Mastodon 'Your Ghost Again': Brent Hinds Tribute and New Album Clues
Mastodon have released "Your Ghost Again," and the timing makes it impossible to hear as just another new single. This is the band's first major new song in the shadow of Brent Hinds' death, and Mastodon are not trying to sand that down into a clean promotional cycle.
The track is out now through Loma Vista Recordings and is being positioned as the first look at Mastodon's next studio album. For a band that has spent the last two decades turning grief, mythology, family damage, and private collapse into enormous progressive sludge metal, that matters. "Your Ghost Again" is not a press-release mood. It is Mastodon walking into the studio after losing a founding member and deciding to write from the bruise instead of around it.
Mastodon Turn the Studio Into the Subject
The core idea behind "Your Ghost Again" comes from drummer and vocalist Brann Dailor seeing absent people in familiar spaces. In the studio, that meant Hinds where he used to stand with a guitar. Dailor has also connected the song to the loss of his mother, which gives the single a wider grief than a one-person tribute.
That detail is why the song works as a Mastodon statement. The band are not just saying Brent Hinds mattered. They are writing about the physical habits that stay behind after someone is gone: where they stood, what they played, what your brain expects to see before reality catches up. For longtime Mastodon fans, that is sharper than a broad dedication.
Musically, "Your Ghost Again" sits close to the band's center of gravity. Troy Sanders and Dailor trade vocals over Bill Kelliher's guitar work, with new guitarist Nick Johnston and keyboardist Joao Nogueira credited in the song's construction. The track moves between heavy forward drive and the psychedelic unease that has always separated Mastodon from standard modern metal. It does not sound like the band trying to erase Hinds. It sounds like them figuring out how to keep moving while the empty space is still audible.
The Next Mastodon Album Is Coming Into Focus
"Your Ghost Again" also gives the next Mastodon album cycle its first real shape. The song was produced by Patrik Berger and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, with Andrew Scheps handling the mix. Ballou's name is the one metal fans will clock immediately. His work with Converge has always favored impact over polish, and that makes sense for a Mastodon song that needs to carry grief without turning glossy.
Mastodon have reportedly been working toward their ninth studio album, and this single makes the stakes plain. The follow-up to Hushed and Grim was never going to arrive as routine business. Hinds' exit from the band was already a major rupture. His death made the next chapter heavier before anyone heard a note.
That is the hard part of this release: Mastodon need to honor the past without becoming a museum for it. "Your Ghost Again" starts from the correct place because it does not pretend loss is tidy. It lets Dailor and Sanders sing through it, lets the arrangement stay restless, and lets the visualizer lean into the spectral artwork without cheapening the subject.
Listen Now and Watch the Tour Board
Fans can hear the single through Mastodon's official "Your Ghost Again" song page, including major streaming services and YouTube. For collectors or anyone who wants to support the release directly, check the Mastodon "Your Ghost Again" Amazon search as physical or digital listings roll out.
The timing also lands while Mastodon remain active on the road. They are already part of major 2026 festival traffic, including Louder Than Life 2026, and reports around the new single point toward a North American run with Deafheaven and Alcest. Until the full routing is locked in through official ticketing channels, the song itself is the real news.
Mastodon have survived reinvention before, but this one is different. "Your Ghost Again" is the sound of a band acknowledging that the old chemistry cannot be recreated by pretending nothing happened. The better move is what they do here: name the absence, write through it, and let the next record carry the damage honestly.
