Review of Machine Head supported by Bring Me The Horizon, DevilDriver and Darkest Hour
A chilly Tuesday night in December at 7pm, and there is an air of excitement surrounding Manchester Central, where a certain heavy metal band Machine Head are headlining tonight on their last show of the tour for their new album ‘Unto the Locust’. At the entrance, a gaggle of fans are lounging about, smoking cigarettes, socialising and waiting for the little known support act Darkest Hour to finish their set – albeit their performance being superb and no doubt gaining a lot of new fans. Inside is an incredibly large room with the typical bar and merchandise stall with the pleasant addition of a burger van. At the far bottom of the venue is the stage which takes a good few minutes to walk to - the music sounding better and the vibrations produced in your chest getting more apparent the closer you get.
The second support act is DevilDriver – who open their set with a well-chosen composition ‘End of the Line’. This piece begins with a quiet, soft guitar riff gradually getting louder, adding an additional guitar and a calming bass line, which then gets heavier and faster when the thudding double bass drums are added. Finally, vocalist Dez Fafara joins in with a groan building to a roar when each layer of music comes together in an explosion of energy. The audience react accordingly, swaying and screaming in anticipation of the lights to come up and reveal the musicians and, when the music kicks in, going insane with head-banging and rock hands galore. Despite being 45 years old, Dez has tremendous energy and stage presence – requesting circle pits multiple times throughout which the audience enthusiastically respond to. Guitarist, Mike Spreitzer, and new bassist, Aaron Patrick, also put on a fantastic show with them moving around the stage and coming as close as possible to the audience without actually falling into them. The riffs and melodies performed by these two are exceptionally technical, and at times, the audience cannot help but gaze at the immense speed of their fingers as they produce their individual layers of music. Keeping the rhythm is John Boecklin, whose drum licks are sensational, with the double bass sounding impossibly fast and his beat controlling the brutality of the mosh pits. Their seven-song set consists of a good mix of songs from their albums and they end their set with a crowd favourite ‘Clouds Over California’ as the audience show just as much energy and enthusiasm for the band as thirty-five minutes earlier.
Next up on the stage is Bring Me The Horizon, who seem to mismatch the genre of the rest of the bands playing tonight. The music played in between bands is stopped, a green light swamps the stage and a small proportion of the audience scream with excitement as the band walk on stage casually with vocalist, Oli Sykes, walking on stage last. He screams his opening vocals “We will never sleep ‘cause sleep is for the weak” as their fans shout along, he then holds the microphone to the audience indicating to them to finish the lyric – which is then followed by a repetition of the lyrics with the addition of some grungy guitar riffs. Drummer, Matt Nicholls, starts with hitting the crash symbol and then adds in the double bass pedal, which matches the pattern of the vocals, and then about one minute into the song the tempo suddenly doubles along with the vocals getting harsher. Towards the end of the song is a brutal breakdown which results in a circle pit – although much smaller than that of DevilDriver’s. It is evident that only a small proportion of the audience are actually fans of Bring Me The Horizon, to the left is a girl on a boy’s shoulders giving the middle finger to the band and shouting inaudibly at them – though presumably she is not shouting compliments…
During the next few songs, despite the musicians giving a fantastic performance and Oli working the crowd as best he can – running up and down the stage, dancing flamboyantly and head banging when appropriate – a number of plastic bottles are thrown onto the stage at the musicians. Sympathy is felt for the band in the audience members that have no major dislike for them, but this is changed in some when Oli reacts to the bottling in between the songs by shouting obscenities at the crowd and bragging about his pay. The vocalist does try to laugh off this disgraceful reaction from certain audience members by saying “Boo if you love us! See, it won’t work now, it won’t bother us.” However, this does not redeem the insults he shouted to the entire audience. Throughout the set, bassist Matt Kean is seen sticking his middle finger up at the crowd and Matt Nicholls occasionally stands up in between songs to throw bottles back at the audience – not a good idea as their actual fans are most likely to be hit with them being in a group at the front of the crowd. Once their last composition has finished, Oli yet again brags about his pay, shouting “One hundred grand” numerous times at the audience and then proceeds to walk off stage as the audience boo back at him.
After a short break, it is time for what everyone has been waiting for - the lights are off and everyone is in total darkness, Machine Head’s short intro piece is played, immediately followed by composition ‘I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)’ which starts with a choir. The big screen at the back of the stage, and two smaller screens at either side, begin to show what looks like blood dripping down from the top, and as it does so the band’s logo is revealed on the top screen. Bassist, Adam Duce, and lead guitarist, Phil Demmel, step in front of each smaller screen, showing their silhouettes. The music stops for a split second, in which the crowd is heard chanting “Machine Fucking Head!” then drummer, Dave McClain, hits the crash cymbal and the musicians start playing. A red light floods the stage to reveal Dave on a podium at the back and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Robb Flynn central stage – the audience screams and there is a sea of rock hands. Just before the first solo is performed, white lights are shone and Robb asks the audience “You ready!?” to which the crowd screams in affirmative reply. The solo itself is astounding, with thudding drums and the guitars perfectly synchronised in melody – the audience goes crazy and the pits are so brutal that some people push back to make more room and to reduce chance of injuries. Another few solos are played in this song with Robb and Phil standing back to back, as they show off their prowess with a spotlight switching between the two. Some calming classical guitar is used towards the end of the song, immediately following this, the guitars burst into one last powerful solo, with the screens having close visuals of fire to match the red-hot performance the audience can see on stage.
As the set continues, it is clear that Robb Flynn has amazing natural charisma as he requests the audience to jump, fist-pump, show rock hands, create mosh pits and sing lyrics with him, all of which are carried out straight away. He dedicates ‘Aesthetics of Hate’ to guitar legend that was shot on stage, Dimebag Darrell, ‘Darkness Within’ is dedicated to Phil’s father who passed away very recently – a very emotional performance is seen here with Phil almost crying and the audience swaying with their lighters out in tribute. Robb even dedicates his composition ‘The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears’ to the audience for being so loyal to the band throughout their years. After thirteen long songs - that sported an amazing light show and projected visuals on the screen - and, of course, the literally breath-taking performance of the musicians, the audience chant “Machine Fucking Head!” to encore the band into playing their usual final two compositions, crowd favourites ‘Halo’ and ‘Davidian’. As Robb notices, the audience are still full of energy and he requests yet more fist pumping in time with the drums, and asking the audience to “go a little faster” as the tempo increases. Just before the main riff of the song ‘Davidian’ kicks in, Robb tells the crowd to “explode” and says “Manchester, show us what you’re famous for!” to which the audience unquestionably obey by head banging and producing the biggest most pit of the night. As the final composition of the set ends, Robb asks the crowd to show appreciation to the support bands and tells the audience “You are amazing, Manchester, fucking amazing! Thank you so much!” before disappearing off stage.
