In the new career-spanning in-depth interview with Good Company found below, Vio-lence / ex-Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel discusses a host of topics including touring with Testament and Voivod, the controversial Vio-lence song, "Torture Tactics", that saw the band go to war with Atlantic Records when the song was censored, his departure from Machine Head in October 2018, and his dislike for his last album with the band, Catharsis, released in January 2018. 

In an interview with Talk Toomey conducted earlier this year, Demmel opened up about his departure from Machine Head amid creative differences with frontman Robb Flynn.

On the deterioration of the band

Demmel: "I'm not gonna badmouth the breakup or Robb. I think he's an amazing musician, and the times I had in Machine Head were awesome. The last few years just weren't. We just didn't work as people anymore. I think Robb strayed from the path of being a band. He stayed on his path. Instead of us being on the same path or asking to be on the same path, it just became, 'This is what we're doing.'"

On "hating" the Catharsis album

Demmel: "There's moments of what I wrote that I like. I wrote most of the music to 'California Bleeding', but then Robb wrote the lyrics on top of it that I just wish that… Me and Dave (McClain / drums) talk about it, like, 'Fuck! I wish I could take my riffs back. No, that isn't what we want them used for.' So, I think, in that sense, it just became a Robb Flynn solo project, and that isn't what I signed up for, and the last few years were basically collecting a paycheck. And I just couldn't do that."

Check out the complete interview here.