Rob Flynn

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MACHINE HEAD: Frontman Says ‘Eight Guys’ Will Audition In Person For Vacant Bassist Slot

Posted by aliblackdiamond on May 2, 2013

Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: Adam Duce, Machine Head, Rob Flynn. Leave a Comment

San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD recently began the process of searching for a temporary bassist for this summer’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival in the U.S.

Commented the band’s guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn: “[We've] got eight guys lined up so far — some ‘known’ guys, some dudes who are under the radar, [and] all have touring / stage experience. It’s exciting in some ways, and weird in others. I never thought I’d be going through this process again, and it fucks with my head from time to time. It’s just a fill-in slot for Mayhem, but these guys have to deliver on several levels. They got a bit of big shoe to fill; the dude who used to be onstage left was a presence, so we’re going to test these guys out musically, performance-wise, creatively, and see if there’s any kind of chemistry there.”

MACHINE HEAD in February parted ways with bassist Adam Duce. Flynn explained in an online posting: “We may have fired Adam on [February 11], but Adam quit MACHINE HEAD well over a decade ago. He just never bothered to tell anyone… but we all knew it.”

He added: “Adam hasn’t been happy in this band for a long time. But how do you leave? To a guy like Adam, everything is either winning or losing. A stunning victory or the ultimate failure. There was no in between … No matter how unhappy or fed up he got, quitting the band would be seen as ‘losing’ or a ‘failure.’ Truth be told, he was sick of it. Sick of touring, sick of recording, sick of practicing, sick of looking at album artwork, sick of being on a team but never getting the ball, sick of yearning for the honeymoon to resume when 20 years deep it never does. Sick of never quite hitting the big time, sick of carving the niche… sick of caring.”

“Machine Fucking Head Live”, the new live album from MACHINE HEAD, sold 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release. It’s the band’s second live effort; “Hellalive” came out in 2003.

MACHINE HEAD‘s most recent studio album, “Unto The Locust”, sold more than 17,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 22 on The Billboard 200 chart — putting MACHINE HEAD in the Top 25 for the first time in the band’s 17-year history.

“Machine Fucking Head Live” was recorded at various tour stops across the globe last year. It features songs from throughout the band’s expansive catalog, including crowd favorites like “Imperium”, “Aesthetics of Hate”, “Locust”, “Ten Ton Hammer”, “This is the End” and “Halo”.

“Machine Fucking Head Live” was mixed and mastered at Trident Studios in Pacheco, California by Juan Urteaga and Robb Flynn.

MACHINE HEAD is currently seeking a new label home following the expiration of the band’s contract with longtime record company Roadrunner Records.

MACHINE HEAD To ‘Officially’ Begin Writing New Material ‘This Week Or Next’

Posted by aliblackdiamond on January 16, 2013

Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: "The General Journals: Diary of a Frontman... and Other Ramblings", Machine Head, Rob Flynn. Leave a Comment

Source: Blabbermouth.net

Guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD has updated his online “journal” at MachineHead1.com with the following entry:

“Just to refresh everyone who may not have read the first journal I wrote, I have started up my diary/journals again after taking a much-needed break from it. They’re now called ‘The General Journals: Diary of a Frontman… and Other Ramblings.’

“For a little background, I started doing these journals/diaries 11 years ago in 2002, between ‘Supercharger’ and ‘Through The Ashes’. It was the first wave of the Internet, and we jumped on board, were one of the first (if not the first) to start the text/video diaries, and we fully embraced it. It was awesome, and enabled our band (that had been completely written off by the major U.S. metal press, and continues to be) to connect with our fans in a really unique way. And that’s what these are for/about: the connection. I need this connection, and from what you’ve told me over the years, you need it too.

