MACHINE HEAD's ROBB FLYNN On 'Catharsis' Album: 'It's A Game Changer For Us'

MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn was interviewed on a recent installment of HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta‘s official podcast, “The Jasta Show”. You can now listen to the chat using the SoundCloud widget below.

Speaking about MACHINE HEAD‘s ninth studio album, “Catharsis”, Flynn said: “I’ve been telling our fans, ‘Lower your expectations for the heaviness. Lower your expectations for the thashiness.’ It’s a very grooving, very melodic record. To me, it’s just what the record is.

“‘It’s the heaviest we’ve ever been,’ or, ‘It’s the most melodic that we’ve ever been’ — [those are] two things that every fucking metal band says, and it’s a cliché,” he continued. “I was looking at this record, and I knew I was going on a press tour [to promote it], and I’m, like, ‘What am I gonna talk about?’ It’s fucking really melodic record. It’s a really grooving record. And I’ve gotta be straight about this. I’ve just gotta fucking call it how I see it. And, yeah, it definitely has kind of tripped some fans out — they’re worried — and I’m, like, ‘There’s nothing to be worried about.'”

According to Robb, “Catharsis” is the record that could have followed 1999’s “The Burning Red”, an album that some people felt saw MACHINE HEAD transform from a solid groove/post-thrash metal band into a full-fledged nu metal outfit. “It’s a rocking record. It’s a game changer for us,” Flynn said. “There’s some really unique stuff. We’re getting weird here and there, and it’s cool. We’re going all over the place. It’s just great songs, and [I’m] super proud of it.”

Robb went on to say that it’s “okay” if some of the MACHINE HEAD fans are “freaked out” over his description of the upcoming album. “I think those people will appreciate that I was as straight-up as I was come January when they hear it, because I’m not out here trying to convince everybody that it’s [SLAYER‘s] ‘Reign In Blood’,” he said. “It’s not ‘Reign In Blood’, it’s not ‘The Blackening’, it’s not ‘Burn My Eyes’ — it’s something else. And if you like pretty much, in my opinion, any era of MACHINE HEAD, you’re gonna get it. We’ve always had melodic moments, we’ve always had tons of singing and vocal harmonies. Even acoustic songs like ‘Darkness Within’ or ‘Descend The Shades Of Night’, ‘Deafening Silence’, ‘The Burning Red’, ‘I’m Your God Now’ off ‘Burn My Eyes’ — you know, it’s heavy as fuck, but it’s, basically, to me, like a power ballad. It’s got those quiet, soft verses. And there’s a lot of that [on ‘Catharsis’]. There’s a little bit of rapping on there.”

“Catharsis” will be released on January 26, 2018 via Nuclear Blast. The effort will be made available in several formats, including a CD/DVD digipak edition which contains footage of MACHINE HEAD‘s 2015 concert at San Francisco’s Regency Ballroom.

The follow-up to 2014’s “Bloodstone & Diamonds”, “Catharsis” was produced by Flynn and recorded, mixed, and co-produced by Zack Ohren (FALLUJAH, ALL SHALL PERISH) at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California. Mastering was handled by Ted Jensen (HATEBREED, ALICE IN CHAINS, DEFTONES) at Sterling Sound in New York. Cover photography was created by Seanen Middleton.