MACHINE HEAD has been added to SLIPKNOT's first-ever Knotfest, an extraordinary two-date metal and hard rock festival set to take place on August 17 in Council Bluffs, Iowa and August 18 in Somerset, Wisconsin.

Commented the festival organizers: "The mighty MACHINE HEAD has been tapped as one of the artists to replace the cancelation of LAMB OF GOD and DETHKLOK. We are very excited that MACHINE HEAD is rushing back from Europe to play Knotfest. They will perform at both the Iowa and Somerset/Minneapolis Knotfest shows."

Said MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn, "We are deeply saddened by the fact that our brother Randy [Blythe] of LAMB OF GOD remains incarcerated — he is innocent — and we continue to put our thoughts out to him so that he may be free soon.

"While we are extremely excited to be a part of the first annual Knotfest (which will be HUGE), we can't help feel it is a bittersweet moment. We will do our best to honor DETHKLOK, Randy, and LAMB OF GOD's absence by playing a blistering set, and should Randy still be in jail, we will have Knotfest singing our songs loud enough for him to hear in Prague.

"FREE RANDY BLYTHE!!!"

In addition to the headliners, both days will include sets from DEFTONES, SERJ TANKIAN and PRONG.

Also playing at the Iowa show will be THE URGE and DIRTFEDD, while the Wisconsin show will also feature CANNIBAL CORPSE, GOJIRA and THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN.

SLIPKNOT mastermind/percussionist M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan told The Pulse Of Radio that the Knotfest idea has been around for a long time. "We wanted to do it from the very, very beginning, but we accepted that there was a lot of things we wanted to accomplish for ourselves," he said. "And we figure, right before we take a little hiatus and get ourselves together for this next record, which is gonna be phenomenal, that we would end it with two shows called Knotfest. So we're very excited, and we're gonna bring rock 'n' roll back to some kind of level of conceptual thinking, and we know everybody's gonna have a blast."

Knotfest is being positioned as a "dark carnival experience," and the event will feature circus tents, pillars of fire, amusement park rides, burlesque performers, fire-breathers, stilt walkers, drum circles made of junkyard cars, graffiti walls and even a SLIPKNOT museum.

The festival will mark the end of a two-year grieving period for the band following the May 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray from an overdose of drugs.

To view all ticket and VIP options for both dates, visit www.knotfest.com.