MACHINE HEAD Guitarist: No New Album Until 2011

August 29, 2008

MetalSucks recently conducted an interview with MACHINE HEAD guitarist Phil Demmel at the Long Island, New York stop of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival tour. An excerpt from the chat follows.

MetalSucks: There was, obviously, a hugely popular response to "The Blackening". You guys have been touring behind it for over a solid year now.

Demmel: February of last year with LAMB OF GOD was our first run.

MetalSucks: So do you feel any battle fatigue?

Demmel: Yeah, dude. We had a little bit of time off, but I mean this is what we signed up for. We're probably halfway through our touring cycle now. We've got shit lined up at the end of this year with SLIPKNOT and then we've just landed something real super cool at the beginning of next year, we got summer festivals next year, and we want to do a proper headlining in America and overseas because we haven't done that. We've just done co-headlining. We're halfway through, man.

MetalSucks: So you're not even ready to be thinking about a new album yet?

Demmel: No. We tour to the end of next year, 2010 to write it, out for 2011.

MetalSucks: Wow. How does it feel to have been a part of an album that's been so well received by old fans, new fans, and the press? Everyone seems to have just really climbed on top of this album and loved it...

Demmel: I'm proud of it, man. I am, because it was a long writing process and the recording process... it seemed like nobody wanted us to finish this record. Problems just kept coming up with gear, the studio, ProTools and everything. I mean anyone who's an artist wants their art to be liked, so it's like redemption because I joined this band when it was at its lowest point. It's been like an escalator ever since. It hasn't stopped. I'm playing with the guys that I've always wanted to play with. They're my favorite band, and to be able make music like this makes me really proud.

MetalSucks: Did you have some sense when you were working on the album that it was really something special, or did it kind of catch you off guard when it came out and people responded so positively to it?

Demmel: I knew that we had an epic/classic sounding record. And that's what we wanted, and we were so stoked about it, so we knew people would like it, though not to the degree that it was accepted. We knew that we had something special here.

To read the rest of this interview, visit MetalSucks.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).