“I find myself looking back on my life and so much of it is about searching for a connection, any connection, through music, through shows, through jamming, through partying, through girls/sex, through friends, and oftentimes, down all the wrong paths. Maybe we all are. And maybe some of us don’t need to be. Some of us had great normal lives, lives that kept the need for this fucking endless search at bay. I’m certain that part of it with me is, being adopted at 6 months and never feeling truly ‘connected’ to anyone (3 foster families in the first 6 months of life), but hey, that’s a whole other story.

“Side note: If you’re reading this on a website other than [MachineHead1.com] or our Facebook page, please know that this is not a ‘press release.’ These are my ‘journals,’ ‘ramblings,’ ‘brain dumps,’ etc. There seems to be some confusion about that. If you’re not a fan of the band, feel free to ignore these, I’ll be doing them often, sometimes twice a week. I’m not trying to win anyone over here, I’m not trying to change anyone’s opinion of MACHINE HEAD or me, I don’t expect, or even need, everyone to like me or the music we make. This is for the diehard MACHINE HEAD fans (the Head Cases, The Undesirables) who follow the band closely. It’s for our main site, MachineHead1.com, our Facebook, and the PHPList that I’ve started. Its purpose is to give said fans updates, thoughts on life, and life in a band.

“No immediate tour plans, but [MACHINE HEAD] will officially begin writing this week or next. No one has really sat down and discussed where we’d like to go in depth, but we have talked about shorter songs (LOL). The last TEN TON HAMMER show we did in London really got us thinking about cool, short songs. In particular, ‘Postmortem’ by SLAYER seemed to really get our blood flowing. We all talked about it afterward, how they managed to squeeze so many AWESOME riffs into 3 minutes and 28 seconds is just freakin’ mind-boggling (or as our drum tech Mudbilly says, ‘mind-bottling’). ‘Everlong’ and ‘Sad Statue’ were also cool nuggets of shortness (videos of us covering those songs are up on YouTube, check ‘em out).

“Phil [Demmel, guitar] has told me he has some riffs, [Dave] McClain [drums] e-mailed some cool riffs, I have some pretty awesome riffs tuned down to F that I’m stoked on… so, who knows where it’s all going yet, but it’s definitely starting to bubble. Can’t really tell where it’s all gonna end up, you can’t really plan that out, but that’s some of what we’ve been bouncing around.

‘In other news, we’ve successfully finished our recording contract with Roadrunner and are currently free agents. It’s an exciting time for us right now, the world is our oyster and we can dictate a lot of fair terms in exchange for our art. There’s been a lot of talk as to what we should and/or shouldn’t do; the music business has changed dramatically since the last deal we signed for ‘Through The Ashes’ back in 2003 (let alone our first deal in 1993), and what we’re looking for in a deal here in 2013 is different.

“I used to be a staunch believer that the world isn’t waiting for a quickly delivered MACHINE HEAD album, they’re just waiting for a great MACHINE HEAD album. And while I still believe that, in the 10 years between ‘Through The Ashes Of Empires’, ‘The Blackening’ and ‘Unto The Locust’, the world stopped caring as much about great ‘albums.’ People want great songs, and while great albums are appreciated, they don’t mean what they used to. People have been burned by too many lousy CDs / albums / downloads. I know I have (the new MUSE record blows, I LOVE that band, but the last 2 have been pretty meh).

“Plus, if you’re making music these days, there’s a hell of a lot of chatter to cut through between Facebook, Twitter, gaming, movies, Instagram, YouTube, social everything, mobile everything… listening to an album front to back ain’t what it used to be. Songs resonate more, it’s easier to get to the point. I don’t even want to listen to most albums all the way through anymore, most have too many songs / are too damn long. Gimme ‘Paranoid’ ANY DAY — 41 minutes, 8 songs (one of which is a drum solo!), a masterpiece. Gimme ‘Moving Pictures’ — 39 minutes, 7 songs, PERFECT!! Remember when SLAYER‘s ‘Reign In Blood’ was so short you could squeeze the whole album on one side of a cassette?! The official Def Jam cassette had the whole album repeated on side 2 cause it’s 29 minutes!! People were up in arms, they actually felt ripped off. Today, it’s regarded as a masterpiece.

