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Rating:
In the second album by Machine Head, the drummer Chris Kontos, who was already good, is replaced by Dave McLaine, who proves to be a true war machine.
This work should be placed among the metal masterpieces of the '90s alongside "Demanufacture" by "Fear Factory," and "Far Beyond Driven" by "Pantera"; the others, including the albums by "Sepultura," are all a notch lower for me. I wouldn't rate them a four, always a five, but this epochal album marks a turning point between what metal represented before its release and what metal will be after. It has not yet been equaled.
Don't think of "KoRn" and the first CD because that's a stroke of genius in everything: it's beyond judgment. The thrash masterpiece by "Machine Head" should be praised for its brutality, for its instruments, for its voice. In short, if you're holding it in your hands, put it in the player, don't burn it; shots of AK47 might start and shred your body, leaving you weak or even dying.
The band comes from Oakland, a place to avoid due to gang feuds, and it is here that they record with Colin Richardson. You can find elements of: "Sepultura," "Pantera," "Slayer," "Fear Factory," "KoRn." Not bad, huh? The skill of "Machine Head" lies precisely in their ability to blend the various influences into a series of songs that, listened to one after another, offer sensations of absolute compactness. But let's go in order.
The start is blazing but perfectly self-controlled: "Ten Ton Hammer" already foreshadows the delirium, it has something of "Prong" and "KoRn." "Take My Scars," released as the first single, has a terrifying intro that emerges into a wall-breaking, speaker-breaking riff, evoking "Pantera" in the vocals and "Fear Factory" in the instrumentation. "Struck A Nerve" along with "Bay Of Pigs" recall speeds typical of "Discharge" and "Agnostic Front" in a thrash-new-metal key.
"Down To None", "Spine", and "Blistering" are stylistically the best, even if they no longer perform them live, songs very much in "representation" of the ghetto thrash-metal of the "Slayer" school in which they will no longer return to play because they will take an incongruent new-metal path. The masterpiece remains "The Frontlines," an extraordinary track; try listening to it and it will surprise you with the continuous rhythm changes between verses-bridges-chorus and McLaine's work, who seems to use all the parts of the drum kit at his disposal, with countertimes worthy of the best "Tool". 1997
If after listening to it you think it's not the pinnacle of heaviness, forget about this album and also the comments.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Ten Ton Hammer (04:13)
I am the thing that makes you sick
I am the blame that gets placed quick
Detect the crack within your lie
I'll be the wrath of your disdain
I'll be the fear in you engrained
Become the facts that you deny
I can feel this pain is real
I hate deep down inside
And like broken glass you'll shatter
With bloody fists I'll batter
Like a ten ton hammer
1'll be the trembling in your breath
Trickle of blood upon your flesh
You'd love to watch me take the fall
I'll be the thing that you despise
'Cause I'm the path to your demise
And I'm a be there standing tall
I can feel this pain is real
I hate deep down inside
And like broken glass you'll shatter
With bloody fists I'll batter
Like a ten ton hammer
I can't stand or take another day my friend
You could learn a thing or two
I can feel this pain is real
I hate deep down inside
And like broken glass you'll shatter
With bloody fists I'll batter
Like a ten ton hammer
02 Take My Scars (04:19)
Verse One:
It's been around for a thousand years
And it'll be here for plenty more
It is the face hidden in disgrace
That has become now an open sore
It is a false messiah
It is the face of pain
The bringer of the bittersweet
The heretic insane
Chorus:
Take my scars
Through hands of God
I found a better way
To break the walls
Verse Two:
Fed all the lies and desensitized
Taught to believe that it is the way
Taught to divide and exactly why
You'll never understand my rage
You've never had to borrow
You've never had to steal
You eat it with your silver spoon
For me it's real
Bridge/Outro:
Blood and concrete
Piss and wine
Whores that fuck
To feel divine
They'll clean their needles
In their shrine
In ignorance
It's bliss you find
Why can't you
fuckin' open up your eyes?
