MACHINE HEAD Announce Bloodstone & Diamonds Details
By
Larry Petro,
News Monkey
Thursday, August 14, 2014 @ 4:06 PM
UK/Ireland Tour Confirmed
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MACHINE HEAD have announced they will release their new album, Bloodstone & Diamonds, this November via Nuclear Blast Entertainment.
Frontman Robb Flynn: "I cannot even begin to tell you how proud we are of this album. It's been a heck of a ride. It looked like it might not ever happen again at one point, but man, this album is a milestone for us. You're going to love it Head Cases.
Without getting too philosophical on ya, Bloodstone & Diamonds, represent two of the hardest materials on earth, it is also a lyric from the opening track of the album, "Now We Die". In many cultures the bloodstone has been used as an amulet to protect against evil, and is the symbol of justice. Diamonds are the hardest natural material on earth (which is how we feel about our music), and it also represents the diamond logo I drew 22 years ago (in my wife's apartment on Dover St. in Oakland) that has become the symbol for the band."
Bloodstone & Diamonds tracklisting:
"Now We Die"
"Killers & Kings"
"Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones"
"Night Of Long Knives"
"Sail Into The Black"
"Eyes Of The Dead"
"Beneath The Silt"
"In Comes The Flood"
"Damage Inside"
"Game Over"
"Imaginal Cells" (instrumental)
"Take Me Through The Fire"
Robb Flynn continues: "10 songs, an interlude, and an instrumental with an audio collage of spoken word snippets (think "Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies") by Dr. Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman, taken from their (incredibly inspiring) audiobook, Spontaneous Evolution.
It was once again produced by yours truly The General and Juan Urteaga, and like the last seven out of eight albums, masterfully mixed by Colin Richardson. Additional tracking, editing, and mixing was done with heavy metal legend Andy Sneap and Steve Lagudi.
Guest musicians include two different string quartets featuring the original QUARTET ROUGE that appeared on our last album, Unto The Locust. And a new all-male quartet which we featured on the song "In Comes The Flood".
String arrangements for two of the songs "Now We Die" and "Sail Into The Black", came courtesy of myself and Rhys Fulber who has worked with everyone from Sarah McLachlan, to FEAR FACTORY, and the string arrangement for "In Comes The Flood" came courtesy of myself and ex-WORSHIP and current-BRING ME THE HORIZON keyboardist Jordan Fish, who is a producer in his own right.
We worked with several artists to complete the 28 page (!) "standard" CD booklet, as well as the 48 page (!) hardcover leather-bound Media-book that will serve as the special edition, including Rafal Wechterowicz, Marcelo Vasco and long-time MACHINE HEAD art-collaborator Strephon Taylor. The theme was to have both CD and hardcover Mediabook look like an old Alchemy book from the 1800's, with weathered edges, sepia toned pages, and magic / masonic / alchemy themed woodcarvings throughout. It turned out fucking amazing!!
All album photos were done with our friend Travis Shinn who took some mind-bogglingly awesome photos, that again, were set to match the theme of the book with an old 1800's / alchemy feel to them. I've posted some pictures with this so you guys can get a sneak peak.
Enjoy maniacs!!"
Another message from MACHINE HEAD states: "We're really excited to announce the UK dates for our first full headline tour since 2011. We can't fucking wait to play new music for all you Head Cases! We have some great support bands lined up, including Howard Jones' (ex-KILLSWITCH ENGAGE) new band DEVIL YOU KNOW so come out and rage with The Head UK! Also one of the best bands around that happen to be some of the greatest dudes to hang with, our friends in DARKEST HOUR will also join us."
Dates include:
12.6 - London, England - Roundhouse
12.7 - London, England - Roundhouse
12.9 - Portsmouth, England - Guildhall
12.10 - Bristol, England - O2 Academy Bristol
12.11 - Plymouth, England - Pavillions
12.13 - Glasgow, Scotland - O2 Academy Glasgow
12.14 - Leeds, England - O2 Academy Leeds
12.16 - Manchester, England - Apollo
12.17 - Nottingham, England - Rock City
12.18 - Birmingham, England - O2 Academy Birmingham
12.19 - Dublin, Ireland - Academy
MACHINE HEAD, continue their live domination of North America with the announcement of their 21-show US and Canadian trek. With a devastating lineup that features support from Finnish heavy metal powerhouse CHILDREN OF BODOM, Dutch symphonic metallers EPICA and American melodic death/thrash openers BATTLECROSS, this epic trek launches on October 4th in Denver, Colorado and includes five Canadian cities before closing out in Hollywood, California on November 1st.
Confirmed tour dates for MACHINE HEAD, COB, EPICA and BATTLECROSS include:
10.4 - Denver, CO - Summit Music Hall
10.6 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues
10.7 - Houston, TX - House of Blues
10.9 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live
10.10 - Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
10.11 - TBA
10.12 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
10.14 - Toronto, ON - The Sound Academy
10.15 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis
10.16 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
10.17 - Worcester, MA - Palladium
10.18 - Cleveland, OH - Agora Theater
10.20 - Chicago, IL - Concord Music Hall
10.21 - Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
10.22 - Minneapolis, MN - Skyway Theater
10.24 - Saskatoon, SK - O’Brians
10.26 - Edmonton, AB - Shaw Conference Center
10.28 - Vancouver, B.C - The Vogue – Vancouver, B.C.