“Is anyone saying, ‘Man, I wish ‘Reign In Blood’ had 9 more songs’?

“We don’t need 19 songs and 72 minutes of music on a CD. And where would you even get most CD’s nowadays? Between my iPhone, iTunes, and Spotify, I just download or stream it, it’s too easy. I can say without a shred of doubt that I will never buy another physical CD again. Ever. I have found so many new bands on iTunes and Spotify (I use the $9-a-month premium version) it is absolutely incredible. The entire history of recorded music is at your fingertips, at all times. Sure, there are a few holdouts, but they’ll be on board within the year. Even METALLICA just hopped on the Spotify train. The world has gone streaming. It’s just too easy. Hell, I’ve found more new AND old bands on YouTube just surfing around than I ever have going to a record store.

“And so we as a band ask ourselves a lot of unique questions about what we should do. I am absolutely not interested in selling CDs first week of release for $16, $17 or $18 dollars/euros/pounds. I’m not interested in selling CDs at all, frankly, though I realize people still buy and appreciate them… but hey, change is inevitable, especially in this business. Just like cassettes became obsolete, just like CD longboxes became obsolete. I remember when people were pissed that we didn’t offer vinyl for ‘The More Things Change…’, and then really pissed when we didn’t offer cassettes for ‘The Burning Red’, and I mean PISSED about those cassettes! Does anyone miss cassettes now? Hell no.

“And as I write this I’m thinking — as I’m sure many of you are — just how counterproductive the things I’m saying are. I mean, MACHINE HEAD are in the business of selling CDs, right? But at the same time, we’re in the business of making music, for people to listen to, however they want to. We find ways to generate money to pay back the people who loaned us the money to record, to re-invest in our band, to make better records, to put on better light shows, to bring better sound systems, to keep the lights on at MACHINE HEAD, to live our lives, so that we can make more music. We don’t want to get in bed with a bunch of corporate sponsors, we’ve already dabbled in that and it’s a nightmare, worse than the record companies. Who knows, maybe we’ll end up signing with a traditional record company after all, because there is A LOT of stuff that we’re just not interested in doing. Maybe we do something radical instead, I’ve heard a lot of great things about these Kickstarter projects, Amanda Palmer in particular has done amazing…

“I don’t know where I’m even going with this. It’s part vent, part ramble, part trying-to-figure-it-out-as-I’m-typing. But in saying that, let me put it out to you: How do YOU want MACHINE HEAD‘s music? Do YOU want a CD? Do YOU want a Spotify stream? Do YOU want the ease of an iTunes download? Do YOU want vinyl with that digital download? Do YOU want a new/different configuration no one has thought about/offered? A guitar that plays the whole record through a USB plug? A calendar-sized booklet with nothing but a download code?

“Write me at TheGeneralJournals@gmail.com, post on our Facebook page, tweet it to me, post a Blabbermouth comment, I’ll read it all. Because to me, it’s all about making the best music we can, about striving to be better than the rest, not just good, but absolutely bad-fucking-ass. Making something so powerful, it can’t help but be heard. And frankly, that’s all that matters. The rest will sort itself out.”

(Thanks: NJthrasher)

MACHINE HEAD Frontman: Rubs Elbows With Bay Area ‘Social Elite’, Performs At ARF Fundraiser

Posted by aliblackdiamond on January 8, 2013

Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: ARF, Machine Head, Rob Flynn. Leave a Comment

Source: Blabbermouth.net

Guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD has posted the following message on the band’s official web site:

“Life has a funny way of playing out, how seemingly innocuous encounters can take you to places you never thought you’d go.

