Machine Head are about to embark on their second European leg of their 25th Anniversary tour for Burn My Eyes and joining them on stage will be Decapitated guitarist Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka and Devilment drummer Matt Alston. Frontman Robb Flynn expressed his excitement on the recruitment.
“It is an honor to perform alongside Matt and Vogg, these two are straight up ‘elite-level’ players, and fucking BEASTS on stage! I cannot wait for the Head Cases of the world to get crushed by the heaviness that they will bring. Let’s do this!”.
Kiełtyka and Alston will be performing during the first part of the set, playing modern Machine Head classics like “Aesthetics of Hate,” “Halo,” and, “Imperium.” On Facebook, Kiełtyka shares how he grew up listening to Machine Head and how it’s an honor to be apart of this.
“It’s a huge honor to be able to play at the same stage with the mighty Machine Head. I grew up on their music and when I heard I will join them on this tour, I was literally stoked!
As a 13-year-old, I was learning songs from ‘Burn My Eyes’ who is still one of my favorite albums EVER, that album had also a big influence on my playing and my guitar skills.
Machine Head is not just a band, it’s an institution who has still a big influence on how all metal scene looks like, so for me as a musician and also a metal fan it’s something special to be able to be a small part of it.
That will be definitely a huge lesson and experience for me to be a part of such a professional team. Adventure begins, I cannot wait!
“To all Decapitated fans: I will see with you also during Decapitated shows in 2020. We do plan also to compose new music for next album so keep an eye on more news!”
Alston also shared his gratitude for the opportunity.
“I’m honored to announce that I will be playing drums for Machine Head for the next world tour cycle alongside Chris Kontos on their ‘Burn My Eyes’ 25th-anniversary tour.
It was a pleasure working for MH over last year’s world tour, but now having the opportunity to be playing their songs is something I never would have imagined while growing up and listening to their music.
Pre-production for the upcoming European tour starts on Monday. Needless to say, I can’t fucking wait to get on the road!
A huge, HUGE thanks to my brother Steve Lagudi for getting me the opportunity to audition, and of course to Robb, Jared, and the whole MH team for welcoming me into this new position.”
Read Machine Head’s initial announcement below:
“Head Cases, please welcome Vogg Kiełtyka and Matt Alston to the Machine Head family!!
Machine Head are proud to announce the two new full-time members who will be performing the first set of the upcoming 3 hour “Evening With” / ‘Burn My Eyes 25th Anniversary tour, with the 2nd set performed by original BME-alumni Chris Kontos and Logan Mader.
Band visionary and mastermind Robb Flynn states, “it is an honor to perform alongside Matt and Vogg, these two are straight up “elite-level” players, and fucking BEASTS on-stage! I cannot wait for the Head Cases of the world to get crushed by the heaviness that they will bring, let’s do this!”.
New guitarist Vogg Kiełtyka (Decapitated) adds: “It’s a huge honour to be able to play at the same stage with the mighty Machine Head. I grew up on their music and when I heard I will join them on this tour, I was literally STOKED!
As a thirteen years old I was learning songs from “Burn My Eyes” which is still one of my favorite albums EVER, that album had also a big influence on my playing and my guitar skills.”
He continues, “Machine Head is not just a band, it’s an institution who has still a big influence on how all metal scene looks like, so for me as a musician and also a metal fan it’s something special to be able to be a small part of it.
That will be definitely a huge lesson and experience for me to be a part of such a professional team. Adventure begins, I cannot wait!”
Vogg will continue to perform double-duty with his band Decapitated adding: “To all Decapitated fans: I will see with you also during Decapitated shows in 2020. We do plan also to compose new music for next Decapitated album so keep an eye on more news!”
New drummer Matt Alston adds, “I’m honoured to announce that I will be playing drums for Machine Head for the next world tour cycle alongside Chris Kontos on their ‘Burn My Eyes’ 25th Anniversary tour.
It was a pleasure working for MH over last years world tour, but now having the opportunity to be playing their songs is something I never would have imagined while growing up & listening to their music.
Pre-production for the upcoming European tour starts on Monday, needless to say I can’t fucking wait to get on the road!
A huge, HUGE thanks to my brother Steve Lagudi for getting me the opportunity to audition, and of course to Robb, Jared, & the whole MH team for welcoming me into this new position.”
About the “Burn My Eyes’ 25th Anniversary Tour:
Building on their wildly popular ‘Evening With…’ format, these not-to-be-missed shows will be a three-hour musical extravaganza, comprised of two parts:Part I – will feature a battery of MACHINE HEAD’s modern classics, such as ‘Imperium,’ ‘Halo,’ ‘Ten Ton Hammer’ and, ‘The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears,’ featuring frontman/guitarist Robb Flynn and bassist Jared MacEachern performing alongside Vogg Kiełtyka and Matt Alston on guitar and drums.
Part II – will feature the Bay Area metal titan’s classic debut album, ‘Burn My Eyes’ played in its entirety for the first time ever. And if somehow this historical event could not be monumental enough, taking the stage for this part of the set will be ‘Burn My Eyes’-era alumni and MACHINE HEAD’s original drummer Chris Kontos and original guitarist, Logan Mader.”
When speaking to Kerrang! magazine, Flynn explained that his decision to split the shows into two sets was to prevent Chris and Logan from learning a whole new batch of songs.
“As I was figuring it out with Logan, Chris and Jared, I explained that I can’t even imagine playing a Machine Head show and not playing ‘Halo’; ‘Imperium’; ‘Aesthetics Of Hate’; ‘From This Day’; ‘The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears…’, ‘Now We Die’ — or even ‘Catharsis’. ‘Darkness Within’ is a show-stopping moment, every time. We had to think about how we were going to pull this off. I wanted to honor Chris and Logan and not have them needing to learn 40 other fucking songs to be able to pull it off.
“It’s kind of weird. We’re gonna have a lot of motherfuckers on tour,” he said. “But it’s gonna be fucking awesome. I think it’s gonna be a bit of a goddamn circus. I really want to pay tribute to the guys that were there and built it with me. I think it’s gonna break the fucking Internet!”
It seems the band has already gotten together to jam on some tunes. Watch below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQw3ns2Toz4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khda1dpbVmM
https://www.facebook.com/waclaw.kieltyka/posts/10156673021441239?__tn__=H-R
