MACHINE HEAD: Demo Version Of New Song “Killers & Kings” To Be Released For Record Store Day
Thursday, 23rd January 2014
As part of this year’s Record Store Day on April 19, San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD will release a 10-inch vinyl single, with the A-side containing the “demo” version of a new song, “Killers & Kings.” The B-side will be a cover version of the track “Our Darkest Days” from one of MACHINE HEAD’s favorite bands, IGNITE.
Says MACHINE HEAD guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn: “I remember growing up in the thrash scene and always wanting to hear the demo version of songs. You searched them out. Thankfully, my buddy Jim was a big ‘tape trader,’ and through trading, we had both METALLICA demos, EXODUS demos, bootlegs of songs sometimes ‘years’ before they came out.
“I knew how to play every note of ‘Pleasure Of The Flesh’ by EXODUS easily two years before the record was out. I had SLAYER’s ‘Reign In Blood’ three months before it came out. I remember it still had the hi-hat counts starting the songs!! My friends and I would debate the merits of each (the demo was always better, LOL!). It’s so much cooler to hear it BEFORE the album is out! So we’re gonna do that for you.
“I can’t wait for you guys to hear this stuff. Then you can debate it, haha!”
MACHINE HEAD will enter the studio in February to begin recording its new album for a late summer release via the band’s new label, Nuclear Blast Entertainment. Other tentative songtitles set to appear on the CD include “Beneath The Silt”, “Ojos De La Muerte”, “Sail Into The Black” and “Night Of The Long Knives”.
Says Flynn: “The new stuff is turning out better than anyone expected.
“We had THE breakthrough with the song formerly known as ‘Back From The Grave’. I’d been working with the string section that played on ‘Locust’, Quartet Rogue, as well as multi-instrumentalist / keyboardist Rhys Fulber, and to quote [METALLICA drummer] Lars Ulrich (who was actually quoting Robert Trujillo), ‘We’re on some NEXT-LEVEL shit!!!’
“With that one song getting finished, I could totally see where the whole record is going. It opened up before my eyes. Nothing short of exciting!!!”
Founded in 2007 and officially kicked off in 2008 by METALLICA, Record Store Day normally takes place on the third Saturday of every April and brings together artists and independently owned record stores around the world to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and sold in independent stores.
