MACHINE HEAD To Start Bassist Auditions

San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD will begin the process of searching for a temporary bassist for this summer's Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival in the U.S. For a limited time, the band will accept and review YouTube submissions that include the following:

1) Video: A standalone performance of the songs listed below, just you, singing and playing bass along to the the tracks off the albums. **Camera phone is fine as long as it's stable**

2) A brief 1- to-2-minute statement about your musical experience; playing, touring experience, etc.

Please upload your videos to YouTube and e-mail a link (or links) to [email protected] that includes the following songs:

1) This Is The End
2) Halo
3) Beautiful Mourning

Once the band has narrowed down potential candidates, they will hold tryouts in person at a to-be-determined location.

MACHINE HEAD last month parted ways with bassist Adam Duce. The band's guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn explained in an online posting: "We may have fired Adam on [February 11], but Adam quit MACHINE HEAD well over a decade ago. He just never bothered to tell anyone… but we all knew it."

He added: "Adam hasn't been happy in this band for a long time. But how do you leave? To a guy like Adam, everything is either winning or losing. A stunning victory or the ultimate failure. There was no in between … No matter how unhappy or fed up he got, quitting the band would be seen as 'losing' or a 'failure.' Truth be told, he was sick of it. Sick of touring, sick of recording, sick of practicing, sick of looking at album artwork, sick of being on a team but never getting the ball, sick of yearning for the honeymoon to resume when 20 years deep it never does. Sick of never quite hitting the big time, sick of carving the niche... sick of caring."

"Machine Fucking Head Live", the new live album from MACHINE HEAD, sold 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release. It's the band's second live effort; "Hellalive" came out in 2003.

MACHINE HEAD's most recent studio album, "Unto The Locust", sold more than 17,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 22 on The Billboard 200 chart — putting MACHINE HEAD in the Top 25 for the first time in the band's 17-year history.

"Machine Fucking Head Live" was recorded at various tour stops across the globe last year. It features songs from throughout the band's expansive catalog, including crowd favorites like "Imperium", "Aesthetics of Hate", "Locust", "Ten Ton Hammer", "This is the End" and "Halo".

"Machine Fucking Head Live" was mixed and mastered at Trident Studios in Pacheco, California by Juan Urteaga and Robb Flynn.

MACHINE HEAD is currently seeking a new label home following the expiration of the band's contract with longtime record company Roadrunner Records.