“For the Ugly and Unwanted, this is Grindcore”. So far as album titles go, Brutal Truth essentially nailed the perfect one when they gifted a live album with that one. It encapsulates and underscores what the genre is about, a white-hot supernova of rage and resentment aimed at an unforgiving society that strangles each breath you try to take. Every time I listen to a grind album, that title and the standard it implies springs into mind like an obligation: how much does this album feel like it would disassemble civilisation overnight if it could? How much does it take the boiling negativity that splays throughout you like an ache and free-fire it back at the world? If there is any pain to you, any fear, any unavenged injuries gnawing at your mind, can this album howl out that unspoken need for retribution with crashing waves of speed and distortion? If the world itself feels to have done you wrong, can this album speak to that yearning need to be – if not healed – then at least made even?
Can Undertakers do that for you?
There’s a therapeutic comfort I can find within grind; the havoc of it validating every traumatic moment, every angry thought, every painful memory that I beg to be anything other than what it is. And periodically, I can find that blessed relief within Undertakers too; at their prime they shoulder the weight of my burdens, and somehow within this banquet of enraged rampage fuel I can find what passes for peace. The reaping thrust of “Collapse Control” with it’s harmonized tremolo lines slashing away over a tidal surge of blasts, threshing flesh before the floor collapses from below and we plunge into a nasty, bone-splintering breakdown. Other times are unfortunately less successful, and an occasional surfeit of basic riffs and middling tempos smothers the rage a little like sedatives (“United Front” has a few of these moments, notably from around 1.27 to about 2.06 where the momentum feels to stall a bit).
This isn’t the pure-breed grind; it’s heavily spliced with death and thrash, and the moments that the latter leaps forth to slit your throat to the spine are amongst the album’s best. “Rise of Resistance” seethes with them, latter-day Exodus riffs the likes of which would have Gary Holt smiling from an ocean away. Sinuous, full of slides and hammer on / pull off intricacies to keep the blood flowing. Similar sentiments apply to”Global Dominion” – at least in the introduction; I’m not wild about the chorus it has. It feels a bit placeholder – a simple strummed pattern with a relatively commonplace chord sequence that isn’t wildly offensive, but nonetheless feels as though more could have been done. It’s frustrating in the sense that through the release I’ll feel that connection that good grind gives me, the irrepressible urge to roll up the sleeves and begin taking heads, but then the album will every now and then dip into more lacklustre territory that takes the energy down a notch or two, and the will to kill slips away and the dull realisation that I have not yet completed the ironing crawls mundanely back into focus.
Taken in full the album is an uneven but largely satisfying ride. I think that if the band were to combat their instincts to slow down and instead speed all the way up, it would only be for the better. I love the mercenary stalk to the thrash riffs they’ve injected, and I cannot fault the evident passion behind the project – the vocalist also runs Time To Kill records, in case his love of the music should ever be held in dispute. Even so, there are just a few frustrating aspects scuffing the shine on the album as a whole. Still – lets not pretend that those irretrievably doom matters. If you like death metal, and you like grind, I can imagine you having a good time with much of Undertaker’s efforts here.
Progressive metal heavyweights Mastodon have released a deeply moving 35-minute documentary video breaking their silence on their complex 25-year relationship with co-founding guitarist and vocalist Brent Hinds.The surprise Mastodon Brent Hinds video arrives hot on the heels of their grueling summer 2026 European festival run, marking the first time the surviving members have collectively addressed Hinds’ sudden departure in March 2025 and his tragic death in a motorcycle accident just five months later. As the band prepares to drop their highly anticipated ninth studio LP featuring new guitarist Nick Johnston, they are choosing to address the online rumors head-on, delivering an unfiltered look at a brotherhood defined by musical genius, volatile internal conflicts, and devastating grief.
STREAM THE METAL BREAKDOWN DAILY NOW:
On today’s episode of the Metal Breakdown Daily, host Scott Penfold tears into the latest hard rock and metal news, delivered up to the minute every weekday. Make sure to subscribe to stay in the loop! Also don’t forget to download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play right now to stream the full broadcast natively and never miss a breakdown.