“Flash back to about a year and a half ago… I’m walking through Whole Foods in Walnut Creek [California] talking on the phone to my friend Tom when a lady and her daughter approach me wide-eyed. ‘Are you fucking Robb Flynn?!’ … ‘I could be…’ They scream with delight and make a big ol’ to-do, ‘Oh my god, we’re huge fans, I love ‘The Blackening’, I’m Tony La Russa‘s wife!’ [Editor's note: Tony La Russa is a former Major League Baseball manager and infielder, best known for his tenures as manager of the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, and St. Louis Cardinals.] I’m tripped out, they’re both super nice, we take pictures, my friend is laughing his ass off, more about the fact that I was swarmed in a freakin’ Whole Foods than anything else. So, last February we headline The Warfield in San Francisco, and after the show, who walks in but Elaine, Devon and Tony La Russa. A bunch of my Chicago buddies are there and lose their minds, and hilariously begin sneakin’ pictures with him while he’s talking to someone else by ‘leaning in’ and snapping a quick pic (which became the legend known as ‘The La Russa Lean’). My baseball fanatic Dad FREAKS OUT, and Tony L blows my mind when he tells me that I ‘have so much charisma, he wishes he could bottle it and make his players drink it.’ WOW!!?? I’m not worthy! We strike up a conversation and I mention that we got our dog Shady from the Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) in Walnut Creek that he started almost 25 years ago, and he’s really stoked about that. He takes down my number and texts me the next day thanking me for the hospitality and for the great show. We’ve stayed in touch randomly over the last year.

“Two days after Christmas I get a voicemail from Tony, he’s doing his 22nd annual benefit to raise money for ARF, he wants to invite my wife and I down to both nights, and wants to know if I’d like to come hang out, or even jam a song, and if not, just enjoy the show. The first night is Comedy Night with Dana Carvey, Kevin Pollak, Rob Schneider and John Wing, the second night features some Broadway performers, Rich Hebert (the main star of the Broadway renditions of ‘Les Miserables’, ‘Billy Elliot’ and ‘Saturday Night Fever’), THE TOMMY IGOE BIG BAND, Jeff Scott Soto (of YNGWIE MALMSTEEN / TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA fame!) jammin’ some QUEEN tunes, a Robin Williams comedy set, and Tony fucking Orlando!! JESUS!? How do you say no? I get back to him on New Year’s Eve and and say yeah, and if he’s up for it, I can maybe jam a couple of acoustic songs. He’s down. It’s an anniversary gift for his wife Elaine, who is a raging metalhead… like, bananas for super-random-obscure-Euro-metal kind of metalhead. Elaine La Russa is the real deal, folks.

“So now I’m thinking, ‘What the hell am I gonna play?’ I figure I just did ‘Die Young’ acoustic a couple of weeks ago, I was confident I could pull it off, but what else? I had never performed the all-acoustic version of ‘Darkness Within’ that appeared on the special edition of ‘Unto The Locust’… hmmm, fuck it I’ll try that. Only thing is that when I recorded that version, I played the guitar and sang separately, as I’d had about two hours to re-interpret it amidst a pretty mean hangover.

“We show up to the Comedy Night, and I was telling my wife, ‘Man, I’m so ready to laugh, I need to laugh.’ We sat next to Elaine, and MAN, did we laugh! Every comedian was hilarious, and all for different reasons. At one point I had to massage my face muscles because they were starting to cramp from so much laughing. It was a full-on uncontrollable mescaline-laugh-a-thon flashback. I SO needed it.

