Mastodon has released “Your Ghost Again,” the first single from the band’s upcoming ninth studio album, due later this year. The track was produced by Patrik Berger (Taylor Swift, Robyn) and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou. It is the first piece of new Mastodon music to be released since the death of co-founding guitarist and vocalist Brent Hinds.
In a video accompanying the single’s announcement, the band described “Your Ghost Again” as a tribute to Hinds. Drummer and vocalist Brann Dailor said, “‘Your Ghost Again’ is about when you lose somebody that’s close to you that you’ve existed with for most of your life. When we were in the studio recording, I kept seeing Brent. 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. I was just singing about what I was seeing, and I was seeing ghosts.”
Dailor elaborated: “It’s about being in those familiar places you used to be with people, which for us is in the studio. 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 and vocalist Troy Sanders added, “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.”
Guitarist and vocalist Bill Kelliher commented, “We wanted to pick a song that sounds like Mastodon, 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.”
The upcoming album will also feature keyboardist João Nogueira, alongside touring guitarist Nick Johnston, who reportedly appears on the LP. Dailor said, “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, and I hope that’s able to translate to our fans and people who are grieving, too.”
Hinds had departed Mastodon in March 2025 after the band announced they had “mutually decided to part ways” after 25 years together. He was killed on Aug. 20, 2025, when he was struck by an SUV that turned left and failed to yield at the intersection of Memorial Drive SE and Boulevard SE in Atlanta, approximately two miles from downtown. He was found unresponsive by officers who responded to the crash around 11:35 p.m. and was pronounced dead by medical workers.
According to a crash report, investigators determined that Hinds was at fault for the accident: relying on video of the intersection, they calculated he was traveling between 63 and 68 mph — roughly twice the speed limit at the site.
Hinds had played his first show since exiting Mastodon on March 21, 2025, with his band Fiend Without a Face at 529 in Atlanta. He had also been active with Giraffe Tongue Orchestra — alongside members of The Dillinger Escape Plan and Alice in Chains — and Legend of the Seagullmen, and had an “An Evening With Brent Hinds” European tour planned for November and December 2025. “I’m a free spirit,” Hinds said in the Mastodon documentary The Workhorse Chronicles. “I enjoy life, and I live it to the fullest.”