‘Our Wild Man’: Mastodon Speaks on 25 Years of Chaos and Brotherhood
For a quarter of a century, Mastodon stood as one of the most stable lineups in heavy music history. From their 2002 debut Remission through to 2021’s double-album masterpiece Hushed And Grim, the core unit of Brann Dailor, Troy Sanders, Bill Kelliher, and Brent Hinds remained entirely unbroken. But behind the scenes of the Grammy-winning machine, the interpersonal dynamics were increasingly strained.
When Hinds parted ways with the band in March 2025, the exit quickly turned public and bitter. Hinds later claimed on social media that he had been forcefully ejected from the group, aggressively labeling his former bandmates “horrible humans.”
In the statement accompanying the new 35-minute video, the band refuses to play into the standard music-industry public relations cleanup script, acknowledging that their history with Hinds cannot be reduced to a simple headline.
“As we enter a new chapter of Mastodon we want to do this the right way and talk about Brent,” the band shared. “We’ve all seen the clips, headlines, and speculations, but we haven’t told our story in our own words about our 25-year relationship. It isn’t easy to talk about Brent, he was our family, someone we all loved wholeheartedly. He was a wild man, our wild man, and that came with some challenges. Both things are true and we aren’t interested in chasing one truth over the other.”
The Tragic Fatal Intersection: Inside the Atlanta Crash Investigation
The unresolved tension between the camp and their former frontman became permanent on August 20, 2025. According to investigative files from the Atlanta Police Department, Hinds was riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle late at night when an SUV attempting a left turn failed to yield at the intersection of Memorial Drive SE and Boulevard SE, less than two miles from downtown Atlanta.
Responding officers discovered the legendary guitarist unresponsive at the scene around 11:35 p.m., where medical personnel officially pronounced him dead. A detailed crash report later revealed that investigators placed Hinds at fault for the collision due to extreme speeding. Utilizing traffic camera video from the intersection, authorities calculated that Hinds was traveling between 63 and 68 mph—roughly double the posted speed limit at the crash site.
The sudden finality of the accident abruptly cut off any chance of reconciliation, leaving the remaining members to carry the weight of an unresolved corporate and personal fallout into their next creative cycle.
‘Your Ghost Again’: Turning Pure Grief into Sludge Metal Art
Instead of letting the trauma fracture the band, Mastodon retreated into their Atlanta headquarters, West End Sound. The first taste of this painful new era emerged last month with the drop of the devastating Mastodon new song Your Ghost Again. Produced by Patrik Berger and Converge icon Kurt Ballou, the track serves as an explicit sonic monument to Hinds.
“Your Ghost Again is about being in those familiar places you used to be with people, which for us is in the studio,” drummer and vocalist Brann Dailor shared during the retrospective video. “I just kept seeing Brent out of the corner of my eye, where he would normally be with his guitar. Your mind plays tricks on you, especially so soon after someone dies.”
Bassin Troy Sanders echoes the sentiment, pointing directly to the track’s lyrical themes: “My portion of the song, lyrically, is all about Brent, and for Brent. The bridge lyrics are two lines of pure gratitude towards Brent. It’s all the gifts from you, now you can take them back where you must go.”
Nick Johnston and the Dawn of a Lighter, Tech-Driven Chapter
While YouTube virtuoso Ben Eller initially filled the empty guitar slot at Tool’s “Tool In The Sand” festival in the Dominican Republic in March 2025, the band has officially handed the torch to Canadian progressive guitar maestro Nick Johnston.
Johnston—celebrated across the guitar community for his six solo offerings and high-profile collaborations with Polyphia and Periphery—fully embedded himself into the band for their 2025 tours and their recent massive European stadium dates.
The upcoming ninth studio album, which is already completed and scheduled for release later this year via Loma Vista Recordings, will feature Johnston’s pristine, highly technical guitar tracking. This marks a radical structural evolution away from Hinds’ signature, wild delta-blues-on-acid hybrid picking toward a hyper-articulated, modern progressive metal attack.