“The next day I showed up to soundcheck and the first person I see is John (Indo) who was the engineer at the home studio The Grill where we recorded the ’93 demo that would get us signed to Roadrunner. He’s doing my sound. Yes, it’s gonna be awesome. Rich Hebert from (as Phil calls it) ‘Les Mis’ is singing some insanely amazing version of a ‘Les Mis’ tune, him and I are sharing a dressing room and hit it off. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur, including random/cool conversations with Tony La Russa. I invited my Dad down as I thought he’d get a kick out of it and I REALLY wanted him to get some time with La Russa, even though La Russa‘s Oakland A’s beat my dad’s beloved San Francisco Giants in the ’89 ‘Battle Of The Bay’ World Series, he got some quality hang time in. He was in baseball heaven. I had a total bro-down with Paulie Z and Jeff Scott Soto who did a QUEEN medley after my set and killed it. And then the time came to do my set for a 40-to-70-year-old audience that I was certain had no fuckin’ clue who the hell I or MACHINE HEAD was. I cracked a couple jokes about it and definitely broke the ice; I was nervous, surprisingly so, irrationally so. Every time I do these acoustic things I’m nervous, I kept telling myself, ‘Dude, you headline festivals in front of 100,000 people, and don’t even blink an eye, why are you nervous?’ I guess the idea of sitting, just me and an acoustic, and just being in the moment, connecting to the lyrics, connecting to the emotion and the place where I wrote it, and the idea that I couldn’t rely on my old bag of tricks is… well, scary. I both like and hate that feeling. I feel like I need to do more of it just to get past this weird… I dunno, fear?

“Tony La Russa‘s intro BLEW ME UP!! Dude RULES. After that intro I could have farted for 10 minutes and people would have at least politely clapped. Did ‘Die Young’ first, went down good, I sang the end a lot better than at the Mitch [Lucker] benefit, and then came time for the debut of the acoustic version of ‘Darkness’, just me and an acoustic, no sing-a-longs, no band to kick in The Heavy; a new version I had never played live. It worked, it totally worked, I nailed most of it, was a little flat in some parts at the very end, but overall it felt good, and I was proud of myself for taking up the challenge.

“Flash forward to the afterparty at Willie McCovey’s Restaurant in Walnut Creek, and people seemed really impressed that a big, ugly, hairy heavy metal guy could sing, expressed being blown away, a lot of people related to the lyrics. There was a genuine curiosity about metalheads too, a lot of people asked if other people in metal could do this? I told them they’d be amazed at the level of talent and musicianship there is in metal, that we are what jazz musicians were in the ’30s and ’50s: an unrespected and misunderstood genre that people will look back on 30 years from now and go, ‘Wow, how did we miss that and not give it its due?’ I signed autographs and snapped pics all night and it was cool to see the Bay Area metal scene getting recognized and appreciated by (for lack of better words) the Bay Area ‘social elite.’

“Back to the show… the rest of the night after my set just went bat shit awesome. Robin Williams came out and fucking KILLED IT, that dude is fucking funny, with a mouth like a pirate hooker! His bit about his four-hour Viagra hard-on and his 60-year-old penis shooting one drop of semen that had just two 51 year-old sperms (‘just point me to the eggs and I got it from here’) had me in freakin’ tears. Then headliner Tony Orlando came on and brought the house down. He opened with ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon’, into ‘Knock Three Times (On The Ceiling If You Want Me)’ and the hits never stopped, he had a KILLER backing band, the keyboard and guitarist (Cole brothers) were real-deal rockers, they did an amazing BEATLES medley, and for the last song, ‘Hey Jude’, he brought all of the performers out. Next thing I know the keyboard player hands me a guitar, looks at me and says ‘it’s a lefty.’ I look down and say, ‘Uh…,’ he says. ‘just flip it over, it’s strung backwards’… ‘hmmm, OK!’ Next thing I know I’m playing guitar on ‘Hey Jude’ with Tony Orlando, then the world flips on its head and outta nowhere, Tony Orlando stops the tune and says we’re gonna rock out… suddenly the band kicks into ‘Whole Lotta Love’ by LED ZEPPELIN!!?? So there I am onstage rockin’ out, on a left-handed guitar flipped upside-down, with Tony La Russa on the gourd, Tony Orlando on the vocals, the whole cast of performers, jammin’ ‘Whole Lotta Love’… fuckin’ nutzo!!

“What a night.

