Mastodon shocked the guitar world last week when the progressive metal heavyweights announced that founding guitarist Brent Hinds had left the band.
Now the story has taken a fresh turn: the band recruited well-respected YouTube guitarist Ben Eller for their set at the 'Tool in the Sand' festival over the weekend (March 9).
The news of a mutual parting of ways after 25 years came on the eve of the event at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with the group reassuring fans that “all 2025 touring plans will remain intact” despite Hinds’ departure.
Considering how important dual guitar parts are to Mastodon’s thick, sludgy sound, questions were raised about whether Bill Kelliher would go it alone for the upcoming shows, or if a replacement was lying in the wings. It turns out Eller was drafted in for the job, with video footage from the event showing him professionally weave through the band’s twisting guitar parts.
It seems there was at least a little coordination involved from the Mastodon camp, seeing as Hinds’ departure was announced just before the show. That apparently gave enough time for Eller to be sworn in, but the timeline seems a tight one.
“Can you learn 17 Mastodon songs immediately?” bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders had told the crowd of Eller’s involvement mid-set; clearly, he didn’t have any time to lose.
The band opened with Pain With an Anchor, with classics like Megalodon, Ghost of Karelia, and Blood & Thunder later featuring.
A little mystery still lingers around the Mastodon camp and, surprisingly, at the time of writing, Eller’s social channels are suspiciously quiet. So, is Eller a stand-in or Hinds' permanent successor? Mastodon are due to hit the road with Periphery and Coheed & Cambria in May and will also feature at Black Sabbath’s blockbuster farewell show this summer. We likely won't have to wait long to find out.
Eller is perhaps best known for his 'This is Why you Suck at Guitar' video series. Like so many metal guitar players, he first first fell in love with Metallica, before discovering guitar virtuosos à la Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen. He has over 500,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Several of his videos have seen him deep-dive into Mastodon's guitar work and what makes it so brilliant. He previously stated that the band's tectonic plate-shaking Leviathan record “instantly became one of my favorite records of all time” when he first heard it in 2004. As such, his intimate knowledge of the band's material and the dizzying array of nuances therein has made him a shrewd choice, if only in the short term.
“We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared and we wish [Brent Hinds] nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavors,” Mastodon's statement read. “We are still very inspired and excited to show up for fans in this next chapter of Mastodon.”
Speaking to Guitar World last year, Kelliher discussed how his and Hinds’ playing styles oppose one another. Often across the band’s history, that’s proven to be a winner – Kelliher’s precision playing and Hinds’ more erratic, country-inspired stylings bring a lot of flavor to the band’s collective broth.
“We’re opposite sometimes,” he admitted. “When I write songs, I’ll spend months piecing them together, whereas Brent says, ‘Let’s jam and write whatever on the spot in the studio.’
“That sometimes works for me, but I generally want to be organized and try out every possible avenue of where the songs can go.”
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