MACHINE HEAD Guitarist PHIL DEMMEL: DIMEBAG 'Was Pretty Much Immortal'

Vassil Varbanov of Bulgaria's Tangra Mega Rock recently conducted an interview with MACHINE HEAD guitarist Phil Demmel. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Tangra Mega Rock: It seems that MACHINE HEAD are back among the hot shots of metal, huh? How do you feel with this new album of yours? You've said in many interviews around the globe that "The Blackening" is a very risky record...

Phil Demmel: A risky record? Well, every CD that we're gonna put out is kinda risky, because in this genre of music your next album could be your last album, depending on what it is, so you have to be absolutely correct and sure in what you're doing. Our previous record, "Through the Ashes of Empires" (2003),was awesome to us, and now we needed to do something that was gonna stand out above that. We took the approach of the same formula of writing, but we also wanted to make an epic, classic sounding record. I think we did achieve that and, as you said, MACHINE HEAD are back where they belong, definitely.

Tangra Mega Rock: You and MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn used to be in the same band (VIO-LENCE) lots of years ago. What's the feeling to be shoulder to shoulder with your old buddy again?

Phil Demmel: It was really a special thing for sure. First (2002) I played a couple of weeks with MACHINE HEAD just as a temporary guitarist — I didn't intend to join the band, just to help them out for a couple of shows — but there's always been a chemistry between me and Robb, and with the rest of the band as well. Robb and I grew up playing guitar together, you know, we learned from each other and we're so compatible and similar in our styles that we draw off each other's strength. It's a brothership, I'd say.

Tangra Mega Rock: And in the end of the day — who's better?

Phil Demmel: Oh, you're not gonna hear me say I'm a better guitar player, as I'm not. He's stronger tham me in some areas, as I'm stronger than him in other areas...

Tangra Mega Rock: Actually, Phil, what were you doing after VIO-LENCE disbanded and before joining MACHINE HEAD?

Phil Demmel: I got married, and I was doing local bands, like TORQUE, which was basically a MACHINE HEAD wannabe band. Then I was in a band called TECHNOCRACY, we put an album out and I quit playing music for a little bit, because I didn't wanna tour and leave my wife at the time. Then the opportunity came to do these two weeks with MACHINE HEAD, I took it, then I came home, my marriage kind of crumbled... and as the band was still looking for a guitar player, it was just the time for me to join.

Tangra Mega Rock: Did you pass through fuckin' lots of lawyers and contracts to join officially MACHINE HEAD, or it was just a friend to friend deal with Robb?

Phil Demmel: There weren't a lot of lawyers involved at all. There was an agreement between me and the whole band, not just Robb, and that was it. I'm not really in this for the business, you know, I'm in it to make music and enjoy myself.

Tangra Mega Rock: Now we're gonna hear the song "Aesthetics of Hate" off "The Blackening", which has something to do with the late PANTERA and DAMAGEPLAN guitarist Dimebag Darrell. To what extent was his guitar playing so amazing?

Phil Demmel: The guy was pretty much immortal. I've seen him drinking for five days and then coming up and just totally destroying on stage. He wasn't human! The whole metal community needed Dime.

Tangra Mega Rock: Does it mean that today there's a big lack of spirit in the community?

Phil Demmel: There is, of course. Without Dime around there's a huge void in that iconoclast type of symbol that we had. We have him still posthumously, but we'd rather have him around making history with us.

Read the entire interview at Tangra Mega Rock.