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Rating: Rob Flynn had announced to the world that "The Blackening", the latest release from the American metal band Machine Head active since 1994, would go down in heavy metal history as the "Master Of Puppets" (historic Metallica album, the bible of thrash metal) of the new millennium.
The expectations for "The Blackening" were high, especially after a great, convincing, and compact album like "Through The Ashes Of Empires" which had revived Machine Head from the nu-metal parenthesis of the albums "The Burning Red" and "Supercharger", unfortunately, at least from my point of view, these expectations were not met. The album, despite the length of the songs, appears compact, but not enough for all 8 songs to be masterpieces on par with the aforementioned "Master Of Puppets", or at least excellent songs. The length of the songs is excessive, but not for the actual duration of the tracks (which isn't even that excessive), but for the band playing: indeed, no one expected from Machine Head two tracks over 9 minutes and others over 10, after all, it's not really a good novelty for a group that had always played a lot on impactful songs and therefore on shorter ones. On the contrary, among the album's merits is the new approach and attitude the guitars and riffs have in particular, with very good old-style "heavy" classicism (the nu-metal component evaporated), in short, Iron Maiden and especially Judas Priest dominate the guitars of these eight tracks that I am going to review.
01 "Clenching the Fists of Dissent": the first song of the new Machine Head album opens with a very good melodic arpeggio that soon turns into a pleasant thrash metal riff, very close to the band's first album (the superb "Burn My Eyes"), the first thing immediately noticeable is that Flynn has finally returned to shouting and singing in full Anselmo-style, eliminating all those pseudo-grunge moves and choruses that characterized "The Burning Red" and its successor "Supercharger". The song has nice rhythmic and very engaging melodic guitars, while around 6 minutes anthemic, epic choruses are introduced. In the final part, the song breaks down into calmer parts with "floating" atmospheres and pissed-off pure heavy-thrash riffs. All in all, it starts very well, despite the somewhat confusing and inconsistent songwriting.
Rating: 8
02 "Beautiful Morning": thick and "hard" guitars for "Beautiful Morning", scratchy singing, syncopated and at times very thrashy drum rhythm. The song has a somewhat weak and too melodic chorus, a track that at times recalls the band's crossover past, while in other moments the atmospheres approach Killswitch Engage's metalcore. At the end, the drums have a certain hardcore trend and there's good guitar work, ending in a much calmer way for a nice song, but nothing more.
Rating: 6.5
03 "Aesthetics of Hate": Another arpeggiated riff for the introduction of "Aesthetics Of Hate", a piece that owes much to Kerry King's and his Slayer's old-school thrash, although in the solos the guitars quickly move to melodic areas imagining angrier Maidens. Despite the decent drum work, the song remains rather anonymous and inconclusive, especially in the final part, where it becomes calmer and more cadenced.
Rating: 5.5
04 "Now I Lay Thee Down": very heavy and impactful main riff of the song, the singing is much more melodic than the previous three tracks, less screamed, Flynn gets "heavier" only in the chorus. The guitars initially become repetitive, but towards the middle of the song, they become more melodic and less monotonous, ending much "meaner" in line with the rest of the album.
Rating: 7
05 "Slanderous": the melodic introduction is in full Judas Priest style while the pace of the rest of the song is much closer to Pantera's "Vulgar Display Of Power" with very hard and heavy moments traceable to certain Swedish death metal. A quite good song also thanks to the interventions of "classic" guitars, which make the song very "rock-style".
Rating: 7.5
06 "Halo": another arpeggiated melodic opening for "Halo", a song with a strong "epic" taste in its initial part, thanks to the anthemic chorus and decent bass parts. The solos are banal and too "tied" to Judas Priest. If the song had ended at the 6-minute mark, it would've been very good, but the final part and the unexpected concluding outburst could have been spared.
Rating: 6.5
07 "Wolves": a now predictable and too long song at this point of the album, moving between classic guitars and "Pantera-like" hardness. The melodic riffs are nice, but essentially it's a track with a thousand riffs but little substance.
Rating: 6
08 "A Farewell to Arms": "liquid" guitars for the introduction of the song closing "The Blackening", an introduction with "alternative" shades, where the singing becomes much cleaner. A "mastodontic" piece exceeding 10 minutes, always balanced between melodic calm, epic atmospheres, and heavier moments. As with the opener, in 10 minutes they intended to play all their influences (from thrash to classic heavy passing through a certain alternative vein), creating a kind of cauldron, which however is quite convincing.
Rating: 7.5
In conclusion, the album also features good tracks and electrifying moments, nonetheless its predecessor "Through The Ashes of Empires" had convinced much more and it's worth noting that between "Master of Puppets" and "The Blackening" there's a sea.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Aesthetics of Hate (06:30)
You tried to spit in the eye of a dead man's face
Attacked the ways of a man not yet in his grave
But your hate was over all too soon
Because nothing is over, and nothing's through
'Til we bury you
Chorus:
For the love of brother
I will sing this fucking song
Aesthetics Of Hate
I hope you burn in hell
The words I read on the screen left me fucking sick
I felt the hatred rising
You son of a bitch
You branded us pathetic for our respect
But he made us Driven
such deep reverence
Far Beyond the rest
(chorus)
Solo: Demmel, Flynn, Demmel, Flynn, Flynn & Demmel
Long live memories
Live his freedom vicariously
Defend tenfold
his honor we'll always uphold
For the love of brother
I will say these fucking words
No silence against ignorance
Iconoclast, I hope you burn in hell
May the hands of god strike them down
05 Slanderous (05:16)
I’m wasted and ugly, I am the underbelly
A fat fuck and a fairy
The reject they wish to bury
They want to
Murder us, silence us
Divide and conquer us
As they lead, as we die
Let these three words decide
I love you!
