MACHINE HEAD guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn has issued a new update, which he calls The General Journals: Diary Of A Frontman... And Other Ramblings. A couple of excerpts follow

"Over the last two years I have spoken with many people who have asked why I don't write my diaries as regularly as I used to. Truth be told, between touring and all the demands of Machine Head, as well as being a husband, and full-time Dad to two young boys when I'm not on tour, I just haven't had the time. On top of that, my diaries had snowballed into epic endeavors that seemed to demand more and more with every installment and that just started to overwhelm the whole process.

Well, I'm stoked to say that after taking a much needed break from writing said diaries, I will be resuming these much-loved nuggets of text, albeit in a less epic form. They will now be called The General Journals: Diary Of A Frontman... And Other Ramblings, and my hope is to have at least one journal a week. They will continue to go up on all the usual sites (MH1, FB, Twitter, etc.) with one new addition - you will now be able to subscribe to these diaries via my newly created phpList so that you can get it sent right to your e-mail inbox. I myself subscribe to a few of these and I think they're really neat. Of course you can unsubscribe from my unusually awesome opinions at any time, but why the heck would you want to do that?!

I really look forward to talking about all things Machine Head, music, life in a band, as well as "life in general" (See what I did there?).

Mitch Lucker Memorial - What a great night with so many amazing performances. Such an incredible vibe in the place, emotionally charged and intense. I laughed, I cried, I was blown away. I met and re-connected with people on what seemed like a deeper level. I felt fucking alive. We did five tours with those guys. A lot of the 30-minute Behind The Music-style intro video killed me, very powerful.

Stand out performances and surprises for me were:

Dude from JOB FOR A COWBOY. He had to open the show - no pressure, right? Man, he had such an unusual look on his face, looking up at the sky for quite a bit of the show (singing to Mitch?), but GOD DAMN he killed it on the vocals. Brutal, charismatic and engaging. Never paid dude much attention before, but I will now. Dude from WHITECHAPEL absolutely KILLED the vocals, he knew the song like he was born to sing it, voice so low and heavy it was jaw-dropping. Eddie from ALL SHALL PERISH killed it, whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Ricky ex-SUFFOKATE killed it like some crazed lanky spider up there.

SUICIDE SILENCE guitarist Mark Heylmun and I spent the previous night working on my acoustic cover of BLACK SABBATH's 'Die Young'. We soundchecked it twice with Scott on tremolo guitar; I was surprisingly nervous, maybe because it was the first time playing it live, maybe not being able to rely on my usual bravado/attitude/"roar" was a bit daunting. It was three acoustics and a vocal, naked and all about the passion. It felt good and to my surprise got an amazingly good reception. Even the deathcore, neck-tat kids were patting me on the back all night. I got a bit choked up near the end, but I nailed the high scream in the bridge; it was weird though, the "choking up" made it more real. There was a lot of emotion in the air and people were moved. They felt something.

We all did.

I bet even Mitch did."

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