I had no idea this had happened till recently, plus his departure (supposedly not amicably) from Mastodon.
Sad news indeed.
Used to love them, Crack the Skye being their best imo.
Everything post Hunter simply didn't resonate with me one bit.
I'm similar their first few albums barely came off my rotation. Watched them live around that time and they were really fucking good. When The Hunter dropped I gave it a listen and felt nothing. Kinda dropped them after that.