PHIL DEMMEL Says His New Song Was Rejected For Use On MACHINE HEAD's 'Catharsis' Album

January 6, 2020

Former MACHINE HEAD and current VIO-LENCE guitarist Phil Demmel has released the song "The Permanent Decay", featuring an all-star cast, including BLEEDING THROUGH vocalist Brandan Schieppati, MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson, and SACRED REICH (and ex-MACHINE HEAD) drummer Dave McClain. The official lyric video for the track, which was written by Demmel in late 2016 and rejected for use on MACHINE HEAD's "Catharsis" album, can be seen below.

Says Demmel: "I had some tracks I had written and submitted for a previous band, that were never used, and I really liked them. Dave McClain and I had worked some of them up, and I kept thinking of who would be perfect to sing on it. My wife plays in BLEEDING THROUGH with Brandan, he ended up writing all the vocals, and singing on it, and it came out killer. Ellefson and I had been talking at NAMM last year about doing something together, so when this came up, it was the perfect opportunity to do that as well. We don't know if we're a band, we don't know what we're doing, other than that we all played on this song, and that we dig it. No one knows what the future holds.”

Adds Ellefson: "About a year ago when we were doing METAL ALLEGIANCE at the Anaheim House of Blues, I mentioned to Phil that we should collaborate on something together. And as the year went by, he contacted me back in October about a track, and he sent it over to me, I loved it. It was fun to work with Brandan, who is so respected in his genre, I always love playing with innovators, and in this case, I've had a great experience and friendship playing with Phil, and to be able to branch out and play with Brandan, and to be back playing with Dave McClain who played on 'Hammer Comes Down' on my 'Sleeping Giants' album, was really kinda reuniting the family in a way, but at the same time stepping out into some new turf, and a new sound, for me, that we kinda touched on on 'Sleeping Giants' as well. I love to branch out and work with a new cast of people, and dive into different styles and genres of metal, and that's really what this was all about.”

McClain says: "Originally when me and Phil were in MACHINE HEAD, and it came time to start writing stuff for the next record, Phil had some ideas and riffs, and I'm always down there practicing all day. He just came down one day, he had these riffs, we started messing around. I mic'ed up everything in the room on my laptop, and we recorded this stuff live, and then it ended up not being used for anything. Fast forward to all this time later, when we're both out of MACHINE HEAD, and Phil was going out on this guitar clinic tour, and he was like, 'Let's record some of the riffs and songs I had.'"

"The Permanent Decay" will be the first track released digitally under Demmel's Echoes Of Reckoning umbrella of music, a collection of songs with various artists covering various genres.

Demmel announced his exit from MACHINE HEAD in October 2018, explaining at the time that he wanted "to step away and do something else musically."

Last spring, Demmel told the "In The Pitts Of Metal And Motor Chaos" podcast that MACHINE HEAD ended up becoming a Robb Flynn solo project toward the end of his time with the group. Demmel also said that the musical side of MACHINE HEAD took a sharp turn for the worse during the writing stage for "Catharsis", an album that he said he hated.

Photo credit:

Phil Demmel - Melody Myers
David Ellefson - Anthony Frisketti
Brandan Schieppatti - Olly Hanks
Dave McClain - Stephanie Cabral Photography

Find more on Phil demmel
  • 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).