MACHINE HEAD Frontman On New CD: 'Guitars Are Massive!'

Producer Colin Richardson (FEAR FACTORY, NAPALM DEATH) began mixing the new album from San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD, "The Blackening", last week in England. Once again produced by singer/guitarist Robert Flynn, the follow-up to 2003's "Through the Ashes of Empires" was recorded at at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California and is set for worldwide release in March 2007 via Roadrunner Records.

Commented Flynn: "We got three mixes done at this point and as my friend Sir Sparks-A-Lot put it, 'Jesus H. Fucking Christ on a crutch!!!!!!!??????' ... 'SICK!!!!!!!!'

"Colin Richardson is KILLING it!!! Guitars are massive!!!!!!!!!

"We wrapped up tracking Saturday, went to the RE:IGNITION record release and got PLOWED and gloriously wrecked, had a fucking blast!!! Early-METALLICA cover band DAMAGE INC. closed the show, and fuckin' RULED it!!! Bassist did 'Anesthesia Pulling Teeth' flawless... WOW! I haven't headbanged that hard in ages. We raged so hard, DAMAGE INC. got shut off, and everyone nearly fought the whole security force... great, GREAT night!!

"Leaving for London tomorrow to do press for a few days, and then back home for some much-needed R&R.

"Video update coming quick."

Tentative songtitles for "The Blackening" include "Clenching the Fists of Dissent", "Aesthetics of Hate", "Halo", "The Beautiful Mourning", "Now I Lay Thee Down", "Wolves" and "A Farewell to Arms".

In a recent interview with MTV.com, Flynn stated about the upcoming CD, "We really didn't want to play it safe on this record. We kind of came back from the dead with 'Through the Ashes of Empires', and the safest thing we could've done would've been to just stay in [that] vein and try to keep that formula because it worked last time. Not that there was a formula really. We just started writing and the music that we were writing just started going in this far more complex, intricate and layered direction. It's not like we sat there and intentionally did it. It just kind of [happened]. Pretty soon we ended up having 10-minute-long songs. But the thing that's really cool about it is, we're not just jamming on three riffs for 10 minutes. This is molten riffage — just 20, 30 crushing riffs per song."

MACHINE HEAD will shoot a video for the album's first single next month. As for touring, Flynn said there's a big announcement on the way. He claims they'll be touring from February through April "on a huge tour we're super-excited about" (rumored to also include LAMB OF GOD and TRIVIUM). Flynn said MACHINE HEAD will spend most of 2007 on the road.