New Machine Head

Recieved this email. What do the rest of you think?

Quote :

I just bought the latest Machine Head album The Blackening and
it kicks ass, in my opinion its one of the best metal albums of the
21st century as good as the latest Overkill albums and better than the
latest Megadeth, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest albums. They have
completely abondened their nu metal influences and have gone back to
their thrash metal roots by adding guitar solos and good
Slayer/Metallica/Vio-Lence esque riffs even doing a wicked cover of
battery. This album completely makes up for the years they have been a
crappy chugga chugga Limp Bizshit nu metal wanna be band (no bullshit)
and even better than Burn My Eyes. I highly recommended it if you
havent heard it.

aawww man I just made a thread about the same album.

anyway that kind of reaction is quite common. what can you say? it's an acclaimed album.

one reviewer in maximummetal.com even wrote that its the best metal album of all time, topping everything else now and before.

go get a copy scott! get one now!!! album's that generate this kind of raves are very, very rare

Robb Flynn, like I mentioned before, has admitted that style shifts on The Burning Red and Supercharger were due to label pressure to go more mainstream. It almost tore the band apart. So, in order to keep the band together, they decided to just be the real Machine Head. Through The Ashes of Empires was their return to form. It's a killer album. But this one, The Blackening, is a whole new beast. It really is. There are some slower, more brooding numbers, like earlier tunes, but when this one is fast it's faster; when it's heavy it's heavier. Burn My Eyes, I don't care what anyone says, stands as a classic metal release. That album is near perfect. The Blackening is quite possibly better.

I encourage everyone to listen to this epic:

CLENCHING THE FISTS OF DISSENT

If you like that song, buy the album.

And for the record, Machine Head never really did anything close to that of Limp Bizkit. Two songs, "Desire To Fire" and "From This Day," are the only two songs that sort of bordered on that upbeat, bouncy nu-metal style with quasi-rap verses. At the end of the day, neither song is or was rapcore. Definitely a modern, mainstream metal sound, but never Limp Bizkit.

Decent enough tune. Sounds to me like they heard Lamb of God was
making some money and now they are jumping back on that bus.

ok so they made a few commercial albums. so did Megadeth, Metallica, & even Testament made The Ritual. fact is that the new album is a strong one. i'm not going to call it the "best metal album of the 21st century", but i like it quite a bit.

if they are "jumping back on the bus", it's traveling in the right direction this time.

SAXON1500 wrote:

Decent enough tune. Sounds to me like they heard Lamb of God was
making some money and now they are jumping back on that bus.

Of course, that sounds nothing like Lamb Of God. And Through The Ashes of Empires came out in 2003, arguably before this new resurgance of modern metal bands tackling an older style of metal.

Thus, your comment is moot.

My comments are no more "moot" that yours eyesore. Truth is, all
the stuff out nowadays sounds exactly the same to me (anger = $).
I am presently, gleefully stuck in 1989. But I guess that just
isn't cool in the world of uber-knowledgable and progressive 31 year
old metalheads.

SAXON1500 wrote:

My comments are no more "moot" that yours eyesore. Truth is, all
the stuff out nowadays sounds exactly the same to me (anger = $).
I am presently, gleefully stuck in 1989. But I guess that just
isn't cool in the world of uber-knowledgable and progressive 31 year
old metalheads.

Are you kidding?

The New Machine Album is awesome....

Thats all i can say really.....

Well, I was handed a copy of this album this weekend. It was given to me by a guy who is a huge fan of power, thrash, death and black metal, but didn't like "The Blackening". He claimed it was "too modern" and "the lyrics suck". I'll be spinning it today, so I guess I'll find out for myself.

I went to see Black Sabbath/Megadeth/Machine Head this weekend. Unfortunately we were late and missed most of Machine Head's set, although we did catch the tail end. What we did hear wasn't bad, but their vocalist sounded like a moron. I don't understand what it is with modern bands thinking it's so cool to use the word "f**k" between every other word. They just sound like idiots because they can't form a sentence without using the same expletive 20x. Buy a dictionary. Learn a new adjective.

I'm not saying I am totally offended by the use of the word. It has it's place, I suppose, to make a point. But the way Machine Head used it on stage, they just sounded ridiculous.

I've only heard one song so far, and honestly, it's not making want to rush out and get the album. I know that you can't always judge a whole album by one song, but if it's not grabbing my attention right away, it gets pushed to the back-burner of my "want" list. I'll probably pick it up someday down the road if I find it in a used shop.

Maybe seeing them live next week will change my mind.

I saw Machine Head years ago, not long after the release of The Burning Red. They mostly played tracks off of Burn My Eyes when I saw them, and they put on a pretty decent show. Robb Flynn does have a tendency to cuss a great deal, but I can't knock him too much as I have a bit of a sailor's mouth myself.

