Head on over to Pitchfork.com to check out the exclusive world premiere of the video for "Locust"! The video is directed by veteran Machine Head video director Mike Sloat with CGI effects created by a team of veteran Hollywood CGI artists and monster makers including album art designer Paul Gerrard, all helping to bring Paul's amazing album artwork to life!

Machine Head's "The Eighth Plague" Tour kicks off November 1st in Oslo, and tickets are disappearing fast! With confirmed sellouts in Copenhagen, Hamburg, Bilbao and Munich, be sure to get tickets to your local show now, while they're still available! Hit the Tours page for shows and info.

Check out Kerrang! magazine's Ian Winwood's incredible review of Machine Head's new album, "Unto The Locust"!

MACHINE HEAD

UNTO THE LOCUST

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OAKLAND RAIDERS RETURN WITH REMARKABLE NEW RELEASE

In the studio at which Machine Head recorded Unto The Locust, the Bay Area quartet's seventh studio album, there lay a large collection of vinyl LP's. As none of the group's members owned a record player, these 12 inch discs were viewed as something of a curiosity, and were pored over with uncommon attention to detail. On one occasion bandleader Robb Flynn happened to be perusing a latter-day album by Bob Dylan, the sleevenotes of which asked the artist how, after so many years, he managed to find the inspiration to continue writing songs. The answer, according to the Minnesota born genius, was simple: it's all about finding new ways to say the same thing.

Prior to recording their latest set, Machine Head had to their credit two world class albums: 1994's Burn My Eyes, the group's first release, and 2007's The Blackening. With Unto The Locust, the band has their third. Clocking in at a relatively svelte 48 minutes, this seven song offering is a piece that is trimmed of every gramme of fat, leaving only sinew and muscle – that and the organ that is the beating heart of progressive, modern metal.

Time was that the music Machine Head played was seen as being on the fringes of this genre's mainstream. With a date at London's Wembley Arena on the docket, today it finds itself occupying the centre ground. But while Robb Flynn may believe that Unto the Locust's job of work is to find a new vocabulary for familiar themes, really this is only part of the story. For while sections of this album make good use of known themes – This Is The End, for one, is a key example of the forensic thrash this band do as well as any, and better than almost all – elsewhere the authors can be found stretching their limbs into the unknown. Two songs in particular stand out as masterpieces, rendered all the better for being different from the kind of music one might associate with its creators. Darkness Within simmers with a quality for which Machine Head have never before been known: subtlety. Better yet is closing track Who We Are, a mountainous and majestic creation that is both as undeniable as the pull of gravity and as infectious as an airbourne disease. Kerry King once said of his own band that he desired for Slayer to be regarded as "the AC/DC of thrash", meaning that listeners would get from the group exactly what they expected. And while Unto The Locust has much within it that will appeal to unreconstructed customers, parts of this work showcase a unit whose creative appetites are still restless and free. It is this quality that sets Machine Head apart from the chasing pack, and which makes their latest album an offering worthy not only of one's time but also of one's respect.

IAN WINWOOD

Metal Hammer are giving away a customized Machine Head leather jacket painted by Danielle Vergne (seen below) and 5 "Unto The Locust" official album fanpacks! All you have to do to enter is follow this link and answer the question correctly!

A bunch of album launch parties for "Unto The Locust" will be happening this weekend and into next week around the UK in conjunction with Scuzz TV, Attitude Clothing & Jackson Guitars! Stop by, listen to the album and win some killer prizes!

Friday 21st October

Aberdeen - Rock Night @ Korova Klub

Glasgow - Cathouse

Hull - Komrades Rock Night @ Pozition Club

Leeds - F*U*E*L @ The Met

Lincoln - Rock Night @ Sugarcubes

Sheffield - Drop @ Corporation

Saturday October 22nd

Birmingham - Eddie’s

Camberly - R.O.C.K. @ Agincourt

Cardiff - Bogiez Rock Bar & Nightclub

Liverpool - Krazyhouse

Manchester - Satan’s Hollow

Newcastle - ROCK @ L.Y.H. Bar Newcastle

Nottingham - Hey Hey Hey @ Rock City

Monday October 24th

Ipswich - Bounce @ The Switch

Wednesday October 26th

London - Nasin @ The Borderline

At "Day On The Green" #19, featuring Metallica, Queensrÿche, Faith No More, Soundgarden, I started Machine Head.

Well, sort of... it was more of a figurative thought as I didn't have a band yet, but after watching / being blown away by Metallica for the umpteenth time, I decided that I was going to start a side project, as I was unhappy in my then-current band Vio-Lence. Later that night backstage (or maybe while Metallica was still playing and we were watching from the stage-right backstage bleachers?) I turned to my friend, partner-in-crime and long time Vio-Lence fan Adam Duce, and said I was going to start a then-unnamed side project and asked if he would like to play bass. He eagerly agreed.

I had two songs written by then, the heavily Godflesh-inspired "Death Church", and "Blood For Blood", both songs that I had already brought to Vio-Lence, but they were not interested in jamming either of them. Vio-Lence had gone through numerous label changes, were unsigned again, thrash was dead, and the vibe in the band at the time was that the new tunes were going to take a more heavy rock / grunge approach which seemed a bit crazy to me. Though I wasn't thrilled with our new direction, I said I would stay on, and though no one seemed happy about me doing it, starting a side project seemed fairly reasonable considering our circumstances.

4 months later following a (thoroughly documented) AM/PM gas station brawl after an Unjust / Deftones show (Deftones opening) at the Omni in Oakland, I quit Vio-Lence and focused on Machine Head full time. But that was still 4 months away, and for now, it was just a thought, an idea, a dream, that metal could be taken to a different, heavier place.

Did I think that 20 years later Machine Head would be a Top 25, Top 10 or Top 5 charting band throughout the world? Hell no.

Did I think Machine Head would even be going 20 years later? God no!

Did I think that we could become one of the best American metal bands on the planet? Yes.

20 years ago on this very day (October 12, 1991), Machine Head was born.

Happy Birthday, Machine Head.

- Robb

Check out highlights from the four "Unto The Locust" listening events in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Oakland, hosted by Machine Head to celebrate the release of the new album with fans and friends around the country!

Browse the photo gallery here.