Why Mastodon Had to Put the Guitar Down to Save the Band
Look, I’ve been on the air for over 20 years, and I’ve watched a hundred bands try to write a sanitized press release after a founding member dies under a cloud of bad blood. It never works. Rock fans have a radar for corporate garbage, and Mastodon knows it.
When you spend two decades jammed into a tour bus with a guy who openly describes himself as a “free spirit” who lives life at absolute maximum velocity, you experience the highest of highs—like taking home a Grammy for Sultan’s Curse in 2018—and the total exhaustion of the dark days.
By releasing this 35-minute documentary, Mastodon isn’t trying to canonize Brent Hinds as a flawless saint, nor are they burying him as a villain. They’re doing something much harder: they are mourning the real, deeply flawed, brilliant brother they actually knew. Bringing in a guy with the technical precision of Nick Johnston isn’t just a lineup change; it’s a structural survival tactic. They aren’t trying to replace the irreplaceable wild man. They are completely rebuilding the engine so the ship doesn’t sink.
Every Date for Mastodon’s Fall 2026 ‘The Poisonous Weapons’ Tour
To support the upcoming LP, Mastodon is hitting the highway across North America this autumn for a massive co-headlining package featuring Deafheaven and Alcest. The full list of Mastodon tour dates 2026 is laid out below:
The Video Drop: Mastodon released a raw, 35-minute retrospective documentary breaking their silence on their volatile 25-year relationship with Brent Hinds.
The Tragic Accident: Hinds parted ways with the band in March 2025 amidst heavy social media friction and tragically passed away in an Atlanta motorcycle crash in August 2025 after investigators found he was traveling at double the speed limit.
The New Era: The band has completed their ninth studio album, featuring new track “Your Ghost Again” and the debut of highly acclaimed Canadian progressive guitarist Nick Johnston.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the meaning behind the Mastodon new song Your Ghost Again?
The song was specifically written as a direct tribute to late guitarist Brent Hinds. Drummer Brann Dailor and bassist Troy Sanders noted that the track channels the literal grief of tracking in their Atlanta studio and feeling like they could still see Hinds standing in his usual spot out of the corner of their eyes.
Who is the new guitarist replacing Brent Hinds in Mastodon?
Canadian progressive guitar virtuoso Nick Johnston has officially taken over guitar duties for the band. After touring with the group throughout late 2025 and summer 2026, Johnston has tracked guitar parts for the band’s upcoming ninth studio album.
How fast was Brent Hinds going during his motorcycle accident in Atlanta?
According to the official Atlanta Police Department crash report, intersection video analysis indicated that Hinds was traveling between 63 and 68 mph at the time of the collision, which was roughly twice the legal speed limit at the intersection of Memorial Drive SE and Boulevard SE.
STAY LOUD: How do you feel about Mastodon entering a new studio era without the signature riffs of Brent Hinds? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. Follow Loaded Radio for continuing coverage and daily rock and metal news updates.
It could be said that any musical endeavor lives and dies by the vision of its principal composer, but it is equally important that the caliber of musicians employed to translate that vision into a reality be top-notch. Regarding both, former Survivor keyboardist and prolific songwriter Jim Peterik has always had all bases covered when delivering a fresh opus of earworm anthems, be it smash hits like “Eye Of The Tiger”, “Burning Heart”, or a host of bangers with the likes of 38 Special and jazz rock icons Ides Of March.
In recent years, much of his energy has been focused on recapturing the same spirit that typified the 80s peak of AOR via Pride Of Lions, a collaboration with vocalist Toby Hitchcock and a cast of formidable instrumentalists that has been flying under the Frontiers Records banner since 2003. Now eight studio albums deep into the game, the latest LP Unbridled finds Peterik and company upping the creative ante considerably, blurring the line between retro rock nostalgia and present-day practices.
The energy factor wants for nothing even as the opening notes of this massive, 57-minute studio excursion unfold. Beginning on what can be best described as the AOR answer to Van Halen’s “Eruption”, the opener and title anthem “Unbridled” sees guitarist Mike Aquino putting on a six-string master class to rival many of the shred icons of the 80s, yet coming off as tasteful enough to make room for those signature melodic hooks that are the hallmark of Peterik’s sonic formula.
Between its extremely upbeat and riff-happy character, one might even go so far as to assume that this outfit let the cat out of the bag early and spent their best ideas on the first 6 minutes of the album, but the ebb and flow of rocking fanfare that immediately follows dispels this notion immediately. Be it the dramatic, guitar-driven fire of “Edge Of Forever” that could pass for a repackaged theme song for Rocky V that never was, or the inspirational power balladry that recalls the spirit of the original Karate Kid trilogy “Don’t Waste A Wish On Me”, the winning moments continue to pile up.
Though most of what occurs through this lofty album’s 12 chapters carries a strong stylistic aroma for what now seems a bygone era, the coat of paint that it sports definitely fits with where things stand in 2026. Mostly manifesting in a production quality that feels more up close and personal when measured against the analog era of Peterik’s career, more acoustically driven odes like “1000 Long Goodbyes” and the almost country-like power ballad “What The Whole World Needs To Know” carry a similar air of intimacy to the more confessional character of the post-90s rock era, even when accounting for the brilliantly vibrant vocal performances of Peterik and Hitchcock that ring similar to AOR contemporaries like Styx and REO Speedwagon.
In fact, the entire middle point of this album leans quite heavily into the ballad department, with standout entries like “I Can See In The Dark” and “Hell Of High Water” spearheading a more vocal-oriented array of craftsmanship that, nevertheless, comes with a healthy amount of melodic guitar and keyboard input to complement the steady grooves and soaring voices.
But for all the partial flirtations with modern rock trappings and the tendencies towards a more rustic atmosphere, Pride Of Lions ultimately hangs its hat on a mode of musical triumph that dates back to when video allegedly killed the radio star. Be it the explosive trifecta that kicks the album off or later guitar-focused banger entries like “I Can’t Let Go” (which sounds like an unofficial sequel to Survivor hit “I Can’t Hold Back”) and the album’s closer and appropriately named “A Mighty Noise”, Peterik has definitely opted to remember his 80s AOR roots quite loudly.
By the same token, the extremely boisterous and high-flying vocal delivery of Toby Hitchcock often closely resembles the signature timbre and luster of Jimi Jamison (R.I.P.), while barring the aforementioned shred fest that kicks the album off, guitarist Mike Aquino often channels the same tasteful melodic character as Franky Sullivan. Indeed, the entire arrangement that brings Unbridled into being could well pass for a 2026 reunion of Survivor, and those who fell in love with what they brought to the masses during the mid-80s are at the center of the wide net that this album has cast.
Release Date: July 10th, 2026 Record Label: Frontiers Music Srl Genre: AOR
Did you ever listen to All Pigs Must Die? Mastiff? Nails? Cursed? Did you like it? If so, you and Yersin are going to get along famously.
Yersin sound like an antimatter warhead going off inside a closet. Close, immediate, violent. But there’s sophistication within it; moments of maudlin, cynical melodicism and bitter quietude. It’s a brand of grindy metallic hardcore that summons unto itself the sum total of every negative emotion you have ever felt, cages it in it’s balled fist, and rams it back down your throat. It’s dense, misanthropic music – bleak in form and function. And it starts with a guitar tone like a mine shaft collapsing. In terms of what it does to your brain, imagine hunting a chicken with a railgun. It’s an utterly castigating wall of distortion and the heft it imbues these deathly crust punk riffs with is beyond dispute. It simply crushes. And I expected as much – their last release (“The Scythe is Remorseless”) was a mightily pissed off piece of Martyrdod/Enabler adjacent fury too, but if anything the band have only given in further to their vituperative sides and unleashed something that sounds truly disgusting as a result.
It’s only an EP, and won’t lay claim to a vast tract of your precious time by any means, but when ladies tell me that it’s not how big it is but what you do with it that matters, I’m sure that they are talking solely about album lengths. And when what a band decides to do is an enflamed monstrosity of groove like “Steel Noose”, replete with scorching lead guitar, release length suddenly matters only insofar as I wish I had more of this to jam into my tender veins. While things do tend toward the brisker side (borderline grind on “Blasphemer”), it takes an unsavoury dip in the festering undercurrents of sludge that gurgle poxridden and mephitic about it on tracks like “Urban Menace”, which girdles it’s midsection with thick, venomous riffs and bellowed vocals that have to be yanking the singer’s lungs apart at the seams.
Moments of pained, haunting tunefulness exist too; beyond the tragic quiescence of the introduction, National treasure Sarah Jezebel Deva lends her gothic croon to “Die Alone”, gilding it with the same theatrical grandeur that she brought to the best Cradle of Filth have to offer. She adds the lustrous gleam of polished tombstones to the ugliness that Yersin are otherwise beating you to death with. I think that of all the tracks presented, it’s probably this one that best unifies the elements Yersin have touched on within the release as a whole; the nihilistic outlook, the sheer elephantine heaviness, the hooks launching out of each massive groove and shrill melody poised above like a noose, the speed married to moments of back-snapping slowdowns. All here, appropriately enough, as the glittering capstone of the release.
I wish there was more of it, honestly. Yes, yes, they work wonders with the time they’ve alloted themselves, and yes, if any of the bands I’ve thus far listed count amongst your favourites then you’ll likely be spurred to countless acts of extreme violence if you listen to Yersin above a sensible volume. But any good EP should leave you wanting more. I’ve always felt a sense of pride in Britain’s seemingly unlimited reserves of amazing bands, and so while the band (hopefully) commence writing a full-length folowup, please do in the meantime allow them to whet your appetite by kicking your whole jaw down your windpipe with “Born Alone, Die Alone”.
Mastodon have officially addressed founding member Brent Hinds' death in a new 35-minute video nearly a year after the tragedy took place. Continue reading…
Album Review: Necromonger – Emanation Of The Dying Perceptions
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Not to be confused with the Canadian Slamming Brutalists of the same name, the Bulgarian Necromonger, a trio formed the year before the Canuks, is just about to release their debut full-length, Emanations of the Dying Perceptions, through Xtreme Music this week. Composed of former members of Goregrind outfits Fecal Body Incorporated and Cocklush, and Death Metal act, Concrete, and wrapped up like Egyptian mummies in the promo-material, percussionist Quill Rat, guitarist/ bassist, Agrogrinder, and vocalist, Pigman, have devoted themselves to sounding as filthy and repugnant as possible, whilst being uncompromisingly, bone-crushingly heavy.
First single, Slaughter to the Bones, released in April this year, hits with a Sunn O))) drone and spewed vocals, the music is dense, the production deliberately muddy and creeping, as though the gates of Hades itself had burst open and the foul beasts had loosed their bonds. Dirty riffs and dirtier vocals corrupt any hope of salvation, that even the fragile piano at the close cannot allay. On the heels of this came the second single, and the album’s opening track, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which begins the record with a massive wall of dissonant sound, like an aural tsunami threatening to engulf everything in its path, it feels akin to the abject misanthropy and nihilistic world view of Dragging into Sunlight, Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord.
But don’t be thinking Emanations of the Dying Perception is an hour of doom and gloom as, like the world around us, there are brief moments of joy and wonder to be found amid the misery. Dissection of Consciousness’ opening passages feel like we’re listening to the music of the cosmos, a heartbeat of the otherworldly and ethereal singing to you; this one fluctuates between light and dark, offering alternate perspectives. Confessions of a Dead Poet follows a similar path, but it shorn of the wonder and the doomy pacing is more in keeping with waiting for the moment the whole edifice comes crashing down.
