The announcement on March 7 that Brent Hinds would leave Mastodon shocked fans of the progressive-metal outfit.
But what happened next may have been even more shocking. In a flash, the band recruited YouTuber Ben Eller to take his place at the group's March 9 gig at the Tool in the Sand Festival, held at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Speaking to fans during their set, bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders said he had asked Eller, “Can you learn 17 Mastodon songs immediately?”
Apparently the answer was yes. Eller acquitted himself in a baptism by fire, despite having been sworn into his role at the last minute.
It's the latest chapter in Mastodon's long and winding road.
The Grammy-winning progressive-metal outfit was formed in Atlanta, Georgia, by Hinds and fellow guitarist Bill Kelliher in 2000, alongside Sanders and drummer Brann Dailor. Original vocalist Eric Saner left the band less than a year into Mastodon’s existence, and their lineup had remained unchanged until Hinds’s departure.
Hinds' departure was announced on the band's social channels on March 7. “Friends and fans, after 25 monumental years together, Mastodon and Brent Hinds have mutually decided to part ways,” read the band's official statement.
“We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared, and we wish him nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavors. We are still very inspired and excited to show up for fans in this next chapter of Mastodon.”
Hinds was notably absent from the band’s March 6 appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House in Brooklyn, New York. The band members were special guests at a talk alongside opera composer Jake Heggie to discuss Moby-Dick as a source of inspiration. Melville’s book was the source for Mastodon’s 2004 release, Leviathan, and Heggie’s opera Moby-Dick, which premiered in 2010.
No reason for Hinds’s exit was given.
Eller, whose educational guitar content has earned him more than 500,000 YouTube subscribers, has regularly spotlighted the facets that make Mastodon’s guitar parts stand out on his channel. In a six-month-old video exploring the Leviathan album, he said it had “instantly become one of my favorite records of all time”.
Navigating the “unusual tunings,” “fucked-up chord shapes” and “ugly and haunting-sounding” sections that make up the record, Eller showcases an in-depth knowledge of the band's inner workings. Just as importantly, he delivers a close-to-the-bone tone, thanks in part to his Dunable Cyclops guitar.
With the band seemingly needing a guitarist that was available upon short notice and had a deep-rooted understanding of and love for the band, they arguably couldn’t have done better than Eller. Judging by the footage that has aired online of the show, it's obvious the guitarist knows his way around the material.
It remains to be seen how long Eller's involvement in the band will last, but it's clear Mastodon has no intention of playing with Kelliher as their sole guitarist. Primus and the Smashing Pumpkins have recently held very public open auditions to replace members, so a similar tack may be employed here.
Mastodon have tour dates with Periphery and Coheed & Cambria in May and are set to feature at Black Sabbath’s Tom Morello curated farewell show, before performing shows alongside Slayer, Amon Amarth and Anthrax in August.
Speaking to Guitar Player last year, Bill Kelliher discussed how Hinds' “stupid, drunken kind of fight” with System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian and musician William Hudson at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards left him in a coma. The band, Kelliher said, “was never the same."
He added that, during Hinds' recuperation, “Troy and I kept writing" the group's next album, Crack the Skye.
"We were not sure what was going to happen, so we wanted to keep busy. We put together five or six songs, which were our vision of what Crack the Skye would be, though the songs we had were kind of in a different direction.”
Hinds recovered and returned home, ignoring the doctor's orders for rest by bringing a wealth of “crazy riffs” on an acoustic guitar, though he remained a bit-part character as the rest of the band and producer Brendan O’Brien (Bruce Springsteen, the Black Crowes) whipped the songs into shape.
The result was the coming-of-age album. Kelliher said Crack the Skye was “exactly what we wanted to create: an album that stands the test of time, and when you put it on, it time-warps you back to that moment.”
The band reunited with O’Brien for 2021’s double album, Hushed and Grim, and are busy working on its follow-up.
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