Machine Head/Fear Factory: The Bellwether - Los Angeles, CA - 2/24/24
The year was just getting started, but it was already getting heavy with metal tours being announced left and right. One of the heaviest tours of the year so far was the Slaughter the Martour. Headlining the tour were metal giants, Machine Head. Support would come from Los Angeles’ cyber-metal legends Fear Factory, Swedish melodic death metal band Orbit Culture and metal band, Gates to Hell. After a whole month of touring the USA, it was time for the tour to come to an end. What better stop than Los Angeles on a Saturday night. The brand-new venue The Bellwether was a nice spot to hold a metal tour of this caliber. Gates to Hell and Orbit Culture did an amazing job of warming up the audience and there was still plenty of more metal left.
The third band to go up was the legendary Fear Factory. In 2021, they released their tenth studio album, Aggression Continuum. In 2023, Fear Factory announced their new singer Milo Silvestro who had replaced Burton C. Bell who left the band in 2020 after being their singer for 31 years. That left founding member and guitarist Dino Cazares as the only remaining original member of the band. The lights went out and the now packed venue cheered with excitement as the members made their way to the stage. It’s known that Fear Factory write a lot of songs about the Terminator film franchise, so it’s no surprise that they use the Terminator 2 theme song as they’re walking to the stage. To kick off their set, Fear Factory started with “Shock,” the first song from their landmark album, Obsolete. In classic metal fashion, fans started moshing and banging their heads. The second song performed was the second song from the same album and is also one of their more popular songs. That song was “Edgecrusher” and it was extra special because the band was joined on stage by Brandan Schieppati who fronts the metalcore band, Bleeding Through. With only a short set time, Fear Factory made every minute count as they played heavy hitter after heavy hitter. Some of their songs performed included “Powershifter,” “Linchpin,” “Slave Labor” and “Demanufacture.” For the finale of their set, Fear Factory asked the fans to give it their all as this was the last stop of the tour. The last song of their set was “Replica,” their usual ending song. It was an amazing set and Fear Factory keeps sounding good with no signs of slowing down. Now, there was just one more band to end the night so there was still plenty of metal to go around.
Headlining the tour was the almighty Machine Head. In 2022, they released their tenth studio album titled, Of Kingdom and Crown. As Machine Head prepared to go on stage, the venue had been packed to near sold-out capacity. The song “Diary of a Madman” by Ozzy Osbourne played over the speakers and fans of Machine Head know that when that song is played, that means that Machine Head is about to start. As the song was finishing up, the lights went out and the LCD lit up to reveal in big red bloody writing, “Machine Fucking Head.” The crowd erupted with excitement as frontman Rob Flynn made his way to the stage first, followed by his bandmates. This is the first tour to feature Reece Scruggs on guitar as he had replaced Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka who had to step down due to priorities with his main band, Polish death metal band Decapitated. Machine started their show with “Imperium” and the melody of the music has the fans moshing, jumping and banging their heads. During the middle of the song, Flynn announces that he wants a fast mosh pit as the guitar solo for the song happens. Los Angeles never fails when it comes to fast mosh pits. After the first song, Flynn asked if they wanted something heavy. The crowd obviously cheered that they did. The second performed was “Ten Ton Hammer” and the heaviness of the intro always sends the crowd into a frenzy. Soon came the time to play one of their best songs, “Aesthetics of Hate.” That’s one of their fastest songs that keeps the mosh pits going and even crowd surfers made an appearance. Near the end of the song, the LCD screen showed photos of brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul who formed the legendary band Pantera and both who have since passed away. Machine Head know how to drive the fans wild with fast and heavy songs and they kept the energy up as they played classics like “Old,” “Locust” and “From This Day.” Nearing the end of the show, Machine Head played another one of their best song called, “Davidian.” During the second half of the song, Milo Silvestro from Fear Factory came out to join them and sing the rest of the song for them. The fans love singing the chorus line, “Let freedom ring with a shotgun blast!” The song ended, the band left the stage, the lights went out and all seemed quiet. The fans continued to cheer and eventually started chanting, “Machine Fucking Head! Machine Fucking Head!” After a few minutes, Machine Head came back out for one more song. The ending song was their most popular song, “Halo.” Flynn asked everyone to headbang to the intro and, of course, just about everyone did. The show came to an end and Machine Head took a picture with the audience before saying their goodbyes once again and leaving the stage. A perfect way to end a month-long tour and surely, fans couldn’t wait to see these bands again.
Machine Head
Fear Factory
