William Brent Hinds (born January 16, 1974) is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the Atlanta, Georgia metal band Mastodon, in which he shares guitar duties with Bill Kelliher and vocal duties with Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor.

Hinds is also lead guitarist/singer for the surfabilly band Fiend Without a Face, and is involved in other projects, including classic rock bands The Blood Vessels, West End Motel, Four Hour Fogger, The Last of the Blue Eyed Devils, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, and Legend of the Seagullmen.

In Mastodon's early years, Hinds would work as a full-time carpenter when not touring to promote the band.

Hinds left Alabama for Atlanta, Georgia in pursuit of a music career. It was at this time that he met Troy Sanders, a future member of Mastodon. According to Sanders, he "lived in his van for the next five years", becoming a member of Sanders' then band, Four Hour Fogger. The first practice he attended with this band he allegedly "showed up so wasted he couldn't even play".^[1]

Once Four Hour Fogger fell apart, the two stuck together, eventually meeting Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher at a High on Fire concert in "their friend's basement". The four began a new musical venture with then singer Eric Saner, touring the southern US, working 40-hour weeks and committing to the band in their spare time. The band's mainstream success would ensue after Saner left the band, pushing Hinds to the forefront not just as a guitarist, but as a vocalist also, the duties of which he would share with Sanders.

Hinds continues to concentrate on Mastodon, with the majority of his time spent touring or in the studio. He also enjoys promoting his lesser-known psychedelic rockabilly band Fiend Without a Face and his classic rock band the Blood Vessels. Hinds composed the score to Jonah Hex.^[2]

In June 2011, Hinds' projects Fiend Without a Face and West End Motel released a split-double CD debut studio album.^[3]

In 2012, Hinds formed the supergroup Giraffe Tongue Orchestra with fellow guitarist Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan fame, Jane's Addiction former bassist Eric Avery and The Mars Volta former drummer Thomas Pridgen.^[4]

Hinds will be working with psychedelic rock supergroup Legend of the Seagullmen along with Danny Carey of Tool and others. Their eponymous debut album was released in February 2018 on Dine Alone Records.^[5]

Originally playing the banjo, Hinds learned his "signature style" of fast hybrid picking by emulating banjo fingerings on guitar. He frequently utilizes the minor pentatonic, natural minor, and the harmonic minor scales in his playing as well as many hammer-ons, pull-offs, and legato slides. Hinds grew up listening to country, but when he entered his late teens he started listening to Neurosis and Melvins, bands that would have a profound influence on his musicianship. Hinds has also stated that he is a big fan of the progressive and psychedelic rock genres, especially from the '70s.^[10]

On June 12, 2007, Hinds and bandmate Bill Kelliher won the Metal Hammer Golden Gods award for best shredders.^[11]

Hinds was featured along with Kelliher on the cover of Guitar World's 300th issue alongside guitar legends like Jimi Hendrix, Angus Young, and Kirk Hammett.

Hinds performs clean and harsh vocals in Mastodon, where he shares lead vocal duties with Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor.

Hinds has a strong affinity for smoking marijuana, and places doubt on the narrative that America is a free country. In an online interview, he stated that he smokes marijuana almost every day. Hinds is quoted as follows: "They say that if, you know, terrorists and like the freedom haters wanna blow up America because we're so free but why don't they fucking turn Holland into dust because you guys are the freest people in the world?"^[12]

• "Days of Self Destruction" by CKY on the album The Phoenix (guitar solos)
• "Make You Mine" by The Black Lips on the album Underneath the Rainbow (guitar)
• "Horse Hunter" by The Dillinger Escape Plan on the album Ire Works (vocals)
• "White Dwarf" by Zoroaster on the album Voice of Saturn (guitar solo and backing vocals)
• "At Arms Length" by Mouth of the Architect on the album The Ties That Blind (vocals)
• Jonah Hex as a Union soldier (film cameo)
• Hinds, along with Brann Dailor, appears on Killswitch Engage's live album (Set This) World Ablaze, in "From the Bedroom to the Basement" – documentary.
• In July 2011, Hinds starred in a commercial for Elmyr, a restaurant in Atlanta.^[13]
• In the Game of Thrones episode "Hardhome", Hinds and bandmates Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher portrayed an extras role, as Wildlings and later in the episode as reanimated Wights.
• "Fear and Fate" by Archival on the album Fear and Fate (backing vocals, guitar overdubs)
• Hinds appears on the song "Land" by Pike vs The Automaton on their album Pike vs The Automaton.