MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn is featured in a new interview with Bram Teitelman at MetalInsider.net. An excerpt is available below:

MI: On first listen, it’s a way ambitious record, and you’re doing things that I’ve never heard on a Machine Head album before. Was it a conscious effort to stretch and do more than you’ve done before?

Flynn: "I would love to say I had this grand vision, but if you sat in the Machine Head jam room, it’s just so Beavis and Butt-Head. It’s like, 'What do you think of this riff?' 'Oh, that’s cool.' 'What do you think of this riff?' We just try stuff, and sometimes I get these crazy ideas. I just try and write it out, and the dudes just let me go with it, thankfully."

MI: It seems like there are more harmonies than there’s been before.

Flynn: "Yeah, and there’s a lot of — a lot of musicality. The neo-classical influence coming in really opened up a lot of doors that we could have. You know, where as opposed to your having just evil notes, and I’m not — that’s how schooled I am. I call it evil notes, or sad notes, or happy notes, or you know, like 'Go to the 3rd fret, go to the 2nd fret.' I don’t know any theory, I just hear it in my head. But, to me, having those – as opposed to evil notes, a little more of the sad minor notes – In the classical context, it really opened up melodies, and then you could build things on top of it. And the more that we went, the more ambitious we were – like 'Fuck it. Let’s just fucking pile it on, and see what happens.' Better to go too far and then pull back, than never go far enough."

Click here for the complete interview.

As previously reported, Machine Head have once again proven their elite status amongst today’s massive array of heavy metal artists. More than doubling on the #54 Billboard Top 200 debut chart position of the band’s 2007 Grammy-nominated release, The Blackening, Machine Head have topped themselves again with a remarkable #22 Billboard Top 200 chart debut for their new album, Unto The Locust, with over 17,000 albums scanned.

The new album debuts at #4 on the Hard Music chart and the Current Hard Music chart, as well as the top internet chart at #26. The album came in at #19 on the overall digital albums chart with nearly 6,000 albums sold digitally, 35% of the overall scan. Even more impressive, this is the third consecutive album to show at least a 20% increase in sales over the previous release; a virtually unprecedented feat for any band or artist, let alone a metal band in 2011.

Unto The Locust chart positions worldwide:

#5 - Germany

#6 - Austria

#10 - Australia

#10 - Switzerland

#13 - France

#18 - Japan

#19 - New Zealand

#22 - Belgium

#22 - US

#28 - Norway

#82 - UK

Unto The Locust tracklistings:

Standard CD:

'I Am Hell (Sonata In C#)'

I) 'Sangre Sani'

II) 'I Am Hell'

III) 'Ashes To The Sky'

'Be Still And Know'

'Locust'

'This Is The End'

'Darkness Within'

'Pearls Before The Swine'

'Who We Are'

Special Edition CD+DVD:

'I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)'

I) 'Sangre Sani'

II) 'I Am Hell'

III) 'Ashes To The Sky'

'Be Still And Know'

'Locust'

'This Is The End'

'Darkness Within'

'Pearls Before The Swine'

'Who We Are'

'The Sentinel' *

'Witch Hunt' *

'Darkness Within' (Acoustic) *

* Bonus tracks

DVD:

- The Making Of Unto The Locust Documentary