“Yes, life has a funny way of playing out, how these seemingly innocuous encounters can take you to places you never thought you’d go.”

MACHINE HEAD Frontman Undergoes Successful Hernia Surgery

Posted by aliblackdiamond on November 14, 2012

Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: Machine Head, Rob Flynn. Leave a Comment

Source: Blabbermouth.net

Guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD underwent successful surgery earlier today (Wednesday, November 14) in Minneapolis, Minnesota to repair his double inguinal hernia.

Several post-operation photos of Flynn can be seen below.

Flynn had planned to go under the knife in January 2013 after completing a North American tour with DETHKLOK, ALL THAT REMAINS and THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER. He had hoped to continue the trek despite extreme discomfort, but it’s become too difficult to carry on.

Flynn will return home to California to recover, rest and recuperate. The band will rejoin the tour in Portland, Oregon on November 24.

MACHINE HEAD has just released a new live album, “Machine Fucking Head Live”, via Roadrunner Records. It’s the band’s second live effort; “Hellalive” was released in 2003.

MACHINE HEAD Frontman: ‘We’re In Between Record Labels Right Now’

Posted by aliblackdiamond on July 15, 2012

Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: Machine Head, Rob Flynn. Leave a Comment

PitCam.TV conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD at this year’s edition of the With Full Force festival, which was held June 29 – July 1 at Flugplatz Roitzschjora in Löbnitz, Germany (near Leipzig). You can now watch the chat below.

When asked about the recent Roadrunner Records “restructuring” under parent label Warner Music Group, which resulted in roughly 36 staff members worldwide being let go and several regional offices being closed, Flynn said, “It’s a shame, man. It’s a fucking shame. Considering that these are, like, the premier people in their field… I mean, when it comes to metal, there was no one better. They were profitable, which almost no label in this day and age can say. The thing that was most bizarre was that Warner had all of their rock and metal bands going through Roadrunner [in Europe] ’cause [Warner] didn’t know what to do. So it’s kind of like, ‘Why would you [close the Roadrunner offices in those territories]?’ But they did it.”

He continued, “We’re still trying to see how it is; we’re trying to get a feel for what’s going on. We’re in between labels right now — the last record was the [final one under our most recent contract with] Roadrunner, so we’re actually in a pretty unique position, because we’ve got a lot of different choices that we can go with right now, and the world is, basically, our oyster. It’s a rad position to be in. Eight years ago, we got turned down by 35 labels, and now every label on the planet wants to sign us. [laughs] So it’s pretty awesome. So we’re gonna play it out. Roadrunner‘s still got a lot of people that we know and love there — especially in America, they’ve got a real strong… the core people that are there are huge MACHINE HEAD supporters. We’re gonna check it out and we may very well end up on Roadrunner. We just need to make sure that it’s the right thing and that they get what we’re doing, because we’re not a pop band, we’re not some mainstream artist. I mean, we’re the biggest underground metal band, I guess, there is.”

On the topic of how the record industry woes affect the up-and-coming heavy metal artists, Flynn said, “I don’t think any new band is gonna have trouble. I mean, you look at… SUICIDE SILENCE is the perfect example. They came out of nowhere, they got an Internet buzz and they made themselves a hot band. And they made people care. And that’s ultimately all that you have to do. That’s all any band has ever had to do for the history of time. You have to make people care about your music and about your trip and about how you do it. And if you can do that, then the labels will come to you.”

Flynn also stressed that, while the Internet is a great tool for new bands to promote themselves, they will still need the backing of an experienced and established label to get their music out to the masses. “You need money to do stuff, and you need [the labels] to loan you money to do stuff,” he said. “You need them to knock on all of the doors and go, ‘Hey, this is cool,’ or ‘This is not cool.’ You need a staff of people. It’s a lot more involved than most people think. I mean, yeah, you can get a buzz going, and you can probably put out a self-financed demo and do great stuff, but at some point, in order to make the whole thing work on a worldwide level, you need something like that. And [it's] better to have their money than have to spend your own. [laughs]“

MACHINE HEAD recently announced plans to film a video for the song ‘Darkness Within’ in the Czech Republic. The track comes off the band’s new album, “Unto The Locust”, which sold more than 17,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 22 on The Billboard 200 chart — putting MACHINE HEAD in the Top 25 for the first time in the band’s 17-year history.

