Nearly a year after former Mastodon singer-guitarist Brent Hinds died in a motorcycle accident, the band's three other founding members have released a 36-minute video, The Mastodon in the Room, in which they candidly discuss their fraught relationship with him and explain why they parted ways. The video matters because it offers the surviving members' fullest public account yet of a split that Hinds had claimed was a firing, framing his departure against a long history of addiction and mental health struggles.

In the film, bassist-vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer Brann Dailor describe Hinds as a talented but complicated bandmate whose drinking worsened over the past five years, affecting live shows and straining the group. They recall repeated "heart-to-hearts", a 2007 altercation at the MTV Video Music Awards, and a final band meeting at which Sanders read out a letter of grievances before Hinds walked out — the last time Sanders saw him. Since the split, Mastodon have recruited guitarist Nick Johnston and completed their ninth studio album, to which Hinds did not contribute; Dailor called it an emotionally difficult record to make.