He wasn't as bad as ol' Anselmo, though! I'm kinda curious about the new album, and actually had it in my hands to buy a few days ago. I got Saxon's newest instead, as I want to hear some tracks from the new one (Machine Head, that is) before I dump money on it. (Your link had already expired Eyesore when I tried it).

I got a promotional copy of the new MH about two weeks ago from a reporter friend (who got an extra). I've only listened to it two or three times, and mind you I know NOTHING about Machine Head's past work so I don't know where this ranks in their discography, but what I hear sounds pretty damn good. Kinda like a mix of old school Bay Area thrash and CHAOS A.D. era Sepultura (Robb Flynn's vocals remind me a lot of Max Cavalera's voice on the CHAOS album).

well those listening to all the hype about this album are probably going to be disappointed. it isn't going to change anyones lives or the face of metal, but it's a damn solid album of heavy melodic mordern thrash.

Well, just finished listening all the way through. Hit the repeat button a few times to rehear something I thought was either incredibly cool, or incredibly stupid. Overall, I'd say I have to agree with Saxon. Sounds to me like Machine Head have jumped off the 'nu' bandwagon and have jumped on the 'Trivium/Lamb of God' bandwagon, albeit with a touch of Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying and Metallica thrown in for good measure. "The Blackening" has all the elements that make me stear clear of bands like As I Lay Dying and Lamb of God, shouted metalcore vocals, whiny 'emo' vocals, the standard chugging riffs, bad groove riffs and those wonderful one note breakdowns. There is even a brief second when Rob Flynn whispers, "I hate myself". GAK!

However, I did enjoy the last track "A Farwell to Arms" and the opening epic "Clenching the First of Dissent" to some extent. I may just add "Clenching the Fists of Dissent" and "A Farwell to Arms" to my Ipod and let this album collect dust. I can't see it becoming a frequent player for me unless I suddenly catch onto something I missed in the first few listens.

I love their 'The More Things Change' album...

ultmetal wrote:

Well, just finished listening all the way through. Hit the repeat button a few times to rehear something I thought was either incredibly cool, or incredibly stupid. Overall, I'd say I have to agree with Saxon. Sounds to me like Machine Head have jumped off the 'nu' bandwagon and have jumped on the 'Trivium/Lamb of God' bandwagon, albeit with a touch of Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying and Metallica thrown in for good measure. "The Blackening" has all the elements that make me stear clear of bands like As I Lay Dying and Lamb of God, shouted metalcore vocals, whiny 'emo' vocals, the standard chugging riffs, bad groove riffs and those wonderful one note breakdowns. There is even a brief second when Rob Flynn whispers, "I hate myself". GAK!

However, I did enjoy the last track "A Farwell to Arms" and the opening epic "Clenching the First of Dissent" to some extent. I may just add "Clenching the Fists of Dissent" and "A Farwell to Arms" to my Ipod and let this album collect dust. I can't see it becoming a frequent player for me unless I suddenly catch onto something I missed in the first few listens.

I pretty much disagree with all of this. Hahaha. There is no metalcore here; not in the music or the vocals. No way. Nor is there anything emo about this album. And considering Machine Head have been playing this style since the early 90s, I don't see what bandwagon they've jumped on. Through The Ashes of Empires came out in 2003, arguably before this recent metalcore "explosion." And even on The Burning Red and Supercharger there were songs that were extremely heavy and thrashy.

You can dislike the album, of course.

ultmetal wrote:

Well, just finished listening all the way through. Hit the repeat button a few times to rehear something I thought was either incredibly cool, or incredibly stupid. Overall, I'd say I have to agree with Saxon. Sounds to me like Machine Head have jumped off the 'nu' bandwagon and have jumped on the 'Trivium/Lamb of God' bandwagon, albeit with a touch of Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying and Metallica thrown in for good measure. "The Blackening" has all the elements that make me stear clear of bands like As I Lay Dying and Lamb of God, shouted metalcore vocals, whiny 'emo' vocals, the standard chugging riffs, bad groove riffs and those wonderful one note breakdowns. There is even a brief second when Rob Flynn whispers, "I hate myself". GAK!

However, I did enjoy the last track "A Farwell to Arms" and the opening epic "Clenching the First of Dissent" to some extent. I may just add "Clenching the Fists of Dissent" and "A Farwell to Arms" to my Ipod and let this album collect dust. I can't see it becoming a frequent player for me unless I suddenly catch onto something I missed in the first few listens.

Nice review. When can we expect an update on NLTM?

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Nice review. When can we expect an update on NLTM?

Soon. (I hope.)

Quote :

There is no metalcore here; not in the music or the vocals. No way.

