Machine Head - The Blackening (Roadrunner)
1/5
By: Charlie Potter
When Machine Head set off in the early nineties, they hoped to be the west coasts' answer to Biohazard. People said it couldn't be done. Some people said that it shouldn't be done. But look at them now - they've done bad rapping, they've covered The Police, they have melodramatic crooning breakdowns! The pupil has surpassed its master. Yes, Machine Head are now much sillier than Biohazard could ever hope to be.
Machine Head are now back with their sixth album. It's the album after the album about rising from the ashes, most likely a reference to that embarrassing mutual split from their label Roadrunner, only to come crawling back. A 'mutual split' after all is the only thing that can happen when a rubbish band leaves a rubbish label after not making enough money - no doubt that both parties are responsible for them selling out on their third and fourth albums, only to find that they cannot even pull that off. So now we find them back doing the same stuff they were doing in the first place, only to find that a huge plethora of other bands are doing it too.
They will of course never make as good an album as either of the records they made with Logan Madder, though the new guitarist does seem to have brought a refreshing, more death metal style sound to the band, though this basically equates to there being some interesting widdly widdlies here and there. There are certainly a lot of subtle Slayer references, such as crediting the solos and letting you know which guitarist is doing what in the inlay, which a brave move for both bands. In Machine Head's case, it's brave because this new guy is clearly better than Robb Flynn, and in Slayer's case because Jeff Haneman does proper solos whilst Kerry King merely fly picks as fast as he can, not necessarily in time, and bends the guitar bridge. Still, King is of course a fantastic guitarist, and nobody is doubting that Slayer clearly lay this band to waste.
This is simple metal played by technically good musicians, so of course it's fun to listen to. I guess if you're without a long history of listening to metal music then you may find this really embarrassing, but to me it's just like wearing an old jumper - one that's no longer fashionable but is really comfortable because it has been moulded to the contours of your body. Of course, the problem is that this isn't a jumper. Jumpers don't take up your time.
Dave McClain remains an amazing drummer, but he's has lost the excitement he maintained so well on 'Burn My Eyes', and also finds himself being mixed stupidly low and thin. But in all fairness, Machine Head albums are mixed to be played loud, and when this is done the drums do come out of the mix a lot more.
On reading the sticker on the cover of the album I was intrigued to see that there is a song called 'Aesthetics of Hate' here. I thought that perhaps they may have given some thought to the fact that their reaction to their own hatred is to make music, a harmless and non-effectual creative gesture. Why is it that fast loud guitars should be the sound of hatred, they might ponder? But no, not even a boring comment on the catharsis of making heavy music - it's just a song about how much Machine Head hate people that are a bit nasty to them.
Reading on, the lyrics don't tend to stray far from the subject of how bad people are nasty or are trying to get at them. That said, you could read a lot into the ambiguous lyrics, for example the line "let the trumpets sound their call or by their lies we will fall"... who are they, exactly? The song in question is about war, so presumably they could only mean 'the war liars', which I guess means the government. So why don't they just say the government? Perhaps I've got it wrong all together. Perhaps he means the trumpets. But if there is one thing I know it's that trumpets never lie - and anyway, there aren't any trumpets on this album.
Listen to your little brother's copy, and then make fun of him.
Watch footage of Machine Head recording 'The Blackening' HERE.
Artists in this article: Machine Head
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment