Mastodon have released ‘In The Ruins’, the latest track from their forthcoming album Marrow Deep, due August 28 via Loma Vista Recordings.

While Mastodon have never exactly dealt in lightweight material, ‘In The Ruins’ comes from an especially difficult period for the band. The song was inspired in part by the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, which severely flooded bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders’ home, destroyed personal belongings and left his family displaced for almost two years.

That upheaval arrived amid further profound loss for the band, including the death of founding guitarist Brent Hinds and the passing of drummer and vocalist Brann Dailor’s mother, Michele Lawrence. Rather than disguising that grief beneath abstraction, ‘In The Ruins’ channels it into something raw but ultimately resilient, concerned with what remains after life has comprehensively rearranged the furniture.

The track arrives with an animated video from VFX studio Hey Beautiful Jerk. It follows a one-eyed creature named Frank through flooded, ruined landscapes, turning the idea of “picking up the pieces” into a surreal visual counterpart to the song.

‘In The Ruins’ is the latest glimpse of Marrow Deep, following ‘Your Ghost Again’ and ‘Snakes For Dinner’, the latter featuring Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.

The album finds Dailor, Sanders and Bill Kelliher emerging from a period of considerable personal upheaval and pushing Mastodon into another incarnation. It is also the band’s first full-length featuring guitarist Nick Johnston, with keyboardist João Nogueira making significant contributions.

And the guest list is formidable. Homme is joined by Clutch frontman Neil Fallon, Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe, Converge members Nate Newton and Ben Koller, Gojira’s Joe Duplantier and Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, whose appearance on ‘The Vanishing’ adds another strand of heavy music history to the record.

Backseat Mafia caught Mastodon at Good Things Festival in 2024, where the sheer weight and precision of the band’s live performance offered a reminder of why they remain such a formidable presence more than two decades into their career. 

The band will take the new material on the road for The Poisonous Weapons Tour, beginning September 16 in Orlando and running across North America before finishing at Sick New World Dallas on October 24. Deafheaven and Alcest will join them throughout the tour.

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