Bloody Picasso takes a similarly brooding attitude to pace, extending its repeated phrasing; Autophagous Erection is bult around waves and veers into Noise territory at times. Two of Necromonger’s more direct tunes, Clite Skinner and Extract of Rotting Fetus, snap and snarl with a raw and aggressive bite; chopping riffs and primal production make both disturbing listens.
Peppered through the earlier part of the record are the brief interludes, Born in Grave Wax and Meconium Eater, rather than offering respite, double-down on the despairing ambience of the album.
Emanation… is set for release on multiple formats – as these things are nowadays – and I specifically mention this as the CD and cassette versions each include an exclusive bonus track. The shiny disc version includes the nine-minute eponymous tune, Necromonger, an epic instrumental that sees the return of Slaughter’s piano lines, fitting alongside Industrial, Drone, and Noise, all corrupting the fragility of the keys. If you opt for cassette version, you’ll get Necrocannibal Pollution’s doom-laden misery and molten riffs.
Emanation of the Dying Principle is an impressive piece of music, one that is exhausting and terrifying in equal measure. It takes sheer pessimism and blends it with hopelessness and despair and serves it up to you in forty-five minutes of some of the most uncompromisingly difficult music this side of Hatred for Mankind, Immersion or Deleted Scenes from the Transition Hospital. There is no hope here, no possibility of redemption beyond the fleeting glimpse of the piano. But, like the red-coated girl in Schindler’s List, that hope is destined to be crushed beneath the boot of history.
However, if you are a fan of Dragged into Sunlight, Primitive Man or Axis of Perdition, etc, Necromonger (Bulgaria) might just be about to issue your new favourite album.
Raucous and heartfelt, disco beats and falsettos, guest musicians, a goodly amount of that all-too-infrequent but always blindingly brilliant Jagger harmonica, recorded in London, another post-humous appearance by Charlie Watts and ending with a Chuck Berry song — Foreign Tongues, the 25th studio album from the Rolling Stones, is a 14-song collection of goodies from a band who has just kept ‘rolling’ along for the past 60-plus years. As with 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, we have Andrew Watt producing Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, along with Darryl Jones on bass, Matt Clifford on keyboards, and drummer Steve Jordan. Notable guests include The Cure’s Robert Smith, Steve Winwood, Bruno Mars, and Paul McCartney.
“Rough and Twisted,” fed by slide guitar and Jagger on harmonica, is the lead-off single. Trudging through the rather weak “In the Stars,” things get jumpin’ on “Jealous Lover” with Jagger incorporating his “Emotional Rescue” falsetto on this danceable track. “Ringing Hollow,” is a laid-back country rocker about the US losing its bloom-off-its-rose for Jagger and Richards. It joins tunes like “Undercover Of The Night,” and “Street Fighting Man” on the political front, though it’s slightly a little too obvious in its lyrics to rate among those two previous digs. The Ronnie Wood slide is pretty cool though. It’s one of a few swipes the Glimmer Twins manage in their lyrics here.
“Hit Me In The Head,” is straight-ahead sloppy rocker. It’s no surprise Charlie Watts is on drums on this song, dating back to 2021. In an odd twist, the Stones cover the late Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” with surprising results The requisite Keith Richards delivers on “Some Of Us,” a subtle ballad with a strong chorus. Then Jagger outfits himself on what might be his best singing on “Covered In You.” Again, he plays great harmonica here as well, along with a sly rap and McCartney on bass. Perhaps one of the best songs for me on Foreign Tongues comes via Ronnie Wood’s pen, a mid-tempo tribute to Brian Wilson called “Back In Your Life.” Foreign Tongues sounds a bit looser in presentation than Hackney Diamonds, though not every song is as realized as it was the last time. Still, there are strong contenders here and the whole company are rockin’ like 60-year-olds.
The artists will perform with Madonna, Shakira and BTS in the first-ever halftime show for a World Cup final. The aim is to replicate the cultural sway of the Super Bowl.
STREAM THE METAL BREAKDOWN DAILY NOW:
