Drum-cam footage of MACHINE HEAD drummer Matt Alston performing the song “Halo” with his bandmates during their January/February 2020 North American tour can be seen below.
MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn spoke to France’s HEAVY1 about the addition of Polish guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka (DECAPITATED) and British drummer Alston (DEVILMENT, EASTERN FRONT) to the group’s ranks. Kiełtyka and Alston joined MACHINE HEAD in time for the 25th-anniversary tour for the band’s classic debut, “Burn My Eyes”, which kicked off in Germany in October 2019.
“We were doing auditions for a while, and Vogg‘s audition just fucking blew my mind — it was so fucking tight and fucking accurate,” Flynn stated about how the guitarist ended up landing the gig. “He sent over [a recording of] ‘Imperium’ as his first song just as a test. We always had all the dudes do a sound test, just to make sure the levels are good and stuff. I was, like, ‘Oh my God! This dude is playing ‘Imperium’ better than I can right now.’ [Laughs] It was crazy. And we ended up talking. Super-nice guy. Matt, same thing. We flew him out, jammed with him, and he killed it.”
Each show on MACHINE HEAD‘s latest tour was described in a press release as “a three-hour musical extravaganza,” comprised of two parts: part one features a battery of MACHINE HEAD‘s modern classics, such as “Imperium”, “Halo” and “Now We Die”, featuring Flynn and bassist Jared MacEachern performing alongside Kiełtyka and Alston. Part two features “Burn My Eyes” played in its entirety for the first time ever, with original drummer Chris Kontos and guitarist Logan Mader joining in.
Asked how all the musicians are getting along and whether they are traveling together, Flynn told HEAVY1: “We’re all in the band together — we all live together. The band’s all on the bus — all six of us. And it’s a great ride, man. Everybody is very respectful; everybody knows their role and just kind of doing it here and enjoying it. Everybody is out here having a blast. It’s so nice to have people who are in a positive frame of mind, ’cause it wasn’t like that in the past. And now it is, and it’s fucking awesome.”
Kontos left MACHINE HEAD before the release of the band’s second album, 1997’s “The More Things Change”, and was replaced by Dave McClain.
Mader contributed to two MACHINE HEAD albums, the aforementioned “Burn My Eyes” and “The More Things Change”, before exiting the group and being replaced by Ahrue Luster and, later on, Phil Demmel.
McClain and Demmel both left MACHINE HEAD in October 2018.
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