MACHINE HEAD's LOGAN MADER Says It's 'Pretty Surreal And Weird' To Be Taking Part In 'Burn My Eyes' 25th-Anniversary Tour

MACHINE HEAD guitarist Logan Mader spoke to Heavy New York about his participation in the 25th-anniversary tour for the band's debut album, "Burn My Eyes". Asked how he looks back on "Burn My Eyes" more than a quarter century since the LP's release, Logan said (see video below): "The way I look at it now is it's pretty special and unique. I'm just super lucky that it even matters today and that the timing worked out where we could do this tour and that I was able to be a part of it. It's pretty emotional and a pretty big milestone in my life as far as things that are awesome in life — this is one of the most important things. And now to get to relive it, it's pretty surreal and weird, I guess. Most people don't get to do that, and I'm aware of it, and I'm super grateful and just stoked. It's all good vibes."

According to Mader, the fans' reactions to the current tour have been overwhelmingly positive. "It just reminds me, and it makes me aware, like, 'Wow! That really did have a big impact on a lot of people,'" he said. "And I can see it now. And I know it did then too. But the fact that it still does is pretty awesome. It's, like, I'll see people my age coming to our shows with their teenage kids, and the kids are wearing MACHINE HEAD shirts. Obviously, they weren't even born [when 'Burn My Eyes' came out]. And they're into it. That's something super unique, and I didn't ever think about that until I got out here [on the road] and saw it."

Asked if he and MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn had a preconceived idea about the "Burn My Eyes" musical direction when they first started writing the material for the record, Logan said: "When I came in, it was the beginning, but Robb had a few songs written already, and he had a pretty clear direction of where the band was gonna go creatively and how to sound, and it had something special to it. So when I came in, I did my best to be myself, but also to fit alongside the foundation he had laid, with songs like 'Death Church', 'Blood For Blood' and 'Block', which I think was [originally] called 'Fuck It All'; I think those three were done when I joined. And then songs like 'Old' — I participated in the riff writing of 'Old' and 'Davidian' and 'A Nation On Fire' and 'A Thousand Lies'. So, yeah, and I guess it worked — chemistry-wise, it worked — and I brought some really cool riffs to the party. But we didn't know what the fuck… Robb knew. He told me when I first talked to him about it. He was, like, 'Yeah, I think this is gonna be big. It's gonna be big.' And I believed him for some reason. And he was right. But nobody would have known it could have been as big as it was. It was just, I guess, a lucky thing."

The North American leg of the "Burn My Eyes" 25th-anniversary tour kicked off in Phoenix on January 16 and will continue across Chicago and Denver, wrapping up at the legendary Fox Theater in Oakland, California on February 21 and House Of Blues in Anaheim, California on February 22. Each show on the trek consists of two parts: part one sees Flynn and bassist Jared MacEachern performing alongside new recruits, Polish guitarist Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka (DECAPITATED) and British drummer Matt Alston (DEVILMENT, EASTERN FRONT); while part two features "Burn My Eyes" played in its entirety for the first time ever, with original drummer Chris Kontos and Mader joining in.

Kontos left MACHINE HEAD before the release of the band's second album, 1997's "The More Things Change", and was replaced by Dave McClain.

Mader contributed to two MACHINE HEAD albums, the aforementioned "Burn My Eyes" and "The More Things Change", before exiting the group and being replaced by Ahrue Luster and, later on, Phil Demmel.

Demmel and McClain exited MACHINE HEAD in the fall of 2018.