Robb, Jared and Navene Koperweiss (Entheos, Whitechapel, Animals As Leaders) joined producer Zack Ohren inside Sharkbite Studios back in January to begin drum tracking on various new songs.  Take a quick peek inside the making of some new Machine Head tracks and Navene's incredible drumming. 

It has been brought to our attention that a small portion of the recent re-issue of “The Blackening” vinyl (picture disc) has arrived with duplicates of the picture disc.  Our partners at Nuclear Blast are speaking to the manufacturers to sort out this inexcusable and embarrassing mistake ASAP.

If your disc arrives and is a duplicate, contact us immediately at orders@tentontradingco.com

As we have just started sending items out, some of our staff have suggested a couple of options to move forward:

- We can send the picture disc as-is and you will likely get a correct disc, or possibly incorrect item and we can get the correct disc over time.

- We can carefully open up the side of every single vinyl and confirm if the vinyl is correct before sending out, but you will be receiving a package that is not seal-wrapped.  

The 2nd option is likely the safest manner in which to deal with this, but some collectors understandably prefer to keep the vinyl completely sealed.

Reply or leave a comment about what you are comfortable with

Thank you

- Ten Ton Trading Team

This weeks Electric Happy Hour 🍻🥃🍹🍸🍷🍺🧉🍾🥂 celebrates the 24th anniversary of Machine Head's classic 2nd album "The More Things Change" and includes a first-time-ever full-album-play-through. Features the smashes "Ten Ton Hammer" to deep cut "Blood Of The Zodiac", as well as covers of Iron Maiden "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and Black Sabbath "Die Young (acoustic)".

BEERS UP! 🍻

Support the boys, and leave some beer money! 🤘🏻 https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/backmachinehead

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 #SpreadTheHead

 This weeks Electric Happy Hour 🍻🥃🍹🍸🍷🍺🧉🍾🥂 (now on Twitch) includes MH bangers "Ten Ton Hammer", the debut of "Stop The Bleeding", plus deep cuts "Bay Of Pigs" and "All In Your Head" as well as covers of Slayer - "Dead Skin Mask" and Metallica "Fade To Black" (acoustic). BEERS UP! 🍻

Support the boys, and leave some beer money! 🤘🏻 https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/backmachinehead

CATHARSIS TURNS 3 YEARS OLD

Hey guys, Robb here, figured I'd write a little piece on the album for it’s 3 year anniversary.  

It was/is something to be very proud of.  

Sure there was some stars aligning, but this was done on grass roots, word of mouth-type level. In a world dominated by hip hop and pop music, in terms of both sales and relevance, the Head Cases of the world sent a deafening message... Metal means something important.

You and I both know, it isn’t always easy being a Head Case. You took A LOT of shit for Catharsis, and at the end of the day, you stand on the right side of history. 

So many of the topics that I took flack for, came true didn’t they?  And isn’t it interesting how SO many in the metal media missed the message entirely? They missed the message about the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville in “Volatile”, the message about the insurrectionist-in-making Trump and his rise to power in “Bastards”, I don’t think any of them even made it to one of my favorite tracks “Eulogy”.

Hate to say "I told ya so", but… 

The Head Cases of America deserve some extra-props.  They stood their ground through a veritable hurricane of negativity, belligerant-ass reviews (hi Decibel), and straight up online alt-right, extremist-hate mudding the waters. To ignore all that, and stand by YOUR band, meant more to Jared and I, than you will ever know. You deserve to be applauded so fucking loudly by the two of us, our hands should hurt from clapping and our throats from cheering.  

Was it a difficult record to make?  Oh abso-fucking-lutely!  Is there a backstory to the writing of this album that hasn’t been told?  Definitely. But now is not the time to get into that.

Nevertheless, there will come a day when this record get its due from the media. When movies or epic TV shows want to incorporate the symphonic masterstrokes of “Heavy Lies The Crown”, and “Catharsis” into their battle scenes, or “Behind A Mask” in their depressing/tender love scenes.