Source: Blabbermouth.net

MACHINE HEAD Frontman Discusses Epiphone Love/Death Baritone Flying-V Signature Guitar

Posted by aliblackdiamond on July 7, 2012

Posted in: Int. News. Tagged: Epiphone Love/Death Baritone Flying V, Machine Head, Rob Flynn. Leave a Comment

In early June, Gibson conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD at the Rock Am Ring festival in Nürburgring, Germany. You can now watch the chat below.

Flynn worked closely with Epiphone engineers to create the Epiphone Robb Flynn Love/Death Baritone Flying V, the first of its kind not only for Epiphone but for the Gibson family of brands as well. Robb has won countless awards including the Metal Hammer Golden Gods award presented in 2007. And just like his music, Robb‘s baritone design brings a totally original sound to metal and hard rock.

“The main reason for having the slightly shorter 27.0″ baritone scale is when you tune down to B, it just makes the low definition really tight, especially for palm muting and chunking,” remarks Flynn. “It opens up the sound a lot.” The guitar comes equipped with string gauges (low to high) .58, .42, .32, unwound .18, .13, and .10 — the same that Robb uses on stage — but can also accept heavier gauges.

The Robb Flynn Love/Death Baritone Flying V features a Mahogany body in the classic Kalamazoo factory “V” style with a Mahogany SlimTaper “D”-profile neck which features a baritone ready 27″ scale. The Ebony fingerboard has a 1.68″ graphite nut for precision tuning and “Love/Death” inlays and 24 medium jumbo frets. The thunderous low end of the Robb Flynn Love/Death Baritone Flying V comes from the combination of an EMG-HA neck pickup and an EMG-81 bridge pickup. The EMG-HA neck pickup is a uniquely designed single-coil pickup inside a humbucker housing which keeps the classic look of a Flying V guitar but with something special under the hood. The EMG-HA debuted in 1974 as the first noiseless single coil pickup and features Alnico magnets for warmth and the widest possible frequency response for great definition and harmonics. It’s also a perfect choice for rhythm when matched with the low tuning of a baritone guitar providing a solid “chunking” bedrock while still showing off all the complex overtones that are part of the baritone experience. The EMG-81 bridge pickup is one of EMG’s most requested pickups and utilizes powerful ceramic magnets and close aperture coils for incredible amounts of low end cut and fluid sustain. The EMG-81, combined with the unique intervals of baritone tuning, will slice through dense mixes and make your baritone leads sound thunderous. The controls are straightforward with a full-size 500K O potentiometer Master Volume control and a 3-way toggle switch.

The Robb Flynn Love/Death Baritone Flying V features Epiphone’s rock solid hardware including Grover locking machine heads for on-stage precision, an Epiphone LockTone Tune-o-matic bridge and StopBar tailpiece, chrome knobs, a standard 1/4″ metal jack plate and Epiphone strap locks.

The Robb Flynn Love/Death Baritone Flying V includes a Custom Hard Case with original artwork by Robb Flynn and Strephon Taylor. The first 250 guitars produced will also receive a hand-signed certificate.

“This guitar isn’t for blues players or jazz players,” says Flynn, “it’s a metal guitar designed specifically for young or modern metal players.”

And as with every Epiphone, the Love/Death Baritone Flying V comes with the peace of mind of our Limited Lifetime Warranty backed by Gibson Musical Instruments’ famous 24/7/365 day Customer Service. Go low and get heavy with the one-of-a-kind Epiphone Robb Flynn Love/Death Baritone Flying V.