MACHINE HEAD w/ Hatebreed, Bleeding Through and Emmure

After a 3 year tour in support of the now legendary album 'The Blackening', Machine Head wrapped up their tour in Sydney, Australia on March 28th at the world famous Luna Park.

With the likes of Hatebreed and Bleeding Through in attendance, we knew this would be a once in a lifetime show, and an evening that the world's entire heavy metal society would remember for a many years to come.

In a fitting closure to such an immense few years for Machine Head, a vast majority of Sydney's metal community descended on The Big Top for what would go down in history as one of the greatest shows that Robb Flynn and company would ever participate in.

Opening the show was Emmure. Hailing from Queens, New York, Emmure took to the stage at the bright and early time of 6:35pm, as the doors were still opening. With The Big Top only half full, it didn't take long for the allure of live music to bring Sydney's most die hard metal heads in the doors.

Being Emmure's first outing in our country, it wasn't surprising that their fan base was quite small, but the barrage of distortion and brutal vocals which erupted from this young quintet definitely won the band many fans that night. Playing a strong 9 song set in the space of 25 minutes, Emmure caught everyone off guard with their unrelenting brand of hardcore metal. After witnessing the originality of these new-comers to the world metal scene, it's clearly evident why they have been included in this years Warped Tour, alongside bands such as Parkway Drive, Suicide Silence and Bring Me The Horizon.

Up next was Orange County metalcore band Bleeding Through. This 6-piece have earned themselves a huge fan base worldwide since their formation back in 1999, which was clearly evident even while supporting the likes of Machine Head with masses of hardcore fans standing out amongst the hundreds of metal heads which filled Luna Park, and whose merch sales rivaled that of the headliners.

Bleeding Through played a relatively short set for a band of this magnitude, only managing 6 songs into a 30 minute show. From the very first note that Bleeding Through sent soaring out across the room, every able body which was left outside, soon flooded through the doors and before the second song had started, The Big Top was finally packed to near capacity. The interaction with the crowd by vocalist Brandan Schieppati was typical for a hardcore band with instructions for circle pits being screamed between every song.

Bleeding Through brought a completely different element into the night with the inclusion of keyboardist Marta Peterson leaving her own mark on Machine Head's Black Procession Tour. The last song saw Schieppati occupy the barrier for the entire song, which sent a vast majority of the audience into a wild frenzy, with the number of crowd surfers overwhelming the security and resulting in a consistent line of kids being dragged out of the pit.

Bleeding Through will be releasing a new album through Road Runner in April, which may hopefully see them back on our shores in the near future.

Connecticut born Hatebreed was up next, bringing their brutally intense blend of metalcore to the Black Procession Tour. Hatebreed hit the stage at exactly 8pm and had the entire crowd in a trance from the very first verse.

With a reputation of being an extremely tight entity on stage, Hatebreed crammed 14 songs into an impressive 45 minute set which included the trash metal sing-a-long 'Destroy Everything' and their own metal anthem 'I Will Be Heard' the latter of which instilled the audience in an ecstasy of emotion and dangerous levels of head banging.

Midway through Hatebreed's set we were blessed with the emergence of Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel, who, along with Hatebreed guitarists Wayne Lozinak and Frank Novinec created an Iron Maiden-esque performance with the inclusion of 3 guitarists. Demmel's appearance took the shows progression to a whole new level with a sudden burst of energy being felt all around the venue.

With the exit of Demmel, Hatebreed vocalist Jamey Jasta called for an eruption of noise so that "The neighbours will hear", to try and keep the energy alive, which was ironic considering the history of the venue, which in the past had been closed due to noise complaints.

As Hatebreed left the stage at 8:45 and the lights once again came on with Metallica's 'Master Of Puppets' playing through the PA, everyone in the venue grew edgy as we knew what was in store for us all.

It was 9:15pm before Machine Head's intro finally filled everyone's ears and the screams from the crowd which contributed to the volume levels, were enough to move the walls of The Big Top.

Through the thick clouds of smoke, a silhouette appeared onstage, in the form of Robb Flynn, which once again brought the crowd to boiling point. From the very first note that this iconic figure played, we knew we were in for something special, and that’s exactly what eventuated over the following 2 hours. 

Machine Head opened with the highly desired 'Clenching The Fists of Dissent', which tore the mosh pit into 3 separate circle pits. With this opening track, both sides of the stage filled up with members of the opening bands and Machine Head's obvious entourage, who also weren't very subtle about the numerous video cameras being used around the venue.

The set list tore through metal classics 'Beautiful Mourning', 'All Falls Down', 'A Thousand Lies' (which had been absent from Australian shows for the last 15 years), 'Seasons Wither', 'Ten Ton Hammer' and 'Aesthetics Of Hate' among many more which occupied the 15 song main set.

During the entire 2 hour show, Robb Flynn showed why he is one of the worlds most accomplished heavy metal musicians, showcasing not just his vocal range and songwriting prowess, but his guitar interaction with Phil Demmel was nothing short of inspirational.

As we were promised leading up to this gig, we were in for a night of extravagance and historic memories. Between the 12th and 13th songs, Robb Flynn took a moment to run us through a few interesting facts; on this exact date 3 years earlier 'The Blackening' was released in Australia, an interesting development that Robb was adamant had been a complete accident. Machine Head has been on tour in support of 'The Blackening' for 3 years, which had brought them to Australia on 3 separate occasions, the first of which was with Trivium and Arch Enemy in 2007, Slipknot in 2008 and now The Black Procession in 2010.

10:50pm saw the end of the main set, but seeing as it was such an iconic night for Machine Head, we knew that the show wasn't over and they still had some surprises in mind.

The encore burst into submission with 'Halo', which saw members from all 4 bands converge on the stage in an ending to the tour that no one will soon forget. With Robb Flynn giving his guitar to Hatebreed's Wayne Lozinak and taking the microphone for what was a truly festive close to an era for one of the world’s forerunners in metal. The festivities didn't end with the close of the set though, with Robb bringing members of Emmure, Bleeding Through and Hatebreed out onto the stage for a final drink before taking the party backstage.

And so the relentless tour in support of 'The Blackening' comes to an end with the band heading back to the United States for a much earned break before getting straight back into the studio and doing this all again. We can only look forward to seeing what comes next for this legendary band.

Huge congratulations must go out to Robb Flynn, Phil Demmel, Dave McClain and Adam Duce for an incredible 3 years that this world won't soon forget.