Seriously? You don't hear any similarity between the vocals here and what's bands like As I Lay Dying, Demon Hunter, Killswitch, etc. are doing?

I'll post my entire review soon. Perhaps I am just missing something here because the Blackening just didn't bowl me over.

Quote :

The word spread quickly over the internet that Machine Head were moving away from the crap nu-metal they were playing to a more aggressive, epic, thrash metal sound. Pretty much all the early buzz was positive. Blabbermouth gushed over the recording calling it "the best all-out metal recording of 2007." (Of course, I expect no less from them since this is a Roadrunner Records release.) My own Heart of Metal board had several posts touting "The Blackening". Well, as is to be expected, only some of the buzz is true. While there are some moves into thrash metal, and the songs average about eight minutes long, Machine Head's '07 output is still modern metal with shouted, metalcore-ish vocals. It's all about how angry and pissed off we can be, while cramming as many expletives into one song as humanly possible and griping about the war in Iraq and the Bush administration. **Yawn** Instead of going back to his Vio-lence roots, Rob Flynn is now following in the footsteps of popular bands like Trivium and Lamb of God, albeit with a touch of Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying and Metallica thrown in for good measure. The album starts off with a ten minute epic number that recalls Metallica's "Master of Puppets" at times, but is essentially ruined by crappy, screaming vocals. The guitar solos and the clean guitar intro are quite nice in this song. As well, "Beautiful Morning" manages to balance on the fence between modern metal and thrash metal. "Wolves" has a great thrash metal break in the middle of the song. However, for the most part the riffs on this song and the majority of the album are just more of the downtuned, chugga chugga, plodding variety. There are some Pantera-ish groove-type riffs peppered throughout the disc as well. The vocals are mostly of the screamed metalcore style, while at other times we are given the Phil Anselmo style half shouting. There are even some whiney, "I hate myself" type emo vocals in the mix. Disappointing. The lyrics seem typical of the times. "Slanderous" for instance has this line, “I love you, why do I hate my father. I hate you, why do I hate myself”. At one point Rob even whispers, "I hate myself." ARGH! This is "emo" style, self hate is yet another trend in modern music I could live without. "Slanderous" does have a smoking lead break in the middle of the song. The album ends on a positive note. I found myself really enjoying "A Farwell to Arms". The song is heavy, features a sweet guitar solo and has a good flow to it. So I guess I have mixed emotions about this album. It has some parts I enjoy, and even a couple songs that I think kick butt. However, I can't see it becoming a frequent player for me unless I suddenly catch onto something I missed in the first few listens.

Did you hear the disc? I think you've got too much earwax build up this time Scott. I'm not saying its the greatest thing ever, but metalcore and emo? Not on what I heard. I'll agree that the vocals are a bit monotonus in a lot of places but I wouldn't put it in the metalcore camp.

Rexorcist wrote:

Did you hear the disc? I think you've got too much earwax build up this time Scott. I'm not saying its the greatest thing ever, but metalcore and emo? Not on what I heard. I'll agree that the vocals are a bit monotonus in a lot of places but I wouldn't put it in the metalcore camp.

Seriously? You don't hear any similarity between the vocals here and what's bands like As I Lay Dying, Demon Hunter, Killswitch, etc. are doing?

I'll have to give it another spin tomorrow.

Nope, I seriously don't.....i've only listened to it one time though, but I don't see any similarities, especially to As I lay Dying and Killswitch. I might could give you credit on the Demon Hunter similarity due to the monotony of the vocals though.

I'll give it another listen now and see if my opinion changes any.

I can make a vague connection between some metalcore bands and Machine Head. But I can make that same connection between metalcore bands and pretty much any metal band.

Machine Head has never been a thrash band. Call it post-thrash or whatever; they've never been thrash. They've always been a groovy modern metal band with heavy thrash influences. Nothing more. Yeah, they threw in some really modern elements on The Burning Red and Supercharger, but no one should ever mistake them for a true thrash band.

Also, I don't see how Machine Head could possibly be following in the footsteps of any band like Trivium considering Machine Head's first album came out when the guys in Trivium were all under the age of 10.

Quote :

Also, I don't see how Machine Head could possibly be following in the footsteps of any band like Trivium considering Machine Head's first album came out when the guys in Trivium were all under the age of 10.

Trivium are the flavor of the day. If a veteran band sees that a younger band is successful and decides to go in a similar direction, they are following that band's direction. It doesn't matter who has been around longer.

I remember reading where Blackfoot changed styles after seeing how successful "Metal Health" was in 1984. Blackfoot had been around since the early 70's, while Quiet Riot were still a fairly new band having started in the late 70's. Regardless of Blackfoot being veterans, they still followed in Quiet Riot's footsteps. Does that make sense?