Remember that video last year of Machine Head’s Robb Flynn hanging out in the crowd during a Metallica show, screaming along to “Master of Puppets” with some just regular, average, every day Joe Metallica Fans? And how that made it seem like Flynn was just way too cool for someone so successful?

Well, this tops that by a mile.

According to Machine Head fan site Take My Scars (via Blabbermouth), the band let a fan get on stage and play “Aesthetics of Hate” with them at a show earlier this week (video above)… just because he asked to do so:

Click to read more…

The reader known as “culturevulture” e-mailed us to tell us he just this band Diamond Plate open for Behemoth – and apparently they killed.

I believe it. Bassist/singer Jon Macak’s choked vocals take some getting used to, but the music won me over right away. This is thrash that never sacrifices complexity for simple speed; it’s bludgeoning without being dumb. I’d wager that Justice-era Metallica has been a big influence on this band, and that they love Machine Head’s The Blackening; I think they’d seem perfectly at home on a tour with Revocation, even if they’re not quite yet at that band’s level of kick-assery.

Check out Diamond Plate on MySpace; I was especially impressed with the song “Relativity.”

-AR

Last week, during one of my daily perusals of this very blog, I came across a rather scathing recounting of Killswitch Engage’s self-titled album, which came out earlier this year. This caught me a bit off guard, as I considered it to be one of my favorite albums of the year and a step in the right direction from Daylights Dies, which was at first very disappointing but grew on me after some time. I was even more surprised when I saw that most user comments tended to agree with the blog entry.

Click to read more…

As we mentioned earlier today, next Thursday we’ll run the MS staffs’ various year end lists. Of course, that means that the MS staff has to start turning them in now. And as we’ve begun the editing process, we’ve been reassured of what we already knew: opinions are like assholes. Everybody’s got one. But what’s more fun than smoking weed, listening to good music, and engaging in intellectual (or semi-intellectual) debate with good friends? For our money, nothing. That’s why we started MetalSucks in the first place!

Here were some sources of intellectual debate this week:

• We looked at a series of dreadful demos, the last of which was epic (and not dreadful at all).
• We spoke with Eric Peterson of Testament and Robb Flynn of Machine Head.
• Devin Townsend got deep.
• Marduk’s Mortuus body-slammed a would-be hugging fan.
• Mastodon are officially on the radar of mainstream publications like Time.
• We mourned the loss of Dimebag Darrell 5 years ago this week.
• We proclaimed Hate Eternal and System of a Down underappreciated.

Now we challenge you to start guessing which albums which MS writers will name as their favorites. Anyone who guesses correctly wins the knowledge that they probably read this site way too much when they should be working, or fucking, or doing almost anything else.

And then on Thursday we’ll unveil all the lists.

-Vince & Axl

Photo: Michael Singman-Aste, www.PostdiluvianPhoto.com

2009 is an awesome year to be Robb Flynn or anyone in Machine Head. Your band’s been touring non-stop for two and a half years on the well-deserved critical and commercial success of The Blackening, all without doing a single U.S. headline run. You’ve opened arenas for Metallica, huge theaters for Megadeth and Slayer, played on one of the biggest U.S. touring festivals, and quite literally traversed the world several times over. Not bad… not bad at all.

At the start of their U.S. tour with Megadeth, Machine Head’s publicist contacted us about interviewing Robb. The guy’s a character, The Blackening was fantastic, and it’d been almost a year and a half since we last spoke with anyone in the band (guitarist Phil Demmel on the 2008 Rockstar Mayhem Tour), so we figured we may as well. Crazy as it is that the Machine Head machine is still heading on an album released in 2007… it’s true, and they’re not even slowing down.

After the jump, read my full chat with Robb. We spent a whole lot of time talking about things other than Machine Head; the business-like nature of touring with Megadeth (as of interview time, he hadn’t once seen Mustaine in person on the entire tour!), the down-to-earth nature of hanging out with his heroes in Metallica, mentoring the young lads of Suicide Silence, and the always entertaining subject of the constant feuding between Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth. We also chatted about Machine Head’s constant touring — a dream come true for Robb — and about what the future might hold for the band, including their next album (writing has begun). And wouldn’t you know it, Robb reads MetalSucks!

Click to read more…

It’s hard to believe that Dime has been gone for five years, but December 8 will be the anniversary of one of metal’s bleakest moments. To cash-in on commemorate the event, Metal Hammer have enlisted a bunch of well-known acts to record Pantera covers (but not Damageplan covers, because, y’know, let’s get real here) for a CD that will come with the magazine. Metal Hammer has done this a few times in the past – I remember they had they entire Master of Puppets album re-recorded by various bands, including Mastodon, Machine Head, Chimaira and Trivium when that album reached its twentieth anniversary, and some of it was pretty good.

Get the complete track list for Metal Hammer’s Dime tribute disc after the jump, along with my thoughts in bold.

Click to read more…

These are some of my favorite producers and mixers for heavy music… It’s a challenging genre, and these guys are great in my opinion.

