The most shocking metal news to emerge last week was the departure of vocalist/guitarist Brent Hinds from progressive sludge metal titans Mastodon. This past Friday, March 07th, saw the Atlanta, GA outfit reveal that they had parted ways with Hinds after a 25 year run together.
While various commentary provided by fans since has seemingly painted a picture of Hinds privately expressing his unhappiness in being in the band, in recent years the aforementioned announcement certainly blindsided much of the metal community.
Hinds himself has yet to publicly comment on the circumstances that led to him no longer being in the group, but a post reshared on his Instagram stories earlier today (March 09th) seems to at least passive aggressively indicate it may not have been on amicable terms:
Regardless, the show must go on and Mastodon have since returned to the stage, closing out today’s final date of the first-ever ‘Tool Live In The Sand‘ destination festival in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Early rumors had musician/YouTuber Ben Eller of Stuff Mastodon Does fame, etc. getting the call to fill-in.
Whether temporary or not, it would appear the rumors were right. Eller seemed to be spotted onstage during soundcheck, and according to numerous fans of his and the band’s, has since taken to performing with the group tonight in place of Hinds.
The setlist for the show ran as follows:
“Pain With An Anchor”
“Crystal Skull”
“Black Tongue”
“I Am Ahab”
“Megalodon”
“Ember City” (first time since 2019)
“Tread Lightly” (first time since 2016)
“Ghost Of Karelia” (first time since 2019)
“The Motherload”
“The Crux”
“Pushing The Tides”
“More Than I Could Chew”
“All The Heavy Lifting” (first time since 2015)
“Spectrelight”
“Mother Puncher”
“Steambreather”
“Blood And Thunder”
