San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD have released the following statement: "It is with great disappointment that MACHINE HEAD must announce the postponement of our North American tour this fall. "Our new album, 'Bloodstone & Diamonds', has taken longer to complete than expected and we had to make the difficult choice to either delay the album, let it go out as incomplete, or cancel the tour in order to properly finish and promote the album in the caliber it needs to be done. We decided postponing the tour was the best decision for the record. "We feel this record is a milestone, we have something truly special here, but getting there has been a challenge. "Our vocalist/guitarist Robb Flynn just returned from a press tour where he was playing rough mixes and incomplete versions of songs for the press just to try and keep everything on time for our November release date. "Refunds will be available for tickets at point of purchase. "Look out for rescheduled American tour dates for the beginning of the year. "All [previously announced] European tour dates will remain as scheduled." MACHINE HEAD will release its new album, "Bloodstone & Diamonds", on November 10 via Nuclear Blast Entertainment. The CD was recorded in part at GREEN DAY's JingleTown Recording compound in Oakland, California. Regarding the "Bloodstone & Diamonds" album title, Robb Flynn said: "Without getting too philosophical on ya, bloodstone and diamonds represent two of the hardest materials on earth. It is also a lyric from the opening track of the album, 'Now We Die'. "In many cultures, the bloodstone has been used as an amulet to protect against evil, and is the symbol of justice. Diamonds are the hardest natural material on earth (which is how we feel about our music), and it also represents the diamond logo I drew 22 years ago (in my wife's apartment on Dover St. in Oakland) that has become the symbol for the band." Speaking about the musical direction of "Bloodstone & Diamonds", Flynn said: "There's definitely a lot of urgency on this record. It's a really heavy record arid there's a dark and evil vibe to a lot of it, but I feel like there's more of a rock vibe in there too. It's stripped down at times, and I like that. I think that sense of urgency has carried over from the demos we did, which were all done very quickly and spontaneously. We tried to keep that spontaneous vibe on the album." He continued: "At one point we started getting really anal on the tracks and spending tons of time on stuff, and we'd listen back and say, 'You know what? This doesn't have the vibe of the demos.' The demos were so fuckin' frantic, so we changed our mindset and now it's a little bit looser. Some of the guitar takes are basically live. Often, 40 or 50 percent of a song came from a spontaneous, live take and that's killer! It adds energy and makes the songs feel alive."
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