Click to read more…

The first press release into the MS Mansion inbox this morning bore a bit of bad news, at least for Canadian Slayer and Megadeth fans; Slayer have pulled out of the “Canadian Carnage Tour” with Megadeth, which was due to begin November 8th. The press release cites health concerns about bassist/vocalist Tom Araya as the reason for cancellation:

Slayer’s Tom Araya is currently under the care of a specialist for a back injury, thought to be related to his on-stage activity, and the physician has ordered an immediate surgical procedure to take place in Texas tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

The press release doesn’t specifically say whether the tour — which also includes Machine Head and Suicide Silence — will continue on without Slayer, but it’s implied, saying more information regarding rescheduled dates will be release soon.

It’d be awfully easy to make a Dave Mustaine vs. Kerry King jab here, but instead I’ll take the high road and simply offer this: get well, Tom.

-VN

Okay. So Manfred Nuggets clearly wins the “Tipster of the Day” award.

This is exactly what it looks like: Machine Head’s Robb Flynn. At Wembley Stadium. After his band opened for Metallica. In the crowd. Singing “Master of Puppets” along with the fans.

Regardless of what you think of Machine Head, you need to give the dude props for this. That is very cool.

-AR

If any two of the big four bands tour together, I think it’d be a pretty sweet show. Any three? Fucking amazing. But all four? That would have to be some kind of miracle, right? I mean, half these dudes hate each other. King and Mustaine practically make their living talking shit about Metallica – and one another, for that matter. So it’ll never happen, right?

Well, King now tells Metal Hammer otherwise. Sort of.

Click to read more…

Thanks to MS Maniac Aaron M. for pointing out the hilariousness that is ensuing over at Ross Robinson’s Twitter account re: the new Korn record. Yeah, Robinson is producing the new Korn record — somehow I missed that too.

I have somewhat of a difficult relationship with Ross Robinson. On one hand he produced one of the bestest albums ever in the form of At the Drive-In’s Relationship of Command, and he also produced landmark albums by Glassjaw and Slipknot. On the other hand he produced way more albums that are just all sorts of terrible — records by Limp Bizkit (this in and of itself is a crime worthy of corporal punishment), Korn, Cold, Soulfly, Machine Head’s cringe-worthy rap-metal phase, and Vanille Ice’s nu-metal “comeback” record. As a producer who was definitely pigeonholed into a genre (rightly or wrongly), unsurprisingly Robinson hasn’t had a whole lot of work lately.

But he sure got a nice money gig for the new Korn joint. And he’s all sorts of excited about it! Here we go:

Korn, Day one: pikt out drums/cartage broke wheel of my 24 trk tape mchn/fairchild on cymb/made catbox/knee wnt out of socket-kicks ass12:01 AM Aug 6th

Click to read more…

MetalSucks Maniac Matt Fields sent us the below video with this simple message:

“I really do not see what credential this man has to criticize Limp Bizkit.”

Click to read more…

Uncle Vinnie is back; under a moon-lit sky at Saturday night’s Tool show in New Jersey, Axl and I had “a moment” and kissed and made up.

Seriously though, folks, I was just on vacation at the MetalSucks Mansion Kentucky Korner. Did some of you ninnies actually believe I quit?

Wouldn’t be surprising given all the feuding that’s gone down in metal this summer already, though, and we haven’t even reported on the tummy-tickling beef between Machine Head and Limp Bizkit.

Click to read more…

It seems like every few months now, Blabbermouth has another story about Machine Head’s Phil Demmel passing out on-stage. Demmel, you see, suffers from something called cardiogenic syncope. “Syncope” is just a fancy medical term for fainting, and when it’s cardiogenic, it’s ’cause – you guessed it – the heart isn’t getting enough blood to the brain.

That sounds pretty scary, and watching video of one such incident that took place in Finland over the weekend, it looks pretty scary. But I’m (obviously, and despite the wishes of my mother) not a doctor, and the internet research I’ve been doing doesn’t give me a clear idea of what the condition means for Demmel in the long-term. In any case, we obviously hope the dude is alright. I like to think that it’s not just coincedence that Demmel’s addition to MH marked the start of their artistic renaissance.

-AR

We recently polled a wide array of musicians, managers, publicists, label reps, and writers from within the world of metal to find out what they thought the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century So Far have been. Eligible albums were released between January 1, 2000 and  April 1, 2009. Each panelist turned in a ballot, with their #1 album worth 21 points, their #2 album worth 20 points, and so on and so forth. The ballots are now in and we’ll be counting down one album a day until we reach #1. Today we present the #16 album, coming in with a total of 115 points…

Machine Head, The Blackening (Roadrunner, 2007)
Robb Flyn – Vocals/Guitars
Phil Demmel – Guitars
Adam Duce – Bass
Dave McClain – Drums
Produced by Colin Richardson

With 2007′s The Blackening, Machine Head stormed back with a resounding shotgun blast from years of wallowing in irrelevancy, catapulting themselves back into metal’s mainstream with unanimous praise from longtime fans and critics alike. It’s not that Machine Head’s post Burn My Eyes efforts were downright terrible… actually, yeah, it pretty much is. While Machine Head could’ve spent the ’90s waving the “true metal” flag alongside Pantera, instead they chose to join the rap-metal circus and drown in a sea of mediocrity. With the addition of Phil Demmel on guitar for 2003′s Through the Ashes of Empires things started to turn around, culminating in The Blackening, an album that may end up standing as Machine Head’s career-best work.

