MACHINE HEAD‘s Robb Flynn and Jared MacEachern held the latest “Electric Happy Hour” on Friday, March 19 during which they performed their second album, “The More Things Change…” , in its entirety. You can now watch the video below.
Featured songs:
7:15 Ten Ton Hammer
12:06 Take My Scars
16:55 Struck A Nerve
23:24 Down To None (intro)
24:28 Down To None
31:52 The Frontlines
37:44 Spine
45:34 Bay Of Pigs
49:40 Violate
1:01:28 Blistering
1:06:10 Blood Of The Zodiac
1:12:41 Hallowed Be Thy Name
1:20:02 Game Over
1:33:35 The Kill (acoustic) (intro)
1:36:00 The Kill (acoustic)
1:40:22 Walk All Over You (acoustic) (snippet)
1:42:32 Die Young (acoustic)
1:50:09 Halo
Released in 1997, “The More Things Change…” was MACHINE HEAD‘s last LP to feature original lead guitarist Logan Mader, and the first to feature drummer Dave McClain. The album reached No. 138 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1997, and as of 2002 had sold over 115,000 copies in the United States. In 2020, it was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 1997 by Metal Hammer magazine.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Flynn has been staging “Acoustic Happy Hour” solo sessions every Friday, during which he has performed a number of MH tunes as well as covers of other artists’ songs.
Flynn told Kerrang! magazine about “Acoustic Happy Hour”: “It’s just basically a free show on Facebook. I try to learn two new songs every Friday. I take requests, and I try to play MACHINE HEAD songs that have never been played live acoustic. Last week I covered MUSE, TOOL and LYNYRD SKYNYRD. It’s been fucking awesome. The first three or four were horrible — I knew they were — but I knew that if I kept sucking for six weeks I would get past it.
“For the first 20 years of my career, I never took singing lessons,” he continued. “Then I did some about 10 years ago. With these acoustic shows, I’ve been back in contact with my old singing teacher to try and figure out why I can do a three-and-a-half hour MACHINE HEAD show, but this clean singing is kicking my ass. It’s been an opportunity to un-learn all the wrong shit and get an opportunity to do things right.”
In November, MACHINE HEAD released a new single, “My Hands Are Empty”, via Nuclear Blast. The song marked the first musical collaboration between Flynn and original “Burn My Eyes” guitarist Logan Mader in 24 years.
“My Hands Are Empty” was the latest in a line of singles to be released by MACHINE HEAD, which issued “Do Or Die” in October 2019, “Circle The Drain” in February, and the two-song digital single “Civil Unrest”, consisting of “Stop The Bleeding” and “Bulletproof”, in June. “Stop The Bleeding” featured guest vocals from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE frontman Jesse Leach, and was written and recorded just days after the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.
In July, MACHINE HEAD canceled its previously announced rescheduled 2020 tour dates for Europe and Australia due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe.
Each show on MACHINE HEAD‘s “Burn My Eyes” 25th-anniversary tour consisted of two parts: part one saw Flynn and MacEachern performing alongside new recruits, guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka (DECAPITATED) and British drummer Matt Alston (DEVILMENT, EASTERN FRONT); while part two featured “Burn My Eyes” played in its entirety for the first time ever, with original “Burn My Eyes”-era drummer Chris Kontos and Mader joining in.
