It's safe to say that after today, the frontmen of Machine Head and Children of Bodom would not be trading Christmas cards this holiday season. The two bands were supposed to be out on the road right now, touring together, but due to Machine Head needing more time to finish their album, they postponed the tour.
After the tour was postponed, Children of Bodom frontman Alexi Laiho posted a message saying the tour postponement would allow them to write new material. He also made it clear that the cancellation was not his fault:
I'm sure some of you already know that our North American tour with Machine Head has officially been canceled, without any fault of our own, I might add. I will not go into details on why or what happened but I need you, my friends to know that this had nothing to do with me or COB. [..] i guess this is me apologizing on everyone's behalf that we let you down.
Between this mildly passive-aggressive message and a bunch of Bodom fans contacting Flynn on social media to complain about the cancellation, it led to Flynn responding with a blog entry of his own putting Alexi and Bodom fans on blast.
Flynn was talking about social media in general, and who the actual people who "like" the band on Facebook are and it evolved into a tangent about Bodom:
There also exists a large group of “I’m-not-really-sure-if-they-are-fans-or-not,” and last and certainly least, there’s the people whose sole purpose is to troll your page. Like, I don’t know… let’s say the Children Of Bodom "Hate Crew” that has been out in full force in light of the US tour being re-scheduled. It’s typical shit talking, albeit a ton of it to the actual Machine Head fans saying ‘how much better Bodom are than Machine Head’ and how ‘Bodom should've been headlining over Machine Head’, and “fuck Machine Head”.
However, most people usually need the motivation to act like fools and Alexi’s little bitch-ass response certainly got the "Hate Crew" fired up.
Hate Crew?… pffffft!… more like “Alexi-ain’t-that-Great-Crew!”, more like, “bought-a-ticket-too-Late-Crew!”, more like, “It’s-not-my-fault-you’re-a-virgin-and-can’t-get-a-Date-Crew”!!
But to the weak attacking the MH castle? Whatever… we've got the Head Cases, the fucking MH diehards, armed to the teeth and defending us to the bitterest of deaths.
Flynn has no trouble letting people know how he really feels. Last year, he famously called out Avenged Sevenfold for their new album sounding like it ripped off a lot of classic metal material.
You have to wonder if this does more harm than good for Flynn. He's burning plenty of bridges which may make it difficult for Machine Head to book some tours further down the road. Then again, he probably doesn't care. Besides that though, canceling the tour had a trickle-down affect. Sure, Bodom won't feel the loss of revenue. But what about all the band's crews? Now they have to find new gigs on short notice. How about the people who work at the venues? If they don't fill those dates with new shows, the people that work at the venue will be out of a night's work. Just seems like unnecessary drama.
What do you think? Has Flynn gone too far or is it just too funny?
The new Machine Head album, Bloodstone & Diamonds comes out November 10th. Grab it for as low as $8.99 on Amazon.com.