Click to read more…

We’re giving away so much awesome free shit at the MS Mansion right now that I can’t even keep track of all of it, so there’s a good chance you can’t either. To wit, here’s a list of all the current contests we’re running:

• Two pairs of tickets to see Mastodon play Crack the Skye in its entirety in New York City.
• A pair of 3 Inches of Blood Nike Encore High sneakers!
• One pair of tickets to each stop of the Relapse Contamination Tour, featuring Obscura, Graves of Valor and Abysmal Dawn.
• Brutal Truth and Agoraphobic Nosebleed CDs in our (almost)-weekly Photo Caption Contest.
• Two copies of the super-extra-special edition of Machine Head’s The Blackening CD for deciphering a completely unreadable band logo.

Don’t say we never did nothin’ for ya.

-VN

As I mentioned earlier this week, a little while back I got an e-mail from The Autumn Offering vocalist Matt McChesney to discuss an extremely negative review I’d given the band’s last album, Fear Will Cast No Shadow. McChesney could have been a total dick about the whole thing, but as it turns out, he’s a very even headed, intelligent, and cool dude. So what else was there to do but interview him about the band’s new album, Requiem, which will come out June 9 on Victory. McChesney was even good enough to let us debut the first single off of that album, “The Curtain Hits The Cast,” for which the band will shoot a video in the coming weeks.

I still haven’t heard the new album, but I do already like this song way, way more than anything from Fear Will Cast No Shadow; it’s catchy and it doesn’t sound overly processed, which, I think, is what The Autumn Offering were striving for. Check out the song below, and then my conversation with Matt McChesney after the jump! (FYI – for fear that this was all a set-up for Matt to have me murdered, the interview was conducted by e-mail.)

Click to read more…

So a lot of you guessed that the answer to last week’s logo was Hist. And while I can see why you might think that, the correct answer was actually HØST. No, I don’t know why some cultures put a line through their letter “o”s, and being a right proper patriot (read: xenophobe), I don’t especially care. But congrats to MetalSucks Maniacs Amber Duchateau, Travis Dvoracek, and Ryan Liedel, all of whom answered correctly, and all of whom now get ultra-special super duper yowza edition of Machine Head’s 2007 instant classic, The Blackening (pictured left).

But don’t cut your wrists if you didn’t win: the righteous dudes and dudettes at Roadrunner have provided us with two (2) more of these babies to give away this week. In addition to the album, you get two bonus tracks – a cover of Maiden’s “Hallowed By Thy Name” and a cover of Metallica’s “Battery” – PLUS a DVD with live performances, music videos, “making of” specials on those music videos, and, the piece de resistance, a “making of” documentary about the creation of The Blackening itself. So clearly, if you’re a fan of Machine Head or just good fucking metal in general, you need to own this.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl AT metalsucks DOT net. We’ll randomly select two winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce his or her names next week.

Thanks to longtime MetalSucks Maniac Attila Korsós for suggesting this week’s logo… it’s so fucking difficult it’s retarded, so I’ll be very impressed with those of you who get it right:

-AR

I friggin’ love it when I’m right: Megadeth will indeed be doing a co-headlining trek with Slayer. And Machine Fucking Head and Sucide Fucking Silence are the support. Holy fried shit sandwich, that’s a great tour.

Click to read more…

Wow. We haven’t done one of these since March. My sincerest apologies… shit happens, y’know? But since I sent out the prizes to the winner of that contest ages ago and have no fucking recollection whatsoever of the name of the band for that contest, let’s just start fresh, m’kay?

Alrighty. So. For our first week back, the fine folks at Roadrunner Records have provided us with some copies of the ultra-special super duper yowza edition of Machine Head’s 2007 instant classic, The Blackening. In addition to the album, you get two bonus tracks – a cover of Maiden’s “Hallowed By Thy Name” and a cover of Metallica’s “Battery” – PLUS a DVD with live performances, music videos, “making of” specials on those music videos, and, the piece de resistance, a “making of” documentary about the creation of The Blackening itself. So clearly, if you’re a fan of Machine Head or just good fucking metal in general, you need to own this. I’ve got three (3) copies to give away this week and then we’ll have a couple of more next week.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl AT metalsucks DOT net. We’ll randomly select three winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce his or her names next week.

Thanks to longtime MetalSucks Maniac/past Completely Unreadable Band Logo winner Kirsten Hogenson for suggesting this week’s logo… it’s a toughie to be sure!

-AR