MACHINE HEAD

PAGE UPDATED IN 2025

Reviewed:
- Burn My Eyes (1994)
- The More Things Change (1997)
- The Burning Red (1999)
- Supercharger (2001)
- Hellalive (2003, live album)
- Through the Ashes of Empires (2003)
- The Blackening (2007)
- Unto the Locust (2011)
- Bloodstone & Diamonds (2014)

- Catharsis (2018)

- Of Kingdom and Crown (2022)

- Unatoned (2025)


BURN MY EYES          1994          (Roadrunner)

- Standouts: 'Davidan', 'Old', 'A Thousand Lies', 'None But My Own', 'The Rage to Overcome', 'Blood for Blood', 'Block'

Oh boy, where do I start with this band? Erm, with the debut Burn My Eyes of course! But seriously, my relationship with this band has been all over the place as the years have gone by. I never 'loved' Machine Head, but I had a phase in my late teens/early 20s of listening to them fairly regularly. I didn't immediately fall into The Blackening's hype when it dropped in 2007 (although I did pick it up eventually), but that was the year I really took note of them. I mean, you couldn't avoid them at that point in time if you were a metalhead. I kind of ignored them until the Locust record appeared in 2011. I'm pretty sure that was when I picked up their back catalogue, hence the phase I once had with them. As far as their actual music goes... well, let's just say I find them to be inconsistent, mostly because I find they've been guilty of trend-hopping throughout their career. Some good albums and songs, some dreadful shite too (more about that in later reviews!). I'm the first to admit that I've always had a chip on my shoulder with the band's popularity; I've never fully got them, if that makes sense? 'Professional' critics love them for some reason, and I've met countless people at festivals and metal concerts here in the UK who seem to worship them. I'm sure I've mentioned this before somewhere on this blog - but I remember when I went to the 2014 Sonisphere festival, I chatted to a bloke in the campsite who went to a Machine Head gig in London sometime around The Blackening and literally cried when the show was over! Go online however, and you'll find just as many people who hate this band with a burning passion!! I definitely encounter more positivity towards them in the real world than I do online. Anyhow, even though I'm currently in the middle of reviewing Grave Digger's discography (a big task, and one that I think will take some time), I've also decided to go back and revisit Machine Head. I hadn't bought any of their albums since 2014's Bloodstone & Diamonds. I made this page in 2017 - 3 more albums have been released since, and I've bought them all in 2025 for this updated blog post. Whether or not I'm gonna regret that decision, well, we'll find out soon enough!!

Anyway, Burn My Eyes is one of those albums that's generally considered to be a classic of the metal genre - at least when looking at the '90s anyway. Although this album and band in general have their fair share of haters too, this is the one Machine Head record I knew I'd still be fond of here in 2025. Even though I've been on the fence with these guys since forever, I can understand why Burn My Eyes made a big impact in 1994... and I can also understand why some metalheads also take issue with it. 1994 was not the same as 1984 in the world of metal. Pantera were massive at this point, and metal riffs were becoming detuned and full of groove, which is why groove metal exists. Machine Head formed out of Bay Area thrashers Vio-Lence; vocalist/guitarist Robb Flynn left the group, created Machine Head... and the rest is history. What he did with Machine Head (at this stage in time at least) was bridge thrash metal with the big ol' '90s groove sound that Pantera were doing. Sort of. Personally I never felt Burn My Eyes ever really thrashed all that much. At times, sure, but it's definitely more of a groove metal album than anything else to me. I can't deny that there's definitely some thrash influence here however. I've seen some people call it 'post-thrash', whatever that means. Nope, I think this is primarily a groove metal record.

The songs on offer are definitely the product of the '90s, yet I find the music here to be kinda timeless. There's metal albums from the '70s and '80s that sound exactly like the time they were recorded, but it doesn't make them any less awesome as anything else that came years later. Basically, I'd be surprised if any newbies to the genre would have a problem with the fact Burn My Eyes was released 30 years ago. The album still sounds good production-wise, the riffs are still heavy and despite this, can still be catchy and memorable all the same. Don't get me wrong, I like extreme metal albums that don't appeal to casual metal fans as much as the next guy. But if you can deliver songs that are both heavy as all hell and accessible all the same, then in my eyes that's commendable. Machine Head achieved both these factors on this debut. There's tracks on here that will always make a gym playlist for me, i.e. the crushing opener 'Davidan' and the underrated gem that is 'A Thousand Lies'. I still can't decide whether or not 'Davidan''s "Let freedom ring with a shotgun blast!" lyric before the chuggy breakdown is cringe or not, all these years later! Yet the song is kind of iconic for it, and wouldn't be complete without it! As for 'A Thousand Lies', well, the riffs in this one are just gold. Lots of groove, but enough speed to make it moshable all the same. 'Sorta comparable to Pantera (and maybe Chaos A.D.-era Sepultura), but I'll give Machine Head credit where it's due -Robb Flynn's riffs don't sound like Dimebag's. In fact, you can immediately spot a Machine Head track a mile away, so they definitely have their own signature flair. 

And this is where my relationship with Machine Head gets convoluted! There's weird little things this band do with their music that sometimes I can get behind, other times just piss me off to no end!! Machine Head songs are often full of riffs with harmonics in them, and on Burn My Eyes, they usually work. It makes them instantly recognisable, and adds a certain charm to the tracks. This is not always the case with future Machine Head works (they can be annoying as fuck), but we'll get to that with some of the later reviews! Anyway, the riffs are generally pretty great throughout the album this time around, and any of the harmonics are a nice touch. I guess it wasn't entirely commonplace in 1994 yet, and nu metal didn't exist either. As for Robb's vocals, he's mostly pissed off for the duration of the songs, but he does occasionally sing in a clean, grungy style when required (like on 'None But My Own'). I never thought he was a particularly great vocalist, but I've never outright disliked him as a singer either. As with Machine Head's music, Robb's vocal style is instantly recognisable.

More about the songs. Obviously 'Davidan' and 'A Thousand Lies' are choice cuts for me. Easily a couple of my top '90s metal tunes. I do like 'None But My Own' a fair bit too. The contrast between the clean and harsh vocals, as well as the dark tones of the track is nice. The thrashy outro is cool too. 'Old' is another classic, and a concert favourite for good reason. Crushingly heavy grooves. 'The Rage to Overcome' is pretty awesome as well. More bulldozer riffing, plus a surprisingly melodic guitar solo. 'Blood for Blood' definitely takes inspiration from Vio-Lence thanks to a frantic tempo, but it also makes use of groove metal breakdowns and takes all the best ingredients of this album and rolls them into one. 'Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies' is essentially an instrumental, but one that seems to sit quite comfortably within the track listing. 'Block' has riffs that remind me of Biohazard and Sepultura. I'm also a big fan of Colin Richardson's production; the album still sounds fantastic to this day. The guitar tones are so big and meaty, and it really adds to the enjoyment of the record. Yeah it's polished, but more in a modern metal, Andy Sneap kinda way. For the nature of these tunes, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Overall there aren't any particularly 'weak' numbers on this album, just a couple of filler tracks here and there. Still listenable of course, but I always felt 'Death Church' kinda plods along at a ham-fisted tempo. It is one of the heaviest tracks on the record at least, so I don't hate it either. 'A Nation on Fire' takes a little too long to get going. It's cool when it picks up (especially the thrashing outro, but it only lasts about 40 seconds - the whole song should've been played in this style!), but overall this one kinda goes in one ear and out the other. I have the same issue with 'I'm Your God Now'. So I think my biggest issue with Burn My Eyes is the inevitable filler that comes with it. The album's 55 minutes long - which is fine if every song is consistently good, but that simply isn't the case here. As I said, nothing's especially bad here, but I think everything would flow better if they'd cut a few corners. 45 minutes would've been better. And let's be brutally honest here, groove metal is not one of my absolute favourite metal genres. There's bands and records here and there I like, but in general this is a genre that probably takes up less than 10% of my heavy metal listening habits overall.

I do still really enjoy Burn My Eyes though. I don't think it competes with Pantera's best works, but there's a long list of killer riffs scattered throughout this album, and their grooves really grab me by the jugular. Robb's not the greatest vocalist ever, but he gets the job done. And again, the production is really special. It definitely makes some of these tracks better than they really are in some ways. What I don't necessarily agree with however, is the rep the album has amongst the critics (and even the masses to a degree). I agree that Burn My Eyes is a great record, and a classic of the groove metal subgenre - maybe even one of the best. But I can't give it a 9/10 when there's some definite filler moments on here for me. The best tracks on this album are amazing, but that level of awesomeness does not apply to the entire record. So I definitely find this record to be overrated in some ways. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing it again for the first time in a few years... now let's just see how well the rest of the discography goes down!!

