San Francisco Bay Space metallers MACHINE HEAD will launch their eleventh studio album, “Unatoned”, on April 25 by way of Nuclear Blast/Imperium Recordings.
The official Mike Sloat-directed music video for the LP’s third single, “Bonescraper”, might be seen beneath.
MACHINE HEAD feedback: “This one is for these of us with darkness in our coronary heart, a track about love misplaced, and a track for individuals who fail at love… however carry on attempting… therefore, we scrape our bones to numb the ache.”
In accordance with a press launch, “Unatoned” is “a testomony to momentum, an album honed to its sharpest edge, cast on inventive self-discipline and the starvation to push ahead. It drips with melancholy melodies, and but hammers with bludgeoning riffs, soars with anthemic sing-alongs of affection misplaced and unhappiness, to bellowing energy and plain confidence. Eleven albums deep, MACHINE HEAD stay as fierce, related, and unstoppable as ever.”
Written in movement — on the street, in lodge rooms, and throughout continents — “Unatoned” displays the uncooked vitality of their return to the worldwide competition circuit after an 11-year hiatus. The LP was recorded at guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn‘s Jam Room, Sharkbite Studios and Drop Of Solar Recording between July 2023 and December 2024. The album was produced by Flynn, in addition to Zack Ohren, who was additionally liable for the engineering. The blending and mastering was dealt with by Colin Richardson and Chris Clancy at Audioworks UK, and the mastering of the document was dealt with by Ted Jensen and his assistant Justin Shturtz. The one exception was the observe “Panorama Of Thorns” which was produced by Flynn and Joel Wanasek who was additionally in control of mixing the only alongside Zack Ohren. MACHINE HEAD as soon as once more tapped Seth Siro Anton to create the album paintings.
“Unatoned” observe itemizing:
01. Panorama Of Thorns
02. Atomic Revelations
03. Unbound
04. Outsider
05. Not Lengthy For This World
06. These Scars Will not Outline Us
07. Dustmaker
08. Bonescraper
09. Addicted To Ache
10. Bleeding Me Dry
11. Shards Of Shattered Desires
12. Scorn
MACHINE HEAD carried out “These Scars Will not Outline Us” and “Unbound” dwell for the primary time in the course of the kick-off live performance of the band’s North American tour on Tuesday, April 1 at Revolution Live performance Home And Occasion Middle in Backyard Metropolis, Idaho. MACHINE HEAD additionally performed in Spokane, Washington on April 3 earlier than teaming up with IN FLAMES, LACUNA COIL and UNEARTH for an additional 25 dates throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Flynn instructed “The Garza Podcast” about “Unatoned”: “My final album was like an enormous renaissance for the band. It simply was fucking loopy. We headlined Hellfest [in France]. It was our tenth document. It was an idea document. It was the primary time we ever did an idea document. Opening observe was a 10-minute-long track. It is nuts.
“I am lucky sufficient to have been on this place a handful of occasions the place I now should comply with up this document that’s so beloved by followers, by folks,” he continued. “It is extremely profitable — elevates the band to a different degree. And everyone needs us to write down one other idea document. Everyone is simply, like, ‘It is best to simply make one other document like that one.’ And I am, like, ‘You may’t, as a result of it is by no means gonna dwell up.’ Nothing’s ever gonna dwell up, as a result of that second for thus many individuals… Lars [Ulrich of METALLICA] all the time talked about this — the rationale so many individuals love [METALLICA‘s] Black Album, it is, like, they misplaced the virginity to the Black Album. Nothing is ever gonna prime that. Folks misplaced their virginity to [MACHINE HEAD‘s] ‘[Unto] The Locust’ or ‘The Blackening’ or no matter. Nothing’s ever gonna prime that. That is simply life and stuff.
“So with this document, I set some fairly strict parameters round what I may do,” Flynn defined. “And I am not an enormous believer in speaking concerning the path of a document. I all the time really feel like even when we have performed it up to now, it by no means panned out. ‘Oh, it is gonna be the heaviest or the beating’ or the no matter, and you’ve got simply gotta comply with it to wherever it goes… However I did wish to put some construction round it. The final document had a bunch of lengthy songs, so I used to be, like, ‘I do not need any track longer than 4 minutes on this document.’ In order that was one construction. The opposite construction is — [I’m a] enormous SLAYER fan to the loss of life; [they’re] one in every of my favourite bands, life-changing bands of all occasions. And probably the most underrated issues about SLAYER is their genius use of chord modifications — chord modifications fucking galore throughout each track. [They’d] have, like, three completely different chord modifications within the lead part, and it the way in which it units up the refrain or no matter. So I used to be, like, ‘Each track has to have a chord change exterior of the standard construction that you’d count on.’ … Sooner or later it is gotta go to a key change that absolutely does not go together with the place the remainder of the track went. Last item is that the music within the final refrain needed to be completely different from the music within the first refrain — possibly the drums drop out, possibly the guitars drop out, possibly that is the place the important thing change occurs, however one thing needed to be [different]. The lyrics would all the time be the identical. And at first it form of took me a minute to form of get into that mindset, like, ‘Wow, this can be a actually difficult option to write,’ but it surely all the time simply grew to become about trimming the fats, trimming the fats, trimming the fats. And in the long run what we got here up with was 10 songs plus two instrumentals. It is 41 minutes — the shortest album in MACHINE HEAD historical past. And I am actually happy with this factor. I actually really feel like we have a fucking monster on our palms. It is simply actually distinctive.”
