One of modern metal’s most creative and brilliant guitarists — Mastodon‘s Brent Hinds — has died at age 51.
Over 25 years with Mastodon, Hinds crafted a singular guitar style, blending Southern blues and rockabilly with punishing progressive metal. His chops and songwriting helped create generational masterworks like Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye, along with the Hinds-led 2017 EP, Cold Dark Place.
To celebrate a guitarist and singer who will never be replicated, we offer 10 essential performances from Brent Hinds.
Brent Hinds‘ lead on “Crack the Skye” is one of the most spellbinding and gorgeous pieces of music to ever come from a six-string. At (3:29) in this performance, he holds a single note during a haunting and wildly expressive solo. It’s the kind of guitar work that makes metalheads shed tears.Â
Watching Brent Hinds go through one of his finest chicken picking riffs is more than a treat. That acoustic lead somehow blends perfect chicken picking with harmonics, launching “Toe to Toes” into a Hinds-written, sidewinding master-riff. This may be Hinds‘ greatest vocal performance, along with his finest piece of overall songwriting.
Hinds was never contained by the expectations of being a metal guitarist. His southern, swampy licks always came through in Mastodon, perhaps best punctuated by the feral Blood Mountain instrumental “Bladecatcher.” Bends and hammer-ons for days.Â
While battling a throat infection, Hinds stepped out on stage in front of countless fans at Download 2007. Hinds blasted off some of his best monster riffs in “Megalodon,” before screeching like a pterodactyl when it came time for him to sing. Dude became electrified by his own playing during this performance, and somehow sounded cooler than ever on the mic.Â
Brent Hinds wrote songs like Dostoevsky wrote novels — dense. The number of iconic riffs in this song alone could be broken down into a full album of great songs. “The Last Baron” can accurately be called one of the most epic closing tracks in metal history… Iron Maiden-like in its grandousity.Â
Let’s not forget about Fiend Without a Face. Hinds used this project to express his pure rockabilly chops, which you can hear throughout Mastodon‘s catalogue. Just sit back and watch a master at work.
“Mother Puncher” is largely a Bill Kelliher-led riff fest, but this performance perfectly highlights the superhuman chemistry that Kelliher and Hinds shared. Watch at (1:05) when Hinds comes to Kelliher‘s side of the stage… the two are completely locked into each other’s playing.Â
At a semi-acoustic session in Atlanta, Mastodon (sans Brann Dailor) filled a small room with one of their biggest Blood Mountain tracks. Hinds‘ acoustic playing in this video is extremely precise and clear, which any acoustic guitarist will recognize as a significant challenge. Hinds came through with incredible vocal chops on this day too.Â
Hendrix-like. Few guitarists can hold a massive audience at attention like this. The solo Hinds shreds before kicking into “Aqua Dementia” deserves its own mention, and Hinds‘ winding leads and muffled vocals are just too cool to ignore.Â
Hinds was reaching new levels of phenomenal at this point in his career. The closing track to Emperor of Sand, “Jaguar God” is an embarrassment of riches from Hinds. Beautiful vocals, killer acoustic leads, ultra-expressive solos… Brent Hinds was a 1 of 1 talent.
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