Adam's rating: 8.5/10

Original review:

Released during the mid-90's when so-called 'true' metal was at an all-time low, you either had to be grunge or sound like Pantera to be popular. To be fair, I think Machine Head are often unfairly compared to Pantera with their earliest records, i.e. this and it's follow-up. They have way more thrash influence their sound (at least on this album anyway) than Pantera ever did, but you couldn't really label it 'thrash' - Nuclear Assault this is not. Some call it 'post-thrash', which I think is a load of bollocks. I'd say it's groove with a thrash influence and just leave it at that. You could hand a copy of Burn My Eyes to a metal elitist and he/she would probably vomit and hand it back, because this one of those records they like to blame for the downfall of metal in the 90's and uproar of nu metal in the following years. I really don't care for that, because even if what said elitists claim is actually true, this a solid metal album regardless. The riffs are massive and crushing and the production is outstanding, making the majority of the album an untamed beast. Nu metal hadn't come along yet, so there's nothing to worry about in that regard nor were they trying to get all progressive on your ass yet - the entire thing is just flat-out heavy, It probably helps that vocalist/guitarist Robb Flynn used to be a member of the classic Bay Area thrashers, Vio-Lence before he formed Machine Head, and his previous thrash experience shows on 'bangers like 'Old', 'Davidan', 'A Thousand Lies' (probably my favourite track here), 'Death Church' and 'Blood for Blood'. Any flaws? It does kind of drag a little - I don't think it needed to clock at almost an hour long considering the direction of the music (which is pretty much all the same), but that's it really. There aren't any duff songs to be found, though some are way more memorable than others. At the end of the day you've got one of the best groove metal albums ever. Dunno if that's really saying much given the reputation of the genre, but it's still a great metal album in general.
Adam's rating: 8.2/10

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...          1997          (Roadrunner)

- Standouts: 'Ten Ton Hammer', 'Down to None', 'Bay of Pigs', 'Violate'

To be honest, other than maybe Burn My Eyes, I haven't listened to a lot of these albums in years (hell, they've made 3 studio albums since this page went up in 2017, and I only just bought them!). When I decided I wanted to rework this page a couple of weeks or so ago, I listened to The More Things Change... in the car before anything else. Other than the first couple of tracks ('Ten Ton Hammer' and 'Take My Scars'), I hardly remembered any of these songs. In my 8 year old review, I gave it a 7.2/10, so even though I thought it was a good album then, I clearly didn't like it enough to listen to it much within the time that's passed since. 

Well, the music's just as heavy, if not heavier this time. You can hear this right from the get-go with 'Ten Ton Hammer'. It's nowhere near the opener that 'Davidan' was, but the groovin' riffs are crushing at least. I still like this one overall, but I can definitely tell I'm not gonna enjoy the album as much as I do it's predecessor. Let's discuss the rest of the tracks I legit enjoy first though, shall we? 'Down to None' is superb. Definitely as good as anything on Burn My Eyes - it starts off with a really slow, Sabbath-like doom riff. Even though it never really picks up that much pace, this track is a heavy-ass sludge-fest, and definitely represents the side of Machine Head that I really like. Same with 'Bay of Pigs'. Kick-ass, detuned thrashy goodness as well as a killer breakdown near the end! Some silly Rage Against the Machine-like scratching, but it only lasts a few seconds thankfully! Oh, and 'Violate' is the other really strong cut on offer here. It's definitely the most brooding, and I like the dynamics of it. It has a lot of mood/atmosphere, and picks up to be quite menacing too. The thrash-laden outro keeps it interesting, especially since it's long (over 7 minutes).

