Interview with Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel
After flirting with Nu-Metal and rapping (just kidding guys), Machine Head have defied the odds and returned with an absolute vengeance. The bands new album The Blackening is far and away the bands best work since their classic debut release Burn My Eyes. It's brutal and beautiful all at once. Much like last years Monotheist by Celtic Frost, Machine Head are Metal veterans who are showing the young bands of today that there is more to being a Heavy Metal band than just noise. The Blackening is everything that metal should be: Anger with a purpose, craftmanship and skill behind the thrashing, and a sense of depth and power that goes beyond mere heavy-for-the sake-of-being-heavy. I spoke with guitarist Phil Demmel just after the release of the album to get the inside scoop on how the band created a modern day Metal classic.
Anarchy Music: Congratulations on the new album. Not only are a lot of people saying it's the best Metal album of the year, some are calling it the best Metal album of all time!
Phil Demmel: Crazy huh? (laughs)
Anarchy: You always read in magazines about records that are supposed to be good but when you hear them they aren't as impressive as you're led to believe. This really does live up to the hype. Tell me about the mindset you were in when you went into the studio to create this album.
Phil: Well, we were trying to follow the same formula we did for the last record. That being writing for ourselves and what makes us happy as musicians. Let's not worry about label intervention or what radio might want. Let's do what we want. If there's a riff that needs another part, let's give the song what it needs to have to become a song.
Anarchy: No disrespect, but this is a band that a lot of people had written off for one reason or another and said that Machine Head was past their prime. Was there any desire to say "shut up, we're going to release an album that's going to rip your fucking face off"?
Phil: Well, I think that especially here in the US even for the new record all the articles you're going to read say "after flirting with Nu-Metal and rapping and blah blah blah". There's always going to be that stigma here in America for some fucking reason and we don't know why and it sucks. I think that for whatever reason over here people just weren't feeling it. Overseas the band was drawing more and more every time we go over there. Here for some reason there's this stigma attatched. I guess we weren't in the right clique, the Hot Topic clique or MTV clique. This is an album for us and we just hope everybody else likes it.
Anarchy: It must suck to be in the Talent clique, where you may not be cool, but you are fucking good.
Phil: Yeah (laughs)
Anarchy: There's a lot of solos on this record, there's some moster fucking riffs. Also, some of the songs are longer than what you typical hear these days. Did you go in intending to bring in a more oldschool vibe with more solo and epic sounding songs?
Phil: One of the preconcieved ideas was to bring back the epic feel. We wanted a big sounding album with epic riffs. The solos by nature was just Rob (Flynn, vocals/guitar) and I vibing off each other. There's no selfishness involved. Even Adam (Duce, bass) doing some bass things here and there.
Anarchy: You and Rob have worked together off and on for years since the days in your previous band Vio-lence, and since you've been in Machine Head the band has been in a creative upswing. Do you feel like you guys have a natural chemistry that brings out the best in each other?
Phil: Well, we grew up playing guitar together so we have very similiar playing styles and pretty similiar performance levels. He's a stronger rhythm player and I think I'm a stronger lead player. We draw off each others strengths. I think that there is such a chemistry there that some of the harmonies are just organic. We just know what each other is going to do.
Anarchy: There's also a strong sense of melody on this album, which is something that all great metal bands have. Early Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Pantera, Anthrax, Celtic Frost, Machine Head...you've all got melody, but it's something most metal bands seem to overlook when creating songs. How important is melody to the sucess of this album?
Phil: I think that it draws in peripheral fans that are fans of the songs. I think that Rob's got an amazing way of structuring vocal melodies and hooks that draws in peripheral fans that are into the powerful stuff but want to hear some melody as well. I think we cover both bases there. And like I said, it's organic. Rob has just manufactured his voice right now to where he's just singing amazing. Adam too, the harmonies are excellent.
Anarchy: You had planned to release a video for "Now I Lay Thee Down", but I know that plans have changed. What's the latest on that?
Phil: We filmed a video for "Now I Lay Thee Down". It's track four, so it's a little more mellow, but we wanted to come out heavier. We're coming out with "Aesthetics Of Hate". We filmed it yesterday. That's goingt o be the first video.
Anarchy: That song is about the media reaction to Dimebag Darrell's death. I remember when I came home and heard that it had happened, I turned on CNN and they were making light of the very tragic situation. This is about that same kind of criticism, so on behalf of all the Dimebag fans, thanks for writing a song that says "Fuck you, we're human too".
