Metal Anarchy

Ex-Machine Head members Phil Demmel (Vio-lence) and Dave McClain (Sacred Reich) have recorded a new song with David Ellefson (Megadeth) and Brandan Schieppati (Bleeding Through). The track, which is titled “The Permanent Decay,” has already premiered on SiriusXM and a lyric video for it will be released on January 7.

Demmel said the following:

“I had some tracks I had written and submitted for a previous band, that were never used, and I really liked them. Dave McClain and I had worked some of them up, and I kept thinking of who would be perfect to sing on it. My wife plays in Bleeding Through with Brandan, he ended up writing all the vocals, and singing on it, and it came out killer. Ellefson and I had been talking at NAMM last year about doing something together, so when this came up, it was the perfect opportunity to do that as well. We don’t know if we’re a band, we don’t know what we’re doing, other than that we all played on this song, and that we dig it. No one knows what the future holds.”

McClain added:

“Originally when me and Phil were in Machine Head, and it came time to start writing stuff for the next record, Phil had some ideas and riffs, and I’m always down there practicing all day. He just came down one day, he had these riffs, we started messing around. I mic’ed up everything in the room on my laptop, and we recorded this stuff live, and then it ended up not being used for anything.

Fast forward to all this time later, when we’re both out of Machine Head, and Phil was going out on this guitar clinic tour, and he was like, ‘Let’s record some of the riffs and songs I had.’”

Ellefson also commented:

“About a year ago when we were doing Metal Allegiance at the Anaheim House of Blues, I mentioned to Phil that we should collaborate on something together. And as the year went by, he contacted me back in October about a track, and he sent it over to me, I loved it.

It was fun to work with Brandan, who is so respected in his genre, I always love playing with innovators, and in this case, I’ve had a great experience and friendship playing with Phil, and to be able to branch out and play with Brandan, and to be back playing with Dave McClain who played on ‘Hammer Comes Down‘ on my ‘Sleeping Giants‘ album, was really kinda reuniting the family in a way, but at the same time stepping out into some new turf, and a new sound, for me, that we kinda touched on on ‘Sleeping Giants‘ as well.

I love to branch out and work with a new cast of people, and dive into different styles and genres of metal, and that’s really what this was all about.”