Why do I hate my brother?
I hate you!
Or do I hate myself?
I’m a meth head and alkie
Dumb cunt been called a junkie
A retard and a pussy
And I embrace the names you call me
They want to
Murder us, silence us
Divide and conquer us
As they lead, as we die
Let these three words decide
I love you!
Why do I hate my brother?
I hate you!
Or do I hate myself?
I’m a redneck and a faggot
The asshole ignorants
A wetback and a nigga
And I raise my middle fingers
to those that
Murder us, silence us
Divide and conquer us
As they lead, as we die
Let these three words decide
I love you
Why do I hate my brother?
I hate you
I hate myself
Love
Hate
I love you!
Why do I hate my brother?
I hate you!
Or do I hate myself?
06 Halo (09:03)
This is our call to arms, will you stand beside me?
This is our time to fight, no more compromising
And this blackened heart will sing
For sad solidarity
Halo over my demise
Following a god so blind
Shallow in their sickening
Swallow not the shit they feed
This is our right to life, not the Religious Right's act
This is abortions knife, aiming at the womb of
The Christian conspiracy
So open thine eyes and see
The Halo over our demise
Following a god so blind
Shallow in their sickening
Swallow not the shit they feed
Our time, will come
Our time, will come
Our time, is now
Our time, is now
And I won't pray for you
And I won't pray for you
And I won't pray for you
Halo
Follow
Shallow
Swallow
The Halo over our demise
Following a god so blind
Shallow in their sickening
Swallow not the shit they feed
Set me free
The words will never hold us down
Prayers won't be spared on you
Satisfaction denied
'Til you're dead and gone
Gone
Dead and gone!
You’re gone!
07 Wolves (09:01)
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules
Comparison, competition
We’ll bury one and all
Look in the eyes of rage
A loyalty bred of suffering
The fire inside it burns eternally, victory
Look in the eyes of pain
The scars on our souls forever remain
Calling the sheltered of the broken
wing, join the fray
Bury our rivals
Shotguns, knives, rifles
A family of the unwanted,
beaten, stunted, dysfunction
A brotherhood that is of violence and to
tyrants bow to none
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules
Comparison, competition
We’ll bury one and all
Look in the eyes of hate
A circle of hell they come to pray
United against all that come threatening,
lay to waste
Look in the eyes of the free
Bound to each other’s longevity
Guarding the back of alpha’s dignity,
savagely
Bury our rivals
Shotguns, knives, rifles
A family of the unwanted,
beaten, stunted, dysfunction
A brotherhood that is of violence and to
tyrants bow to none
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules
Comparison, competition
We’ll bury one and all
Come closet, walk with me in hell
Dear rival, fear in you I smell
A fist to face is all fair game now
The pack attacking, the sacrificial
Pray for the prayers
Reaping the sour seeds of death’s bread
In touch and claw the scent of the dead
Come closet, walk with me in hell
Dear rival, fear in you I smell
A fist to face is all fair game now
The pack attacking, the sacrificial
Pray for the prayers
Spreading our population
far across the land
Loving to fornicate,
respecting the command
Rally the warriors and
Tally the score,
in every victory is solace but there’s
No satisfaction!!
There is no satisfaction!!
And there never will be!
Bury our rivals
Shotguns, knives, rifles
A family of the unwanted,
beaten, stunted, dysfunction
A brotherhood that is of violence and to
tyrants bow to none
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules
Comparison, competition
We’ll bury one and all
Unleash the wolves
Carnage has no rules now
The night will fall
Beware the call
Dominate ALL
08 A Farewell to Arms (10:12)
Can you hear their cries?
Nowhere can the children run to hide
Crimson rivers
Flow down hills
Atone our ills
And woe to all her songs of love
A farewell to arms
Mutilated lives
Blackening as coffin line the sides
Filled with fathers
Who has won?
When only sons
Hold their grieving heads and mourn
A farewell to arms
Always our souls entwine
Erase this vast divide
Deaf ears our voices rest
Tyrant, this is protest
Who has won?
Yes, who has won?
Chorus:
I'll wave this flag of white
So the venged see the light
We'll pay for closed eyes
With our genocide
Pissing the masquerade
March to death parade
Trade not humanity
For pearls of the slavery
In the depth of mind the heart will find
the truth of our leaders
We'll try the facts so through the cracks
may fall the lying cheater
Who has won when we're all dead?
(Chorus)
So is this how we live?
Or is this how we die?
Black blood dripping from platinum fangs
Rich blood flees while
our poverty hangs
Shepherds they herd the mindless trance
As the flock follows the puppet's dance
In a fatal romance
All that they needed was
a pretext, war's next
Heads to the chopping blocks
and our necks are next
For those who died
Who fought for our rights
Whose children now slaves
They're turning in their graves
War hawks and senators
they sit right, so trite
Never their sons will know
what it's like to fight
But soldiers are dead
And children have bled
And the silence is numb
What have we become?
God save us
A farewell to arms
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Other reviews
By dottor_zero
"The Blackening is structured in eight tracks enclosed in just over an hour of dazzling speed, rocky riffs, and sound violence."
"What Metallica’s 'St. Anger' could not achieve was accomplished by Machine Head with this latest product: a return to origins without a distortion of the musical path."
