Machine Head are currently in an Oakland, California studio working on what will be their tenth studio album, and band leader Robb Flynn says that the group’s new material is already drawing favourable comparisons with their much-acclaimed 2007 album The Blackening.
Speaking to Metal Hammer’s Matt Mills for a studio report on the progress of the follow-up to 2018’s Catharsis, Flynn reveals that he has played new songs for Nuclear Blast’s A&R supremo Monte Connor, a trusted friend, and Flynn’s long-time A&R man at Roadrunner Records, who is now talking up the album as “The Blackening 2”.
“I don’t know if I want to put that concept into people’s heads,” Flynn admits, “but those are pretty big words. He’s been my A&R guy for 28 years and to hear him this excited all these years later is a pretty good feeling.”
Flynn and bassist Jared MacEachern began demoing tracks for the new album with producer Zack Ohren and on-loan drummer Navene Koperweis (Entheos) at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland in June 2021: Flynn has previously suggested that the as-yet-untitled collection could emerge in late summer.
The group recently launched an online video series promising to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album.
Talking to Matt Mills, Flynn describes the new album as “a roller coaster.”
“It’s going to be the type of thing that really hits people emotionally,” he promises.
Machine Head’s tenth album is due in summer 2022 via Nuclear Blast. You read an exclusive studio report with the band in an upcoming issue of Metal Hammer.
