Blackening of the Heart: Phil Demmel of Machine Head
By Daniel Hoyt

Machine Head has crossed generation after generation of metal’s ever-changing scene to appeal to a new crowd each time, and with its latest release, The Blackening, the band seeks to get back on the road and show this new rise in the metal scene how deep their roots go with progressive, epic songs that still maintain the ’80s thrash feel. I caught up with lead guitarist Phil Demmel to chat about this new work.

SMN: So what’re you and the band up to right now?
Phil: We’re just wrapping up the mastering on The Blackening.

SMN: I heard you guys were doing some more video work as well. Any plans to release a new DVD at this point?
Phil: I think that all the video stuff we do is just archives. We possibly may do a DVD, since we like to have everything we do documented to view at a later point. Maybe after the cycle ends on the album, we’ll do the DVD.

SMN: How’s the band doing in general right now? Do you feel the band is more on the same page now that The Blackening is done than ever before?
Phil: Yeah, I think so. There’s a really huge excitement about the release of the album. We all feel that this is our best work, we’re all on the same page and we want to get rollin’!

SMN: What’s the songwriting like between you and Rob? This is the first album you were involved with completely, correct?
Phil: Correct. I contributed to three songs on the last album, but this is the first where I’ve been there from the beginning. It was really cool, being able to have more of a voice and more songs where I wrote the bulk of them. Rob and I vibe off of each other to finish it up. I was policing myself in the past, thinking I wasn’t writing riffs that sounded like Machine Head, and now I’m totally sure I’m writing Machine Head riffs.

SMN: You wrote a lot of 8-to-10 minute songs for The Blackening; obviously more influenced by longer fast-as-hell jams, progressive music, things like that. Did you look at any other influences, such as jazz which I hear is popular amongst metal bands nowadays?
Phil: I don’t think so. You come off as rather pretentious when you start writing long songs for the sake of writing long songs. Rob and I involved in the very last wave of thrash music, so that’s where it kind of all ends. We’ve been into this kind of stuff from the beginning and we didn’t want to stop a song just because we thought it was getting too long or too short. We just wanted to songs to vibe well and go where they wanted to go, and this time around it happened to be 10 minutes later.

SMN: I’m sure the longer songs allow for things like soloing to be more intricate, or just makes for more fun because you get to solo for longer.
Phil: [laughs] Yeah, and actually that was the thing - a couple parts to it at least. We started doing songs where there’s a two-minute solo going on, but that’s what it required. It goes into a harmony part and it’s not self-indulgent, it’s just a matter of that’s what the song called for. There’s still songs where there’s no solos at all.

SMN: Which new song do you think will shock your fans the most?
Phil: You know, there’s a song called “Slanderous”…it’s got a Lamb of God feel, Slayer kind of beat. It’s not off-time, but crazy riffs, mostly power chords, things like that. I think the fans will like that one.

SMN: So you guys have the tour with Lamb of God, Trivium and Gojira - how does it feel to be part of a show where you’re influencing a newer generation of fans?
Phil: We’re very pleased to be a part of this. The tour was pretty much filled besides the spot we took, and we’ve toured with Trivium before, and we love the shit out of Lamb of God. It’s amazing what they’re doing for metal right now. They’re breaking down the barricades that have been put up before, getting nominated for Grammys and shit. It’s very cool. We need to be seen in their crowd.

SMN: And at the same time you have to be excited about exposing this younger audience to your influences, such as the end of the ’80s thrash era.
Phil: Definitely. We did six dates on Sounds of the Underground last summer, and it was a great deal to be seen in front of the As I Lay Dying kids. That was very pivotal for us; we needed to break that ground.

SMN: Going back a little ways, what’s your musical background? Before you got started in Vio-Lence, how did you become part of the metal scene?
Phil: Well my mom’s always been very musical. She sang in soul groups, in a choir…always had that stuff going on. From the beginning I was into doo-wop music and the ’50s influences. I was a huge KISS fan as well, so I was always meeting my bros and playing tennis rackets in the backyard while setting smoke bombs off. I always wanted to be on stage playing in front of crowds, so I listened to a lot of AC/DC, and as things got heavier, Judas Priest, Maiden, and especially Slayer. I saw Slayer in Northern California before Show No Mercy came out. I was smoking hash back in the day a little bit, my dope smoking days… [laughs] but I couldn’t believe how fast they were playing. It was the first time I heard a thrash beat like that! So, Slayer and KISS were highly influential on my early days.

SMN: I see you guys covered Metallica’s “Battery” for The Blackening. Did you ever hear from Metallica what they thought of it?
Phil: Actually, we were disappointed not to. We had heard them say how they love the Trivium stuff and those bands, and it would’ve been kinda nice to hear from our Bay Area brethren. We thought we did a good job on it, but nothing.

SMN: Are there any bands that you really want to tour with that you haven’t yet?
Phil: One is obviously a band we are touring with: Lamb of God. We love the band and were supposed to do a tour last year with Devildriver and The Haunted, but The Haunted dropped off. I’d still like to tour with them. Definitely Byzantine, Chimaira and God Forbid as well.

SMN: Sounds good, well that’s all I have man, take care and looking forward to the upcoming release of The Blackening!
Phil: Very good! Take care!

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