Phil: Right. It's about this website called The Inconoclast. William Grimm was the writer of this article called "Aesthetics Of Hate: Goodbye Dimebag Darrell and Good Riddance". It was basically lambasting the whole metal community for mourning one of our heroes. He said that he was untalented and stuff like that so it was our middle finger back at them.
Anarchy: You also get into other social commentary as well. You aren't big fans of the war or the president right?
Phil: No, actually I'm not. He's a fucking moron (laughs). We're all different on our politics and our religion, but one thing we all agree on is that we're against occupying Iraq. We're not a political band, we're not going to get on any soapbox but what we're doing over there is wrong.
Anarchy: Hell, I voted for the guy once and I feel stupid about it.
Phil: I did too, just because I didn't want to see Gore.
Anarchy: Yeah, because Gore was all about censorship and is probably insane. Meanwhile, Bush seemed like he might be alright and he was obviously a drunk. But I feel fucked though.
Phil: Yeah, we all feel fucked.
Anarchy: How's the current tour with Lamb Of God going? One thing about them is that they bring the best package possible every time they tour.
Phil: They do! They're like the quintessential heavy band right now. They're top 10, grammy nominated, and for the style of music they're playing? Oh my god, I love that band! Solid package from top to bottom. Gojira is awesome, killer band! The Trivium kids are bringing in the kids every night and are solid too. We're just plugging along and happy to be here. It's sold out almost every night and we're getting to the chance to play for all the Lamb Of God kids who have never seen us before. Every night Rob asks who's seeing us for the first time and it's just about everybody. And we 've got them too! By the end of our show we're selling albums for sure!
Anarchy: This isn't really a question, but after this is over...Black Sabbath???
Phil: Crazy huh?
Anarchy: You'll be touring with Heaven And Hell, which is the Dio era Sabbath. That's awesome!
Phil: Oh yeah, we're all super stoked.
Anarchy: How did that come about?
Phil: Well, the deal was that we were going to go out with Megadeth on a tour starting at the same time as this tour. As it was coming down to to it megadeth ended up getting the Heaven And Hell tour. We were submitted for it but didn't know if we were going to get it or not. I was like "Sabbath isn't going to take us out". We ended up getting it man! We are such fans of that era of Sabbath. We love Heaven And Hell and Mob Rules and it's my first arena tour, so we're stoked.
Anarchy: I'm the same way. I don't get the affection for Ozzy over Dio era Sabbath. Dio is truly the uncrowned king of Metal. After that though, will you be doing a headlining tour so your fans can see a full set from you?
Phil: That's going to take us to the end of May. In June and half of July we'll be in Europe doing festivals. We're trying to hop onto a summer tour here for July and August.
Anarchy: Like an Ozzfest? I know Lamb Of God is doing that.
Phil: Maybe Ozzfest, maybe Family Values, maybe whatever might pop up. We're doing a full European run in October and November, so maybe a headlining tour here by January of '08.
Anarchy: I always wondered this about Mteallica during their early years. You have just released an album in The Blackening...this is Vulgar Display Of Power. This is Master Of Puppets. This is Reign In Blood. Do you feel right now that in 20 years people might be holding this up in that league?
Phil: I'm not feeling that. I'm feeling that it'll be relevant in that time. I definitely think that it'll stand the test of time. But I'm so anti..."the new Shadows Fall is the new Ride The Lighting, the new As I Lay Dying is the new Master Of Puppets". There will never be another Ride The Lightning or Master Of Puppets. There will never be another Metallica to come through and change metal to forge a path so that all of us can do this. They did it. There will never be another Master Of Puppets. Come on! Is it a classic record? Yeah. That's the only comparison that I want.
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The Blackening is indeed a classic album. Fans of oldschool thrash will love it and fans of more current Metalcore stuff will be blown away by it's raw power. Yes, the band has stumbled a few times on previous releases. No, you aren't expecting the album to be as good as it is. If you don't believe the hype, then give it a listen and see for yourself. Go to Machine Head's Myspace page and MachineHead1.com to hear some songs and learn more about the band. I'd like to thank Phil for his time and a big thanks to our friends at Adrenaline PR for making this possible. Machine Head fucking jams!