Photographed for SPIN in Atlanta, February 27, 2009

 

Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala guested on the album, they opened for Metallica, and Dave Grohl couldn’t shut up about them. The deep-grooved “Colony of Birchmen” was even nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance.

Then on September 10, 2007, hours after playing “Colony of Birchmen” with Homme at the MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas, Hinds got into an altercation with System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian and rapper Reverend William Burke (real name: William Hudson), a member of Odadjian’s side project, Achozen, outside the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

“All I remember is walking through the Mandalay Bay with my shirt off with Jesse [Hughes] from Eagles of Death Metal,” Hinds says. “Then I remember being asleep for three days and having these really blissful, out-of-body feelings. Then, when I woke up, it hurt like fuck.”

Mastodon’s publicist insists Hinds was “ cold-cocked,” but Odadjian, speaking publicly for the first time about the incident, says Hinds

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had been harassing Odadjian intermittently throughout the night before he spotted Odadjian and Burke outside the hotel.

“He ran up and tackled me,” says Odadjian. “I know Brent meant no harm. He was just somewhere else mentally. He kept saying, ‘I love you. I love your bass playing,’ and then coming at me.” Eventually, Odadjian says, Hinds took a swing at Burke, and Burke swung back. “All of a sudden, I see Brent fall and hit his head on the curb.” Hinds sustained a serious concussion and brain hemorrhaging as a result, and was plagued by vertigo for nine months. Beyond Hinds’ injuries, the incident seemed to shake the band’s foundations.

“We felt a little fragile,” says Kelliher. “ Everything had been going so well. I mean, I knew this would happen someday—Brent is a loose cannon and gets into trouble, he’s got his demons, but usually everything ends up okay.”

Despite the severity of his condition, Hinds wasn’t much chastened. “The doctors said I had to quit drinking for a couple months, because oth-

erwise your brain or your concussion or whatever won’t heal properly,” he says. “I was back doing drugs and everything by 28 days. But I don’t drink as much as I used to, I don’t smoke crack anymore, and I don’t do tons of fucking pain pills.”

To say Hinds’ commitment to rock’n’roll debauchery causes tension within the band is probably accurate, though this tension seems to exist mostly below the surface, and his bandmates strive to be accommodating. There’s a realization that Hinds is merely in a different place in his life than they are: Kelliher, 38, is married with two kids; Sanders, 35, has a longtime live-in girlfriend and a daughter; and Dailor, 33, is also married. By contrast, Hinds, 35, just moved into his first house. As Dailor puts it, “When Brent gets off tour, he’s still on tour. He doesn’t have anything else to do except play guitar. He never really has.”

Hinds is unapologetic. “I’m sure I get on their nerves, but it’s not bad enough where they’ve said anything to me,” he says. “If I was married with kids and we had a member who was crazy as