If you care at all about metal and riffs you need to listen to this live version of the beastly homage to metal riifdom “Old.” Sure, you could jam the studio version from “Burn My Eyes” which destroys, but there is an extra f*cking wallop of titanic shred here. It’s a riff for the ages, the type of guitar hero antics you jam right before a back alley fistfight. It’s that Goddamn intense, and that Goddamn infectious.
Rob Flynn rules.
Rob’s tenacity translates exceptionally well to a live setting. Being that Machine Head is about riffs and fists, and then more riffs and fists, and then a lot more riffs and fists on top of those riffs and fists, you can easily envision how their avalanche of manly riffage goes over in a setting where a legion of sweaty apes scream “MACHINE F*CKING HEAD” between each monstrous track and scream the song choruses like their first Slayer t-shirt depended on it. It might be hard to imagine beastly metal monoliths like “Imperium,” “Beautiful Mourning,” and the Goddamn GOAT track “Davidian” could be any more badass, but its only because you haven’t heard Rob Flynn mesmerize his loyal, unwashed following in a riff saturated concert setting. Rob’s many commands, up to and including demands that the crowd does in fact “bang their f*cking heads,” “shake the f*cking walls,” “get f*cking crazy with Machine F*cking Head” and put their “f*cking fists in the air” are met with a primal intensity and unquestioned obedience. “Machine F*cking Head Live” is the right kind of live album, the kind that represents superior versions to the songs and make you wish to the Gods of Metal that you had been there.
Machine F*cking Head indeed.
