Professionally filmed video of MACHINE HEAD‘s June 16 performance at the Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium can be seen below.
Featured songs:
01. Aesthetics Of Hate
02. Old
03. My Hands Are Empty
For the Graspop Metal Meeting performance, MACHINE HEAD was rejoined by Polish guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka (DECAPITATED). Vogg missed MACHINE HEAD‘s appearance at the Milwaukee Metal Fest last month and was replaced by HAVOK‘s Reece Alan Scruggs. Scruggs previously played with MACHINE HEAD on the “Electric Happy Hour (Live)” fall 2022 tour. Reece was filling in for Vogg (DECAPITATED),who was unable to make the fall 2022 trek due to his touring commitments with his longtime band DECAPITATED.
In April, MACHINE HEAD canceled its previously announced spring 2023 U.S. tour “due to work visa issues,” explaining that “half the band, as well as a handful of key crew members, reside outside of the U.S.”
The 18-date “The Electric Happy Hour (Live)” trek was scheduled to kick off on May 15 in Ventura, California and make its way to Des Moines, Fort Wayne, and Detroit before ending in Los Angeles on June 9.
MACHINE HEAD has been touring in support of its latest album, “Of Kingdom And Crown”, which came out last August. The follow-up to 2018’s “Catharsis” includes the three songs that were featured on the 2021 “Arrows In Words From The Sky” single: “Become The Firestorm”, “Rotten” and “Arrows In Words From The Sky”. Much of the new MACHINE HEAD album was recorded at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California with engineer/producer Zack Ohren.
In November 2020, MACHINE HEAD released a single, “My Hands Are Empty”, via Nuclear Blast. The song marked the first musical collaboration between Flynn and original “Burn My Eyes” guitarist Logan Mader in 24 years.
“My Hands Are Empty” was just one in a line of singles to be released by MACHINE HEAD, which issued “Do Or Die” in October 2019, “Circle The Drain” in February 2020, and the two-song digital single “Civil Unrest”, consisting of “Stop The Bleeding” and “Bulletproof”, in June 2020. “Stop The Bleeding” featured guest vocals from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE frontman Jesse Leach, and was written and recorded just days after the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.