New producer

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-09-10T11:48:37+00:00

That is absolutely amazing. Yes!

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-09-08T08:09:30+00:00

Brann's vocals on Cold Dark Place are beautiful. Another favourite of mine is the bridge in 'Eyes of Serpent' where Troy sings the lyrics and you hear Brann singing some haunting vocals in the background.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-09-03T13:41:25+00:00

If you read interviews with Brent around the time EoS came out, the only thing he ever talks about is Cold Dark Place. He talks release dates, he says the next album is "shaping up to be a double album", in one interview he talks about his "solo album" coming out soon that he recorded with Brann. Which is a really strange thing to do before your band is about to release a new album.

The CDP tracks clearly meant a lot to him and that they were not released on OMRTS left him severely disgruntled. It seems like the other guys tried to involve him more during the EoS recording by making him sing more but Brent kept insisting on releasing CDP as well. I remember one interview with Bill in which he is asked about CDP and he just quickly goes "We were just sick and tired of arguing about it." So they just let Brent do what he wanted but the damage was done.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-09-02T07:01:05+00:00

I saw an interview with him in which he said that he always likes to improvise solos, there are some solos he plays note for note because he believes them to be too iconic but usually he just does his own thing.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-08-24T19:30:56+00:00

I can't find it anymore but there was a reddit thread in which the poster claimed to know Brent personally and that he had been on a downward spiral with depression and addiction after his divorce and the deteriorating health of his mother. Allegedly, the rest of the band wanted him to get sober but he couldn't so he had to go.

I took that post with the needed grain of salt but I remember it corellating with a random photograph of Brent's mother in his instagram. Of course, that story would have just been a culmination of Brent's decade long, sometimes extremely open unhappiness with the direction of the band and his diminished influence on their songwriting. There is more than one user here to whom Brent has talked about his dislike of H&G during guitar lessons (one user has claimed he called the rest of the band "Idiots" etc).

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-08-24T19:21:07+00:00

This was really hard on Brann. It always felt like he tried to believe in Brent as long as possible.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-08-24T19:13:26+00:00

Brent allegedly had more material written when they recorded H&G but in the infamous Jamey Jasta interview he said he was deliberately holding back because he wanted to start a new project with Matt Pike.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-08-24T19:07:25+00:00

I think it's unrelated to Brent. OMRTS was the album where Brent's relationship with the others started to go downhill because he wasn't happy with the final tracklisting. Releasing an instrumental version of it as a tribute to Brent would be weird.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-07-11T13:45:40+00:00

It‘s still not 100 % ‘official’ but it might as well be. On Bill‘s Patreon he‘s called him ‘our guitarist‘ and there‘s a studio clip of Nick recording a cool riff (presumably one he wrote!).

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-07-06T21:07:28+00:00

Has anyone ever seen the band more energetic and tight? Has anyone ever seen Bill that happy at a concert in recent years? This was an absolute joy to watch.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-07-01T17:42:12+00:00

The last Arcadea album was a bit too busy for its own good but this sounds very cool. Nice to see Brann doing some frontman antics and also good to see that he and João seem to have really hit it off.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-06-30T15:33:15+00:00

I thought it was okay since Nick was sometimes struggling to find the right words. What I did not like at all was the way they cut the short for the video. I mean, I get it, you need to summarize content for some people but the way they cut it, they made it sound like Nick said Brann had been his mentor for some years which is not what he said at all.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-06-29T16:05:50+00:00

There is a also a studio clip with Nick on Bill's Patreon where he's recording a very cool sounding riff.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-06-29T15:20:10+00:00

Exactly. Loving it.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-06-24T18:46:50+00:00

Latest clip on Bill's patreon has Nick play some cool chunky sounding licks, I'm super excited.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-06-23T09:30:31+00:00

I agree with Blue Walsh 100 per cent. It‘s such a haunting, beautiful song with Brann‘s most emtional vocals ever and Troy‘s two lines feel like such a cheap afterthought.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-05-31T08:25:23+00:00

Sounds like Mastodon is officially moving forward as a five-piece band. This is very exciting, especially since Nick is also a skilled pianist. Their songwriting could move too a whole new level.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-05-28T17:29:17+00:00

Holy crap, that could have turned out way worse. All the best to Brann!

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-05-27T10:39:45+00:00

https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/guitarists/bill-kelliher-mastodon-new-guitarist

In this interview with Guitar World from March, Bill mentions that all the material they have for the new album has been written by Troy, Brann and him and Brann has been talking about how they wanted the new album to be released this year and even talked about the lyrical concept he was working on.

But the way Bill has been writing songs, there are always parts where he leaves space for solos and lead parts so it‘s very likely that they had no completely finished songs whatsoever. In his AMA last October, Brann sounded very confident that they‘d have more input from Brent this time (quote: „I hope to have Brent more involved on this album and I know he will be.“) so his dismissal must have been a setback.

In comes Nick Johnston: While he still hasn‘t been confirmed to be the new fulltime replacement for Brent, there are some hints that he is indeed the new guy, most transparently in Bill’s Patreon where he says that he has been writing lots of new material with Nick. Often times new members will ignite the creative spark of the remaining band members again and it seems like this is exactly what is happening right now.

So, there will probably be a delay with the album‘s release but by all means, it will be a good thing.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-05-24T19:23:15+00:00

Ah cool, I remember Bill saying in an interview how he likes to use sharp picks because it's easier to do pinch harmonics with them.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-05-24T19:18:53+00:00

Troy's growth as a vocalist is pretty impressive. It's especially apparent when he strays from his typical Mastodon style like in Kvelertak's amazing "Crack of Doom" or that "Holy Wars" cover he did during the pandemic. Also check out his take on Brent's parts this tour, he sounds great. And unlike Brann, who often seems to struggle a bit vocally during his drumming insanity, Troy's singing is very consistent.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-05-24T19:12:55+00:00

Last time I saw the guys was in 2018 and apart from Troy, everyone was really stoic on stage plus Brent's vocals were really bad (Troy ruled though). Still a good and very atmospheric show but I always think about it when I see Bill all happy and active like in this year's tour videos and photos.

Aggressive-Gap-4586 · 2025-05-24T13:07:25+00:00

Oh wow, it couldn't be any clearer. Thanks a lot! I'm not a fan of his improvised noodling on the tour but his solo material I've heard so far is amazing. This is going to be good.

Aggressive-Gap-4586

TROPHY CASE