MACHINE HEAD Is Holding Auditions For New Guitarist And Drummer

25 March 2019

MACHINE HEAD has begun holding auditions to find replacements for drummer Dave McClain and guitarist Phil Demmel, who left the band last fall. During an Instagram live stream, frontman Robb Flynn revealed that the sessions are taking place at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California with engineer Zack Ohren, who worked on the group's latest album, 2018's 'Catharsis'.

Flynn stated about the musicians taking part in the auditions: "You might not know some of these guys" while "some of [them] you may."

Among the tracks that all prospective guitar players and drummers were asked to learn are 'Locust', 'Old', 'Imperium', 'From This Day', 'Halo', 'Aesthetics Of Hate' and 'This Is The End'.

Robb said that the audition process has "been awesome, really good; in fact, really confusing." He added: "[I] don't know where we are going. We've got some thinking to do."

Joining Flynn in MACHINE HEAD's current lineup is bassist Jared MacEachern, who has been with the group for nearly six years.

When he announced his departure from MACHINE HEAD, Demmel, who first played with Flynn in VIO-LENCE in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said in a statement saying that it was "simply time" for him "to step away and do something else musically." He later revealed in an interview that he was minimally involved in the making of 'Catharsis', a record that he said he hated. He also said that MACHINE HEAD gradually "became a Robb Flynn solo project, and that isn't what I signed up for."

In a video message, Flynn blamed Demmel and McClain's departures on the fact that he and his bandmates "have grown apart as people. Musically, we've grown apart. I have held on too tight to the reins of this band, and I have suffocated those guys." He went on to say that his "rough edges" have given MACHINE HEAD the success that it has, but "they've also hurt the people around me. I've got a lot of drive, but I've got a lot of anger and rage. And that drive of mine has alienated folks in the band," he said.

Source: blabbermouth.net

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