The following report is courtesy of MTV.com:

When MACHINE HEAD needed some extra throats to help supply backup vocals for the track 'Clenching The Fists Of Dissent', instead of calling up some of his heavy-metal comrades, frontman Robert Flynn bought some booze instead.

"We had a bunch of our fans come down a few weeks ago, and we just had a big party and invited them down to the studio to sing on the record," he explained of the track, which will appear on the band's forthcoming "unconventional" album The Blackening. "It was a really cool night. We just busted out a ton of vodka and a ton of beer and got everybody all hammered. The fans are the reason we're still here. They went out there and made a huge statement when our last record (2003's Through the Ashes of Empires) came out, and proved to the world that we're here for good."

And because Flynn appreciates his disciples' support so much, he sticks up for them when they're attacked. Take the tune 'Aesthetics Of Hate,' inspired by an article called Aesthetics of Hate: R.I.P. Dimebag Abbott, & Good Riddance, for instance. The article, written by William Grim for the conservative Web site the Iconoclast, basically kicked fans of the slain Pantera guitarist while they were down, just days after he was killed onstage. The song is a "f--- you" to Grim, from Flynn.

"It basically said that Dime was untalented and that he reaped what he sowed," the singer said about the article. (Grim called Abbott "an ignorant, barbaric, untalented possessor of a guitar" who looks "more simian than human" and "part of a generation that has confused sputum with art and involuntary reflex actions with emotion"). "It's one thing to have an opinion about an artist, but the thing that was the most offensive to me was how it then went on to cast this huge generalization over the metal community, calling us pathetic for mourning his death. He called us all ugly and fat. I wanted to punch the f---ing computer screen when I read that article."

Machine Head have spent the last month in the studio tracking The Blackening, which Flynn said should be out in late March. He called the album, which the band began writing material for more than a year ago, its "most ambitious" one to date.

"We really didn't want to play it safe on this record," he explained. "We kind of came back from the dead with Through the Ashes, and the safest thing we could've done would've been to just stay in [that] vein and try to keep that formula because it worked last time. Not that there was a formula really. We just started writing and the music that we were writing just started going in this far more complex, intricate and layered direction. It's not like we sat there and intentionally did it. It just kind of [happened]. Pretty soon we ended up having 10-minute-long songs. But the thing that's really cool about it is, we're not just jamming on three riffs for 10 minutes. This is molten riffage — just 20, 30 crushing riffs per song."

Flynn said Machine Head were on a RUSH kick (particularly 1977's A Farewell to Kings) during the writing of The Blackening, and even took a few cues from the Canadian prog-rock icons.

"The one thing that they did is that they'd have these long songs that constantly had a continuing theme throughout them," he said. "The songs always reverted back to this one melody or this one hook — and that kept it in the context of a song so that ultimately, it wasn't just riff soup for 10 minutes. It kind of had some things that took you on a journey and then brought you back to something familiar. And that's something that we really started to try and bring into the mix. We'd have these long songs, but then we'd go back to these choruses or these hooks, but in a different context. The more we did it, the more we got excited about it. For whatever reason, it's worked."

Machine Head plan to begin mixing the album next week with Colin Richardson (FEAR FACTORY, SEPULTURA) and will shoot a video for the album's first single next month. As for touring, Flynn said there's a big announcement on the way. He claims they'll be touring from February through April "on a huge tour we're super-excited about." Flynn said Machine Head will spend most of 2007 on the road.