Machine Head managed to stir up the metal concentrated areas of the internet with their headlining slot tonight, with many naysayers claiming it to be the worst choice for Bloodstock. However these people would be proved very wrong by the set they put out today. They pulled out all the stops tonight with their pyrotechnics, lighting, playing and sound for this set; including the copious use of flame jets! The heavy meter was turned up to max on their amps turning most of the album material sound light in comparison. Opening today’s set with the first track off their latest album Unto The Locust with I am Hell (Sonata in C#) which led to the crowd singing along and chanting to their set. Rob Flynn dedicated the second track to one of his and other many metal fans favourite fallen legend Dimebag Darrell; Aesthetics Of Hate. This led to even more roars of appreciation than had already been issued from the first track.
The crowd in attendance were in full support and in full metal mode for their set, with loads of headbanging, horns being thrown, moshing, crowd surfing and the biggest circle pit at this year’s festival as well as screaming out the lyrics to most of the songs means they had the biggest crowd response yet so far too! Any doubts of whether Machine Head were material or wanted at this festival were dashed instantly, the popular vote was in and they wanted more!
One of the biggest crowd interactions from the band started well before the set tonight, with the crowd voting for their top 5 tracks they wanted off Burn My Eyes to be play tonight meant that a decent portion of their set were big favourites. The obvious tracks like Davidian and Old were part of the set, but Death Church made its first play in this country since the album tour in 1995, leading to cheers/roars of joy from the crowd! Blood For Blood and A Thousand Lies also came into the mix too to many happy cheers as well! Other tracks making an appearance tonight include title track from their latest album; The Locust as well such tracks Emperium as well.
Tonight’s set was an all-out effort from the Machine Head boys, they had brought out a brilliant mixture of lighting, pyro, playing, stage presence and good stage banter to an exceptional performance meant that for fans this will have been an absolutely incredible night for them to remember. This was quite possibly the single best performance by Machine Head and might take them a whole for them to top this, this set is going to go down in history for them!
