places you used to be with people, which for us is in the studio,” Dailor comments. “I just kept seeing [Brent] out of the corner of my eye, where he would normally be with his guitar. It’s about that: your mind plays tricks on you, especially so soon after someone dies and you’re in the places where they always were. You just see them.”
Bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders adds, “My portion of the song, lyrically, is all about Brent, and for Brent. The bridge lyrics are two lines of pure gratitude towards Brent. It’s all the gifts from you, now you can take them back where you must go, meaning you came into my life, you exposed me to things that blew my mind, together we conquered thousands of stages around the world, had magical moments that we can never repeat again, but all the beauty that you brought it still remains, always will and it’s just a line of gratitude because that’s important that we include Brent.”
mastodon your ghost again art
“We wanted to pick a song that sounds like Mastodon,” guitarist/vocalist Bill Kelliher shares, “and that has all the things in there, because it’s the first impression of what people are gonna hear. It speaks about things that have just happened and people passing, I could go deep but I don’t want to because a lot of that shit’s personal.”
READ MORE: Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher Clarifies Nick Johnston’s Role in Next Album
Dailor continues, “Hopefully this album helps everybody. Hopefully they can find some piece of it that speaks to them about it. I know Brent’s not there and it’s weird and it’s hard, and some people might be like, ‘Well I don’t wanna listen to it because Brent’s not there and I’m hurting about that’, but we are too. Big time.”
“It means a lot to me,” the drummer/vocalist goes on, “and I hope that’s able to translate to our fans and people who are grieving, too. I understand that, because we never really addressed it. We just couldn’t. And to the fans I’m just sorry that I wasn’t able to be more for them when that happened, because I couldn’t. For myself, I’m still unpacking it.”
The writing credits to “Your Ghost Again” indicate this was a full band effort, including live members Nick Johnston (guitar) and João Nogueira (keyboards). All five musicians are credited as a composer and lyricist.
Listen to the new Mastodon song directly below.
Mastodon, “Your Ghost Again”
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Gallery Credit: Loudwire Staff