Machine Head

Machine Head Frontman Rob Flynn has posted the following update on the band's official website:

Hey, hey, hey, HEY Fuckers!!!!

What the hell is crack-a-latin' my beer-breathed brethren? I myself am doing fan-fucking-tastic, driving to Canada right now after playing an absolutely RAGING show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tour is going seriously incredible, pretty much every single night is sold out, and the crowds are fucking sick. I'd love to sit here and name all the great shows but there are really just too many to name. Off the top of my head though, trophies go to Santa Cruz, Fargo (holy shit!), Fresno, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Milwaukee (oh my GOD!!??) and Edmonton-Canada to name a few... in fact, surprisingly, the only really boring shows were Anaheim and LA.

Been really hitting our stride as a band lately (finally) and have gotten to know the LOG dudes really well. Solid, solid dudes man, really good guys, and considering the success they're having here in America, they're doing a damn good job of keeping their heads on their shoulders. As fans of the band, we've been watching them kill it night after night, and I gotta say, they are pretty much everything that's right with metal. The Trivium dudes have been hanging out a lot too, and they are a great bunch of guys, really cool, funny... I think Corey has a man-crush on Phil, but man, Corey and Matt fucking SHRED on guitar, wow!!!! Seriously... REALLY fuckin' good players. Gojira... are simply crushing!! They are just such a good fucking band. And live, they somehow manage to get heavier??!!! I listen to them just about every night and they never cease to impress me; there's at least one point every night during their set where I just go "Fuck!?... that's sick!?" We couldn't ask to be on a better tour right now.

Gotta couple of new developments going on in the camp. We have decided that we will not be releasing the video for "Now I Lay Thee Down" as the 1st video off of 'The Blackening', the main reasoning being that we want to come out with a harder track for the 1st video. We came out with "Davidian" off of 'Burn My Eyes', we came with "Ten Ton Hammer" off of 'The More Things Change', we came with "Imperium" off of 'Through The Ashes Of Empires'... and we feel we need to come out swinging with 'The Blackening'. It felt weird coming with a more melodic track as the 1st video, so us and Roadrunner spoke and thankfully they agreed, so we will be shooting another video. We would LOVE to shoot a proper video for the opening track "Clenching The Fists Of Dissent", but we are completely conundrummed about how to shorten our 10-minute-and-34-second megalithic opener down to 5 minutes without having to remove entire sections at a time, or worse, edit them down to 20 second pieces (but hey, any suggestions are welcome). So, our most likely candidate is "Aesthetics Of Hate", and we may shoot it as early as this week. It's unfortunate that we won't have a video to coincide with the release, especially since in Europe the video market is much stronger than in America, but if that's the only hiccup we encounter for this album's release, then we're WAY ahead of the "hiccups" we had with the last one.

Super stoked to be going out on the Heaven and Hell tour in America; for those of you living under a rock, that's Black Sabbath with the mighty Ronnie James Dio on vocals, who recorded some of the best songs in all of metal. Megadeth is also on the bill which is fuckin' killer, those two bands are the reason there's a Machine Head, and we are honored to be a part of it. This is gonna be all about paying homage to The Masters.

To the best of our knowledge, the 'Burn My Eyes' re-release that was supposed to have coincided with the 25th anniversary of Roadrunner Records back in 2005 and was then re-scheduled to be released in Oct 2006, has been back-burnered. And as far as we're concerned, that's a good thing. This is the year of 'The Blackening', and the time frame to re-release it has passed, not to mention that the idea of re-releasing a 13-year old album that we already celebrated with 2 anniversary shows (3 years ago) makes zero sense to us. We were never excited about re-issuing it to begin with, as it was just gonna have a bunch of b-sides, and wouldn't have been nearly as cool some of the other re-issues that had DVD's and all sorts of cool shit... so, as much as some of you may be bummed, know that it's better this way.

And speaking of which, we have less than 2 weeks 'til 'The Blackening' is released and we're all freaking out about it!! Super jacked-up, nervous, confident, insecure, but most of all optimistic-as-fuck about what the future holds. We wrote a record that went against everything we should be doing after the success of 'Through The Ashes Of Empires'. We probably should have written songs more toned-down that would give media outlets a chance to play them; we probably should have written a record that didn't have such edgy subject matter, or as many swear words; we probably should have written a record that fit a little easier into established radio/video formats... but you know what? Fuck that! What we did was write a record that is straight from the heart. We made a record that, as selfish as this sounds, is the record we wanted to hear, but weren't hearing anywhere else. We created a 61-minute piece of art that is supposed to be listened to as a whole, not a single. And it ain't the easiest way we could have done it, sure, but it's the only way we know how TO do it. Kudos and cheers go to the surprising amount of college and major-radio stations (with specialty metal shows) that have had the balls to play the un-edited versions of these songs. Fuck yeah!

But it can't stop there, now is where you, the Head-cases of the world, come in. I said the same thing for our last album, and I'm gonna say it again. We have put forth a record that defies convention, media outlets don't even know where to begin with us, and in America in particular, most of these magazines are either scared of the lyrics, or are still too spineless to actually GET BEHIND the band for a change...

...but that beast must be fed.

We don't get this platform because our record company - or anyone for that matter - thinks it's a good idea to write 10-minute songs criticizing war in the midst of one most controversial, or write 9-minute songs that piss off a multitude of Christian organizations, or write songs that reference suicide, or words like "faggot" and "nigga". No, the only reason we get this platform is because you fuckers have stood by us with an unwavering conviction, because you fuckers have carried us on your goddamn shoulders, and because you fuckers have supported this band through thick and fucking thin. And we need you to do it again.

On Friday, March 23rd, 'The Blackening' will be released in Germany... on Monday, March 26th, it will be released everywhere else in the world, and on Tuesday, March 27th, it will be released here in North America. If you've already taken the album on a "test drive" and liked what you heard, do everybody involved a solid and go buy the CD! Pick it up at your local record shop, order it online, buy it off iTunes and download it to your iPod, whatever. Add banners to your message board sigs, spread the e-card around... spread the word!!! If you've read any of the glowing reviews that have been pouring in, you know this record is for real... believe the hype. Now we've talked before about how (for reasons that remain beyond our comprehension) the music industry (still) puts way too much stock in 1st-week sales, but it is what it is, so if you believe at all in the notion of supporting the artists you love, then god dammit, right here, and right now, stand by your band!!! If you aren't feeling 'The Blackening', fair enough brother (or sister), peace be with you, but if you ARE???!!! Pound motherfuckers into oblivion with this shit, buy it the day it comes out, play it for everybody you know, over and over and over again, encourage every friend, acquaintance, and stranger you only kinda know (or don't) to go pick this bad boy up. Seriously... it's time to unleash the wolves...

It is time to UNLEASH THE FUCKING WOLVES!!!!!!!!!!!