03 Struck a Nerve (03:33)
Give me power to end all of the strife
Courage to kill the pro-life
I don't want to see
You can't change me
You tell me not to bow
Just follow for now
You're oh so holier than thou
The more things change
The more they stay the same
The more
Things change
The more
They stay the same
Give me patience to deal with all the strain
Balance to take the fuckin' pain
I don't want to fake
And I won't break
We're too happy to be
In our apathy
We smile single file to the line
The more things change
The more they stay the same
The more
Things change
The more
They stay the same
So c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon
We gotta wake up
You don't know you're right
Your right from wrong
We gotta wake up
05 The Frontlines (05:51)
And I watched through bitter eyes
As the blood filled in the cracks, black
A burning effigy
Told me I should kneel 'cause
I'm worshipping
With terror, a disease
Bum the sacred oil
They told us there'd never come a day
They told us that we need not worry
So we fucked around, thought this shit would change
And turned our eyes away
I am the power siege
And the rush you will feel, thrill
Exploding out of me
Through clenched teeth I will scream out
We're suffering
With malice you deceive
Puke sold as salvation
They told us there'd never come a day
They told us that we need not worry
So we fucked around, thought this shit would change
And turned our eyes away
And I watched it slip away
And you watched it slip away
And we watched it slip away
'Cause no one took a stand
06 Spine (06:37)
Bitterness infested, justice is molested
Govern my contested ways
As a child arrested, as a man detested
Happiness inside my pain
You hate my life
Because you see my strife
Could never understand or try
It makes me mad
Because it makes me sad
But I don't care why
You fake it, mistake it
Fuck it away
Your lying is trying
My dignity
I see right through your soul
Can't help but feel this cold
But this city made me so
Life filled with deception, unwanted inception
Want redemption for it all
All my life frustrated, pushed, alienated
Wait for me to take a fall
My faith has waned
Because I feel the strain
In my eyes it's all gone wrong
We'll rise above
From this lack of love
It won't be long now
You fake it, mistake it
Fuck it away
Your lying is trying
My dignity
I see right through your soul
Can't help but feel this cold
But this city made me so
I'm not the only one
Can't be the only one
No.
07 Bay of Pigs (03:45)
I gotta rise, I'm sick of your lies
And I won't be your scapegoat now
Ain't gonna bend and won't 'til the end
Understand on my word I vow
A pig, a pig, that's all you'll ever be
Refuse to cower to the swine
I'm sick of it, at the end of my wits
'Cause next time that you fuck with mine
I'm gonna snap like I never have before
Your law's the flaw
Upon this nation
Your lies despised
By generations
I got a friend might not walk again
And your laws never helped at all
Go fuck your clause, your probable cause
Power trippin' above us tall
Afraid, afraid and so you better be
'Cause when I call you're not around
Serve and protect and give some respect
Next time that you shake me down
I'm gonna snap like I never have before
Your law's the flaw
Upon this nation
Your lies despised
By generations
Your lies despised
Your law's the flaw
Upon this nation
Upon this nation
Upon this nation
Your lies despised
By generations
08 Violate (07:20)
I want you to know this
I want you to know just what I feel
You told me through sacred lies
I told you once with bloodshot eyes
You told me don't ask
Just stay away from me
You told me it'd be alright
I told you once, then told you twice
You can't face
Can't you face me
I won't pray for you
I can't pray for you
Because you took it away
Because you took it from me
Thought I could never ever fuckin' find another
Get a muthafuckin' chance again
Because the power is the rage that can devour
Gotta make that fear descend
Without it, you ain't shit
And you ain't shit to me
Berating, a scathing
Grave indignity
I see the look inside your eyes
It makes me sick
Defiling innocence
Is how you get your kicks
You violate, and then you think yourself a man
You violate, and then you call yourself a man
Don't come my way
Don't care what you say
Pray you fuckin' die
Before you feel my ...
Rage...
09 Blistering (04:58)
You stabbed me in the back over a sliver
A feeling I have been betrayed
Both hands broken together
Clenching fists cause the rage
It comes in spades
From a life of pain
I don't care 'cause I don't give a fuck
It tears a path right through me
A systematic vision of survival
A struggle I alone engage
Tension burning inside me
Blood so sweet cause revenge
It comes in spades
From a life of pain
I don't care 'cause I don't give a fuck
It tears a path right through me
Revenge is mine
Suffering divine
Fractures break through bone
Frustration won't let go
Filled with lead and
dumped into the river
And buried in a shallow grave
Both hands broken together
Clenching fists cause the rage
It comes in spades
From a life of pain
I don't care 'cause I don't give a fuck
It tears a path right through me
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