2026 will go down as the year Mastodon were reborn, rebounding from tragedy with new members and a triumphant new album, Marrow Deep. Metal Hammer has honoured the occasion by teaming up with the Atlanta metal masters for a bundle unavailable in the shops!
Only through the Louder webstore, you can get your hands on the new issue of Hammer with a cover featuring The ’Don’s revamped lineup, as well as a stylish t-shirt dedicated to the band. Pre-order yours while stocks last!
Inside the new Hammer, we talk to founding members Brann Dailor, Troy Sanders about Bill Kelliher about the journey leading up to Marrow Deep, including the death of their long-time bandmates Brent Hinds last August, five months after he parted ways with the band, and their reinvigorations.
“I was immediately shocked and saddened,” Troy says of Brent’s death in a motorcycle accident, aged 51. “But unfortunately, I wasn’t surprised. I don’t mean that in any distasteful manner, whatsoever. I’ve done everything I could as a friend and as a bandmate over the years. I don’t know what else I could’ve done, so I’m kind of forced to just let go.”
“I wasn’t surprised that it happened, but I was shocked,” adds Bill. “I just didn’t think it was going to happen like that.”
They also cast a hopeful eye towards the future.
“I feel like the next record, in another year or two, will showcase even more of Nick [Johnston, new guitarist] and me playing off each other,” Bill says. “Toward the end of Brent’s time in the band, I was writing most of the rhythms and song structures anyway, and he would come in like a finishing carpenter to add the crazy solos. It’s a similar set-up with Nick, but Nick is much more receptive and absolutely full of fresh ideas.”
Elsewhere, we talk to metalcore heroes Motionless In White as they celebrate 20 years on the scene and release their best album yet, the aptly titled Decades.
“I ground myself to the bone for this record,” frontman and sole constant member Chris Motionless says. “I was going into these toxic cycles of workaholism and just burnt myself out. It took a little bit of my passion away, because it felt like a job for the first time, so I definitely wanted to walk away and come back to it. That’s part of why it took so long.”
We also go inside Ghost’s massive new concert movie, 2 Big To Rig. Tobias Forge tells us about how they captured the epic Skeletour stage show, the unfortunate incident that nearly derailed it, and his “extracurricular” future plans.
Meanwhile, seven years on from his throat cancer diagnosis, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine revisits his journey in an exclusive interview and an extract from his new book, In My Darkest Hour.
Green Lung take us on a tour of London’s graveyards and occult hotspots, Halestorm power couple Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger tackle your questions about love, keytars and… killer farts?! And Snot explain why they’re back in the studio, almost 30 years after the tragic death of frontman Lynn Strait.
Sleep Theory’s Cullen Moore shares his soulful playlist, Mudvayne/Hellyeah veteran Chad Gray delivers the lessons he learned from hanging out with a young Slipknot and meeting James Hetfield, and Godsmack give us the inside story of their blockbuster anthem, I Stand Alone. Plus, we meet Decessus, the Chilean death metal band led by a beauty queen.
All this, along with Eddfest, Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon, Sigh, Rory, System Of A Down, Acid Bath, Duff McKagan and much, much more.
Only in the new issue of Metal Hammer, available to pre-order now with that Mastodon cover and shirt!
