Very few bands make it to their eleventh album. Even fewer do so whilst demonstrating the identical fire and fury that defined their early years. But Machine Head isn’t just any band. For over 3 decades, the personification of dedication, Robb Flynn, has led Machine Head to carve its own path—uncompromising, relentless, and ever evolving. Now, with present day album release, UNATØNED (out April 25th on Nuclear Blast/Imperium Recordings), they’ve again cranked up the dial. With Machine Head, this need to come as no wonder: Flynn has been via each high and coffee that you can likely imagine a band leader would possibly undergo.
There’s been controversy, innovative differences, and being banned from venues for, amongst other things: fights and riots in the early years, and having ‘undesirable enthusiasts’. But there’s something approximately their rough and tumble Oakland, CA, attitude that has gotten them into (and out of) a few tight spots. As their supervisor, Joseph Huston, has been keen on saying: “we’re not hassle makers, we’re problem magnets.” It’s a Machine Head issue.
PRE-ORDER: STREAMING PRE-SAVE: NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES: There have been points over time where Flynn has wondered himself. But with UNATØNED all the ones doubts have been firmly vanquished. This is a band that hopefully has the right to recognise itself and its location in the world – a function properly-earned, with 5 million albums offered, and over 1000000000 streams (650 million on Spotify by myself).
The album’s lead unmarried, UNBØUND, builds at the swagger and groove of debut album BURN MY EYES at the same time as fusing it with the crushing heaviness of Grammy-nominated THE BLACKENING. “Having two boys from the South in the band – Reece Scruggs and Jared MacEachern – has clearly introduced some groove and swing again into our sound,” Flynn adds. After unmarried-handedly steerage the coolest ship Machine Head for 30 years, visionary leader Flynn became determined to keep pushing himself creatively this time around.
Forever converting the guidelines – together with his very own – Flynn set 3 simple however strict parameters for the songwriting procedure: every track needed to be beneath four mins, every music had to feature a key trade outside of an ordinary chord progression, and the very last refrain had to differ from the primary. The result? A lean, unrelenting, forty one-minute onslaught of natural metal—10 razor-sharp anthems and instrumentals that make this the sharpest, most direct Machine Head album ever.
“After the success of our last record (ØF KINGDØM AND CRØWN, 2022), I had to make sure this one stood apart. I didn’t want it to get swallowed in CRØWN’S shadow,” Flynn explains. “Machine Head enthusiasts assume every album to be one of a kind, so this time around I placed those constraints on myself to pressure a new approach. It pushed me out of my consolation zone, which became precisely what I wanted.” Much of UNATØNED came collectively in movement – actually.
Written at domestic and on the street, Flynn carried a guitar wherever he went, pulling suggestion from surprising places. Riffs had been born in Houston, Texas; Asheville, North Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; and even as far as Perth, Australia. The end result? An album with a decidedly American sense, expansive, but deeply rooted in the band’s signature groove-encumbered depth.
Produced with the aid of Robb Flynn and Zack Ohren (All Shall Perish, Entheos), with extra manufacturing courtesy of decade-long collaborator Jordan Fish (ex-Bring Me The Horizon, Architects) UNATØNED was masterfully mixed with the aid of legendary manufacturer Colin Richardson (Burn My Eyes, The Blackening, Bullet For My Valentine) and Chris Clancy, that raw, untamed energy is obvious from the first notes of ATØMIC REVELATIØNS, a Bay Area thrash monster inspired by means of a actual-life, stranger-than-fiction concept: the Atomic Priesthood.
“I examine approximately how scientists in the ’90s created a religion – the Atomic Priesthood – to warn future civilizations approximately nuclear waste sites,” Flynn says. “It blew my thoughts. Religion is one of the few matters that may convey which means throughout lots of years. The entire concept fascinated me, and the music just poured out.” Machine Head’s go back to the festival circuit after an 11-year hiatus also had a huge have an effect on.
“We spent over a decade doing our very own three-hour Evening With suggests, which turned into superb, however getting again into the festival scene – headlining Hellfest, Download, the Danny Wimmer gala’s – it reignited some thing,” Flynn admits.
“Watching tens of thousands of human beings go off to certain songs without a doubt helped shape this file.” Case in point: 2d single BØNESCRAPER, is a masterclass in much less-is-more songwriting: “We stripped it right down to the essentials – groove, effect, and an area-sized chorus,” Flynn says. Similarly, NØT LØNG FØR THIS WØRLD marks a first in Machine Head records: a song featuring all clean vocals. “It felt unnatural to pressure a heavy component in only for the sake of it. Jared and I were harmonizing, and nothing sounded better. Some of the tune even came collectively live on our Electric Happy Hour flow, so lovers were given to peer it being created in actual time.
” Then there’s ØUTSIDER, an anthem that has kinship with every body who’s needed to cut toxic humans loose. Being the polarising discern that he is – there’s no middle floor, he’s both loved or hated – Flynn knows more than a aspect or about this issue: “These previous few years, I’ve had to allow move of a whole lot of relationships, and I understand I’m now not on my own in that. This song is for everybody who’s been there.” Flynn’s collaborative spirit shines through ADDICTED TØ PAIN, a co-write with new guitarist Scruggs that advanced after a tongue-in-cheek challenge to “write a nu-metal song,” which resulted in Scruggs coming up with, “a first-rate set of riffs.
” Flynn later introduced in longtime collaborator Jordan Fish (ex-Bring Me The Horizon), who helped elevate the music—and the complete album—with his signature contact. “I’ve worked with Jordan because BLØØDSTØNE & DIAMØNDS, and he usually brings ideas that take matters to every other level. For this album, I truly wanted to give him the opportunity to collaborate on maximum of the tracks, as I felt it’d upload a consistency that I wanted.” THESE SCARS WØN’T DEFINE US is an apt allegory for Machine Head itself: they will were battered and left scarred, however you’ll by no means hold ‘em down. There’s a feel of experimentation extending into DUSTMAKER, which – in conjunction with intro LANDSCAPE ØF THØRNS – is an instrumental.
“It commenced as a jam with Jared, however I always imagined it with a experience-hop beat and a sultry girl vocal over it,” Flynn well-knownshows. “It’s an uncommon ruin within the album’s chaos, however I can totally see our fans placing this on loop – and having intercourse to it.” On the other cease of the spectrum is SHARDS ØF SHATTERED DREAMS, which channels the band’s hardcore roots, using a metaphor of love for warfare.
Then there’s BLEEDING ME DRY, a deeply private tackle love, loss, and the weight of revel in. Flynn has constantly located a catharsis in tune writing, together with his feelings writ large at some point of every album. This time become no distinctive – it changed into handiest at some stage in the creative procedure right here that Flynn started out being able to come to terms with the death of his mother, and start to work via the emotional scars that he was left with. “At fifty seven, I’ve been via – and seen so many buddies go through – huge life adjustments. I just linked with all of it in this,” Flynn admits. The typhoon of ultimate track SCØRN is a lovely departure for Machine Head, in that it’s a piano-pushed ballad—some thing Flynn has desired to do for over 15 years, but in no way quite pulled off before. “I’m a sucker for an Elton John ballad,” he laughs.
“With the assist of Joel Wanasek (programming/publish-production), we sooner or later were given it proper. It’s still Machine Head, however with a twist.” UNATØNED is Machine Head at their most concise and powerful. Eleven albums deep, they retain to challenge themselves – and their lovers – without dropping the hearth that has visible them extended to bonafide legendary fame. Strap in. The next chapter of Machine Head is here, and it’s going to positioned them firmly in the competition headlining hot seat.
