Mastodon members Troy Sanders, Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher have discussed how the deaths of former guitarist Brent Hinds and Dailor's mother shaped the lyrics on their forthcoming album "Marrow Deep", out on 28 August via Loma Vista Recordings. Speaking on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" on 6 August, the band explained that channelling real-life grief into their music has long been a therapeutic and relatable process, even as the losses disrupted the album's writing and recording.

Hinds, a founding guitarist and singer, was fired from Mastodon in March 2025 and died five months later in a motorcycle accident; Dailor's mother, Michele Lawrence, died in February 2025. The band pressed on with recording at their own West End Sound studio in Atlanta roughly a week after Hinds's death, working with producers Patrik Berger and Kurt Ballou and mixer Andrew Scheps. "Marrow Deep" is the group's first full-length album to feature new guitarist Nick Johnston and keyboardist João Nogueira, and follows a similar pattern to 2021's "Hushed And Grim", which dealt with the death of the band's longtime manager Nick John.