Machine Head
The Blackening

THE REVIEW

The latest work of Machine Head titled "The Blackening" is a pleasant surprise for all those who considered the band as one of the many branches of the nu-metal that was so popular between the late '90s and early '00s, and so despised by metalheads attached to old school sounds. The pleasant surprise arises from the merits of a band that has put all its experience into this latest product to create one of the best albums of 2007.

"The Blackening" is structured in eight tracks enclosed in just over an hour of dazzling speed, rocky riffs, and sound violence: the captivating and aggressive voice of frontman Rob Flynn blends most completely with the "notes" produced by the electric instruments, in a harmonious "fast-slow" continuity. The most surprising thing for someone like me, who is attached to typically eighties U.S. Thrash sounds and in general to all the founding fathers of Heavy Metal, is the explicit reference to sacred monsters like Slayer and Testament; and it is this latent struggle between "old" and "new" that characterizes the entire album, within which Flynn and company carefully attempt to merge these two currents, often with satisfying and exhilarating results, but occasionally in a disjointed and ineffective manner.

The full-length opens with the track titled "Clenching The Fists Of Dissent," a glorious Metal ride of about 10 minutes that worthily represents the philosophy of the entire work with its rocky sound and the abundance of "Testament-like" solos that unite with an unusual length that never feels redundant: indeed, the tempo changes are never improvised, and the transitions are well thought out. The second and third tracks, respectively "Beautiful Morning" and "Aesthetics of Hate," emphasize what was said above, making the listening even more engaging and conveying a sense of natural violence to the listener. Track number 4 ("I Lay The Down"), in my opinion, represents the low point of the entire album, too tied to the stereotypes of nu-metal now (thankfully) forgotten in the musical history. But Machine Head immediately recover with the subsequent "Slanderous" and especially with the wonderful "Halo," whose vocal lines recall at some points masters like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and above all, perfectly blend the aforementioned mixture of "old" and "new." Track number 7 titled "Wolves" is the one that most reminds me of the glorious past of bay area thrash, a reality made of sonic aggression and great rock masters. "The Blackening" concludes with another very long track ("A Farewell To Arms"), passionate and intimate, alternating moments of pure violence with melodious and sonically enticing moments.

Basically, what Metallica's "St. Anger" could not achieve was accomplished by Machine Head with this latest product, namely the return to origins without a distortion of the musical path undertaken, trying to satisfy fans of the band's various phases, adding to the metal scene perspectives for an artistically satisfying maturation, towards sounds less digestible by the music industry but more valid from an artistic point of view.

Dottor Zero