Machine Head
The More Things Change

THE REVIEW

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.