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MACHINE Head brought complete carnage to Aberdeen's Lemon Tree last night (Sunday September 4) as the city's metal family communed in the venue's infernal heat.

One of the most beloved metal bands of the last 30 years, US band Machine Head struck gold with 1994 debut album Burn My Eyes, which melded Pantera-style groove metal with 80s thrash and extreme metal elements.

Machine Head explored rap metal and nu-metal on subsequent albums before finding their ultimate expression in stratospheric 2007 album The Blackening, which injected the early formula with theatrical clifftop melodies baked into long, non-linear song structures.

The band's music, though sometimes approaching self-indulgence, is delivered with such full-throated fury by frontman Robb Flynn that it is undeniably heartfelt.

Aberdeen loves Machine Head, despite the band never previously playing in the city.

The huge queue outside the sold-out venue, on a haary Aberdeen night, showed how the north east's metalheads see themselves reflected in the band's themes of masculine insecurity, depression and sheer aggression towards injustice.

With the Lemon Tree's small footprint and low ceiling, the air was scorching before Machine Head even took the stage.

Anticipation reached its highpoint during the intro track Diary of a Madman by Ozzy Osbourne,

The band's typical explicit chants rang out as metalheads prepared to shake off years of Covid rust in the evening's moshpits.

If things were cramped for the audience, they were arguably worse for Machine Head.

Their enormous drumkit dominated the tiny stage, with the even lower ceiling over the stage meaning that Flynn actually put his guitar's headstock through a roof tile at the back end of the set.

The band was visiting the Lemon Tree as part of their Electric Happy Hour tour, a warmup for the autumn's huge stadium tour.

A more relaxed environment gave Machine Head the chance to change their setlist every night, diving into classic metal covers including Metallica and Slayer tracks.

Kicking off with 1997 track Ten Ton Hammer, from second album The More Things Change, Flynn and company might as well have thrown a stick of dynamite into the crowd.

Bodies were flying, colliding and pushing in the pit, responding completely organically to the music's pulse and rhythm in a violent, but humane and comradely ritual.

At the end of the mid-tempo track, Flynn asked: "Are you ready for a fast one Aberdeen?"

As it turns out, the crowd was more than ready.

New track Becøme the Firestørm from 2021 album Of Kingdom and Crown starts with an out-and-out black metal tornado of tremolo-picked guitars and blastbeats.

The extreme metal influence is a positive, striking direction for the band and the crowd ate it up.

Metalheads at the gig could not have found a better night anywhere in the world.

Key characters at the show included a mosher in a kilt, a mosher in a pink tutu and a mosher in a pint of beer costume.

Flynn, speaking to the crowd after fifth track Killers and Kings, from 2014 album Bloodstone and Diamonds, said: "So this is what Aberdeen, Scotland is like on a Sunday night.

"This is what every other place is like on a Friday night."

Explaining the concept behind the Electric Happy Hour Live tour, Flynn said: "It's kind a of a mess but it's a beautiful mess.

"We drink beer and we play metal.

"So we hope that is what you came for tonight."

Imperium, from the band's sublime mid-2000s glory period, is a classic that was instantly recognised by the crowd.

Whipping them into the most savage circle pit so far, the brutal first lyrics: "Hear me now" incited people to fly about in various states of disrepair under the red lights.

With the wild exertion and biblical visuals, the temperature approached hellish levels – but a very pleasant interpretation of hell.

The choice for Machine Head to take their massive touring machine to a set of five tiny venues across Scotland could be a confusing one.

Luckily, Flynn was happy to clear up the story of the tour.

He said: "My friend Sam (Herman) from Dragonforce asked me: 'Have you ever been up to northern Scotland? Those guys are crazy and Aberdeen is the craziest of all those crazy mother*******.

"This is the very first time we've ever played in Aberdeen.

"This is our third show back since a two year pandemic break and we couldn't get any arenas in Scotland – we really raged at our promoters.

"So we decided to do five small venues in places in Scotland we've never played before.

"And it is so goddamn amazing to play your beautiful city."

The next pair of tracks, Raining Blood and Aesthetics of Hate, could not have been better picked.

For non-metalheads, Raining Blood is a canonical thrash metal classic from Slayer's 1986 album Reign in Blood.

The instantly recognisable track starts with a guitar feedback soundscape before a satanic riff and pummelling double-bass drumming.

Machine Head completely sold their interpretation and it was clear that the band shared the same powerful bond to the song as everybody else in attendance.

The chaotic maschismo ritual of the circle pit took hold again, but with a sense of kindness and humanity and the knowledge that if one person falls down, four will pick them up.

Thrash counterpart Aesthetics of Hate is another key Machine Head touchstone.

The song is an incensed attack on conservative commentators after the tragic 2004 shooting of Flynn's close friend, icon and Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, during a show in Columbus, Ohio.

An article named Aesthetics of Hate was penned by conservative writer William Grim immediately after, blaming the late guitarist's music for his own killing and insulting fans who publicly mourned the musician.

Introducing the song, Flynn said: "This is for our friend Dimebag Darrell, who's in heaven."

The anger which inspired the song was clearly still alive in Flynn and Aberdeen's metal community last night, as the punishing tempo increased the pace of marauding moshers.

As the song progressed, raw fury broke down into mournful despair as harmony guitars and rumbling double-bass backed up the anthemic: "Long live memory" refrain.

After further thrashers, Flynn took a moment to remember late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

He said: "Did anyone catch the Taylor Hawkins memorial last night?

"I cried like three times, it was just so cool.

"Seeing artists like Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson from Rush on stage commemorating Taylor, it was amazing."

Launching into Foo Fighters tune Everlong, it was clear Flynn was emotional during the song as the band struggled to make their way through it.

A sombre moment during the set, it also gave the crowd the chance they needed to catch their breath and let their sweaty bones rest for a few minutes.

The rest and recuperation was needed for the final three demolishing tunes, starting with Davidian.

Machine Head's central statement, the song begins with an unmistakable intro combining low, grinding percussive strikes with siren-like distorted harmonics.

As the tune built to its main gallop, Flynn instructed the crowd: "Take your shirts off and wave them around your head like a towel."

The heat in the Lemon Tree by this point was so severe that it was surprising that every pint of beer in the room hadn't reached a rolling boil.

After a short noodle on the Star Wars Imperial March from Flynn, the band crashed into the main riff from 2001's Supercharger.

Shouting orders at the obliging crowd, Flynn said: "Get low. Get lower, crouch right down and don't jump up until I say charge."

When he said the magic word, the entire room was thrown into lightheaded ecstasy as the crowd turned into a mass aerial collision.

The night's one-song encore came from The Blackening's nine minute smash hit Halo.

At the end of the show, which went by incredibly fast for a 17 song set, Flynn said: "You have been some incredible fans. Thank you Aberdeen."

The huge grins at the end of the carnage and outpouring of energy throughout shows how much the die-hard pocket of north east metal fans needed a night like this.

Here is to many more.

1. Diary of a Madman (Ozzy Osbourne song)

3. Becøme the Firestørm

8. In the Presence of my Enemies

11. I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)