Machine Head At MTelus

I have heard it said that culture is the heartbeat of a city.  Should that be the case, then the city might have needed a quick trip to the emergency room this past week.  The combined sonic assault of Unearth, Lacuna Coil, In Flames and Machine Head would have easily had the city’s heart racing over 100 beats per minute.  There was a driving beat coming from the MTelus in Montreal as the building had been taken over by four of the loudest bands touring at the moment.  The fans did their part to up the decibel level to floor shaking levels as well.  This was one of the biggest metal shows to hit the city this year.  After a long, cold winter, the weather was finally warm and the Montreal Canadiens were about to play Game Three of their series against the Washington Capitals.  Despite that, several thousand people ignored the sun and play-off hockey in order to get their socks rocked off by Machine Head.  All fours bands have been here several times in the past, but this time joined together with the common goal of blowing the roof off of the MTelus.  Even after surviving the aural onslaught of the three previous bands, the crowd was still buzzing with energy to spare.  They had been headbanging and moshing for a good three hours up to this point, but the was still one band left.  And not just any band, but rather the kings of the new wave of American metal.  As the banner on the video wall read, it was time for Machine F*cking Head!  Played to the stage by the melodic sounds of Ozzy Osbourne, things quickly turned fast and aggressive as the band played ‘Imperium’ and the crowd went apoplectic.  Machine Head got the heads banging at breakneck speed and the first crowd surfer had gone by my head before the beginning of the first chorus.  Up on stage orchestrating the madness, and looking every part the Heavy Metal Hero, was singer Robb Flynn.  This maestro of mayhem was singing and wailing on the guitar from the first note, and still took the time to flash the horns to any crowd surfer that found their way down to the pit.  Guitarist Reece Scruggs was a tornado of energy and hair while on the bass, band veteran Jared MacEachern watched over the land with a scowl that would bend the knees of any who dared to look cross upon him.  Together, Machine Head bulldozed through a set that featured several songs from the latest album, Unatoned, which was released just two days prior to the show.  The rest of the set was a vintage selection of their hardest hitting hits, ending with the one-two punch of ‘Davidian’ and then as an encore, ‘Halo’.  Machine Head had left their mark.  The photographs were all taken at f/3.2 while using various different shutter speeds, ISO settings and focal lengths.  Here are the rest of the photographs that I took of Machine Head while they performed on the MTelus stage.

If you would like to find out more about Machine Head and their music, you can do so by following the link to their website.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Unearth, Lacuna Coil and In Flames, who all performed that night, you can do so by following the respective links.  A big thank you goes out to Kristin Torres of Nuclear Blast Records and Christopher Gonda of V13Media for getting me a pass to shoot the show.  As always, it is very much appreciated.  Those who survived the onslaught walked out of the MTelus a little battered, somewhat bruised, but smiling from ear to bloody ear and ready to do it all over again.  Machine Head, In Flames, Lacuna Coil and Unearth are ending their tour soon, but all four bands deserve to be checked out when they hit a town near you.