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Machine Head live to defy expectations. Amidst a set that could well define metal bluster, boasting jets of flame, fireworks and enormous circle pits aplenty, Robb Flynn suddenly brings everything to a grinding halt.
Strapping on an acoustic guitar, he introduces Darkness Within with an explanation that the song’s megadome baiting vocalisation was envisioned as a way of connecting fans through music who might be battling grief. He then dedicates the song to PR megastar Michelle Kerr, who looked after Machine Head for “[their] whole careers” and passed away in 2024, finishing the thought with an insistence that the field be lit by phone torches as “there’s enough darkness in the world already.”
It's a beautiful and heartfelt moment, and underlines the earnestness that underpins just about everything Machine Head do. There’s no shortage of massive anthems in the set, kicking off with a gloriously crushing Imperium before rolling through sing-alongs from across their career in the form of Ten Ton Hammer, Is There Anybody Out There? and Locust, each displaying exactly the kind of roaring dynamic that makes Machine Head at their best nigh-untouchable.
There’s also moments of surreal humour. Robb flings a beer to “Bananaman” – a man dressed as a banana who dashes through the crowd to catch it – and dedications to “beer-box Jesus” (yes, a man dressed like Jesus carrying a cross made of beer boxes) add a sense of familiar comfort to the event that cements a sense Machine Head are playing to a home crowd even if they’re actually some thousands of miles away.
Three years ago, Machine Head broke a decade-long festival abstinence by putting on a barnstorming performance in Bloodstock’s Sophie Lancaster Stage tent that showed they didn’t necessarily need lots of production to be one of the best live bands at a festival. But as fireworks and hours of flame burst towards the heavens to punctuate Davidian’s cry of “Let freedom ring with a shotgun blast”, it sure doesn’t hurt.
Make no mistake: Machine fucking Head are on the finest form and we're all richer for having them back at the top of festival bills.
Machine Head Setlist Bloodstock Open Air 2025
Imperium
Ten Ton Hammer
Choke On The Ashes Of Your Hate
Now We Die
Is There Anybody Out There?
Outsider
Locust
Bonescraper
Darkness Within
Bulldozer
From This Day
Davidian
Halo
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