And while a disappointing number of folks in the U.S. media, opted to do a hatchet job on Machine Head during this time, and paint our every move as a failure (I’m certain that even now the more gossip-minded-sites will paint this post as “Robb Flynn Defends Catharsis”), the sheer number of sold-out dates on the tour in both the U.S. and worldwide, wiped away any doubt of that. From LA to Boston, from Sydney to London, from Paris to Tokyo, from Berlin to Belgium, it was our most successful headline tour to that point in our history, and the fact that we did it alone, as “Evening With”, playing three hour shows, without a package of hot bands under us, spoke volumes.  

It’s hard to argue with success.

And that success was because of you.  The person reading this, if you’ve gotten this far, I KNOW you are a die-hard Head Case.  Thank you for being along on the journey, thank you for your belief, your dedication, your intensity, your passion.

You are the power and strength behind this.

“The only thing keeping me sane, the music in my veins, and if these words are my fists, this is my catharsis"

Well...
It's been a year like no other.  Hardly any reason to remind everyone about how mindbogglingly shit 2020 will be remembered as, but on the bright side, it wasn't all that bad.  In fact, while many other bands all but shutdown entirely, here are some of the highlights Machine Head accomplished:

- The year started out rather fantastically with some truly amazing show in the United States and Canada as part of the Burn My Eyes 25th Anniversary Tour (yes, that was THIS year!) and in a lot of cases, turned out to be peoples last shows before lockdown hit.

- We managed to release 5 new songs and 3 music videos this year including our top streamed song of the year "Circle The Drain", alongside the blistering "Stop The Bleeding" and "Bulletproof" as part of the "Civil Unrest" single.  An acoustic version of "Circle The Drain", plus the monumental release of "My Hands Are Empty" (which has become an instant Head Case favorite!) and it's accompanying video which was a downright quarantine triumph.

- I started the weekly Acoustic Happy Hour which air every Friday at 3 PM PST on Facebook Live, a loose and rowdy time which includes 2 hours of acoustic covers, plus MH tunes, and a whole lotta drinking!  It appears on YouTube the following day, and high quality audio version (professionally mixed and mastered by MH live engineer Olav Tabatabae of Noise Eater Prod.) appears on Nugs.net a few days later for streaming or HD download

- We started Subs Club, a subscription-based fan-community that is live-streamed daily on Facebook which allows VIP access to daily Machine Head goings-on including rehearsing for the Happy Hours, writing new songs, and running through classic deep cuts in the MH catalog, not to mention hilarious interactions about dildo descriptions.

- For the 26th anniversary of Burn My Eyes we video-streamed the now-legendary Oakland show at the iconic Fox Theater for free on all platforms, and the mindbogglingly crazy New York show from Webster Hall.

- We also live streamed a "Through The Ashes Of Empires" 17th anniversary play-through, and a "Bloodstone & Diamonds" 6th anniversary play-through.

- I reached my 67th episode of the No Fuckin' Regrets Podcast that included legends like Gary Holt (Exodus), Scott Ian (Anthrax), and Ice T (rapper, actor, Body Count), as well as baseball legend Tony La Russa and MMA/ Bellator star Roy Nelson.

On a personal note:  
- I was able to maintain my weight off the road for the first time in decades through change of diet called 30/30/10 (30 grams of protein, 30 grams of carbs, 10 grams of fat - 6 times a day )and and new workout strategy.

- The Acoustic Happy Hours forced me to take a long, hard look at my clean singing voice, and I began taking vocal lessons courtesy of the mighty Mellisa Cross (Zen Of Screaming) which has done wonders, and focused on using this time to improve myself.

- I've gotten closer to both my wife and kids during the first real break I've had in decades. I taught my son Zander how to drive, taught my son Wyatt how to play "Crazy Train" on bass, and Genevra and I have enjoyed a Fri/Sat night "date night at home" for the first time since we had kids.

So yeah... while in many ways it was a tragic, horrible, fucking mess of a year, there were a lot of bright points. We got to share a lot of music with you guys, connect deeper with you guys in a way we never could before 2020, and together, we changed the world a little bit for the better. My hope is that it carried you all through, and made this time better for you in one way or another.

Here is wishing you all the happiest of holidays and a way, way, WAY better new year.

Peace

- Robb