Elaborating on the musical path of “Unatoned”, Robb mentioned: “It isn’t our heaviest document; I might by no means say that it is our heaviest document. It is received a variety of melody. The final track on the document is a… I am a complete sucker for the Elton John piano ballad. I really like Chris Stapleton… And that final track ‘Scorn’ is… It is, like, I have been attempting to write down a piano ballad for 4 albums in a row now, and I failed 4 albums in a row. And I lastly nailed it with this album. I collaborated with this man Joel Wanasek. I collaborated with Jordan [Fish], ex-BRING ME THE HORIZON, on the entire album. He truly received a bit on the document, which was actually cool — added a very wonderful ingredient. I’ve received a couple of collaborators, like 4 guys that I work with, however me and this man, Joel Wanasek, lastly nailed down this piano factor… It was the final track I wrote on the document. And I do know lots of people assume I am tremendous Mr. Libtard, social justice warrior man and that is simply not me, however that is form of simply what folks assume and the haters assume. And I simply began writing about — not that — however I simply began writing about, I do not consider in Trump, however I believe the fucking Democrats are a bunch of spineless fucking pussies. And I do not consider in something anymore. I consider in myself. And I simply wrote all of those lyrics form of in that mindset. And the final line is, ‘The wings of an angel, the guts of a king, the energy of a lion, the facility I convey. I’ve misplaced religion in everybody, comply with no extra, my heroes have failed me, they appear down on me with their scorn.’ And so I took all of that. I used to be, like, ‘I haven’t got any music, however I actually like these lyrics.’ So I got here in with Zack [Ohren] — Zack‘s my engineer; he is my producer. He’s fucking superior; he is wonderful… And I simply picked up a guitar and I simply mentioned, ‘I am gonna play 4 chords right here and I am simply gonna make this up as I’m going. I do not even know what I am doing. I simply wanna sing over this to one thing.’ And I did, and I sang it, and I sang it in two takes. I laid out all of the lyrics that I had written that morning. I pulled up some shit on my pc. I received two binders of lyrics. I wrote three and a half binders of lyrics from this document alone — simply three and a half binders… And I actually sang the track in two takes, and after I was performed, I used to be, like, ‘That track’s fucking performed.’ And it is the final track on the document. And I despatched the chords to Joel and I used to be, like, ‘Hey, like, are you able to make this into unhappy piano chords and put it collectively and form of reverse engineer the remainder of the track?’ And I’ve gotta say, I am so happy with this track. It is undoubtedly form of the outlier of the document, however I actually simply really feel prefer it’s a particular track. And it is form of one thing we have by no means performed. And once you’ve been attempting to do one thing for a very long time — 15 years, I have been attempting to write down a fucking piano track — and it all the time simply sounded too dorky… And it [finally] occurred [on this album].”
Flynn additionally talked about his basic method to creating artwork with MACHINE HEAD, saying: “I do not know what I am doing. I am simply attempting to write down music. Alls I ever needed to do was simply play guitar and write songs and sing and make motherfuckers circle pit and make motherfuckers soar and sing and fucking headbang and go loopy. That is all I’ve ever needed to do.
“I am not a businessman. I do not know what the fucking proper choice is,” he continued. “I simply know the music that I do and the place it comes from, and I do know that I am actually, actually, actually good at that. I do know that. I am not one in every of these guys who’s good at 1,000,000 fucking issues — I am not — however I do know that I am actually, actually good at that. And I simply attempt to give attention to that. And I’ve received workforce of those who assist me make selections now and I really feel like we have all received head on our shoulders and what MACHINE HEAD must be.
“We’re not the heaviest band on this planet,” he added. “We’re heavy, however we have been round for 32 years, and motherfuckers like [SUICIDE SILENCE] got here alongside and LORNA SHORE and SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL, and [those bands are] fucking 10 occasions heavier than we’ll ever, ever, ever be. I am unable to sing like that. I do not even wanna attempt to; it would be fucking ridiculous to. It might sound silly for my fucking heavy steel Gandalf ass to be fucking attempting to sing like that. We discovered our lane and we’re tremendous fortunate that we discovered our lane and we fucking made that lane just a little bit wider and just a little bit wider so we will form of go over right here and do that and go over right here and do that. However on the finish of the day, it is simply MACHINE HEAD music. That is what it’s to me. It is steel, for certain — one hundred percent.”
Final November, MACHINE HEAD launched “These Scars Will not Outline Us” as the primary single from “Unatoned”.
MACHINE HEAD‘s present lineup consists of former HAVOK guitarist Reece Alan Scruggs. Scruggs stepped in for MACHINE HEAD‘s earlier guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka, who had been unable to make among the group’s dates as a consequence of his touring commitments together with his longtime band DECAPITATED.
Reece made his dwell debut with MACHINE HEAD in November 2022 at Strummer’s in Fresno, California on the opening present of the “Electrical Glad Hour (Reside)” tour.
Vogg joined MACHINE HEAD‘s touring lineup previous to the launch of the band’s “Burn My Eyes” Twenty fifth-anniversary tour in late 2019.
The remainder of MACHINE HEAD‘s lineup consists of guitarist/vocalist Flynn, bassist Jared MacEachern and British drummer Matt Alston (DEVILMENT, EASTERN FRONT).
Earlier final yr, MACHINE HEAD accomplished the “Slaughter The Martour” North American tour with help from L.A.’s FEAR FACTORY, Sweden’s ORBIT CULTURE and Louisville, Kentucky’s GATES TO HELL.
Photograph credit score: Travis Shinn