There's a handful of other songs here I can sort of get on board with too. 'Struck a Nerve' is pretty cool in my books too - fast, thrashy... kinda hardcore-ish? Very similar to Biohazard actually. The lyrics are godawful (that "c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon" part is pure cringe), but the music hits hard.  'Spine' is okay - it starts off promisingly, and I even kinda like the grungy nature of the verses. It goes on for far too long, sure, but I certainly don't hate this one. 'Blistering' definitely ain't 'blistering' enough musically to earn that title, but it's decent enough! A bit like a Burn My Eyes leftover, same can be said for 'Blood of the Zodiac'. The energy is maybe lacking a little, but it's a solid enough way to close the album. Not every song hits the mark however. Even though it starts off fairly well, when 'Take My Scars' comes on immediately after, I start to run into some problems. Subjective problems of course, but still. This track is full of guitar harmonics to the point where it rubs me the wrong way. Worse still are all the fucking annoying RATM scratching noises once again! The riffs are just as heavy (and actually pretty cool), but all the added '90s-style playing techniques mean 'Take My Scars' is one I can skip. On a good day I can sit through it, but not always. Other than a riff or 2, 'The Frontlines' bores me with it's dragging tempo. Also that siren-like harmonic at the end manages to really piss me off! Shite, that's what this is. 

Hmm. I still rather like The More Things Change... overall. It's definitely a disappointment after Burn My Eyes, but there's a small handful of legitimately great tracks here, and plenty of decent ones too. I don't have a problem with the production either - if anything, it sounds similar to it's predecessor in this regard. But you can definitely hear the odd nu metal influence on tracks like 'Take My Scars' however. Even though the band were nowhere near full-blown nu metal on this album, they were definitely making use of techniques I like to associate with that genre at times here. And I'm sorry, but I will never be a nu metal fan. There's a few songs and maybe the odd album I like from that scene, but I don't consider any nu metal to be peak heavy metal - that's just the way I am. Luckily those minor nu metal vibes I get sometimes are too few and far between to ruin The More Things Change... for me. There's just about enough on here for me to consider this 'good', but there's no ignoring the fact it's still a major downgrade from Burn My Eyes. 

Adam's rating: 7/10

Original review:

Heavier and more aggressive than Burn My Eyes, but the riffs aren't nearly as memorable or creative as they were previously. Feels more like they were deliberately sticking to less frets this time 'round. Most of 'em aren't as fast either - I mean, Burn My Eyes did have it's share of mid-tempo numbers, but most of this follow-up is mid-tempo, or the tempo just changes mid-song (e.g. 'Bay of Pigs'). The story is kind of similar to what Pantera did with Cowboys From Hell andVulgar Display of Power when I think about it (only this album isn't as good as either of those, naturally). Despite these complaints, I still think this is a mostly solid record, and I still prefer it to the majority of the band's other releases.  
Adam's rating: 7.2/10

THE BURNING RED          1999          (Roadrunner)

- Standouts: 'Message in a Bottle' 

Reading my old review, it seems to me I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. The Burning Red gets the nu metal tag slapped on it quite often, and even if this is mostly true of the music, I apparently thought this was a tolerable record from that genre. I mean, I gave it a 5.5/10 meaning I felt it was far from a 'good' album, but certainly not as bad as it could have been. Naturally, I haven't listened to The Burning Red in full since that review 8 years ago... let's just see what happens now!

Well, from the very beginning 'Desire to Fire' is pretty fucking terrible - and 'Nothing Left' for that matter. Robb raps his way through the verses and the riffs have those cringey scratching sounds all over them. I'll give them some credit, because even though I can still hear some old-school Machine Head tones in these tracks, there's also a lot of Korn, Roots-era Sepultura and maybe a bit of Deftones influence here as well. Like Sepultura, Robb and co. were jumping on a bandwagon and it's quite obvious. The silly thing is, I have more respect for Korn and Deftones (even if I don't particularly like them) because at least they kind of pioneered nu metal from scratch - that's what they all about. Machine Head were not. Nu metal's not my thing, but I have nothing against nu metal bands that were nu metal from the start. Anyway, both these tracks are lame, and the 'The Blood, the Sweat, the Tears' isn't great either. Weirdly, I praised this track in my old review, claiming it sounded like something from Burn My Eyes of The More Things Change...! It really doesn't!! It has less rapping on it, sure, but it's still kinda mediocre at best. And 'Silver' is a shitty ballad that seems to blend '90s grunge with all the aforementioned nu metal tones. In short, it's shite once again. Ahh jeez, then comes 'From This Day'! Horrible rapped verses and a cringe-worthy opening riff! The chorus is catchy at least (in the worst way possible), I'll give it that. I'm ashamed to admit I actually enjoy that part of the song! 

I'm already getting fed up of talking about these songs. I'd basically be repeating myself if I were to talk about some of the other drivel on here like 'Exhale the Vile' and 'Five'. The vocals are terrible, the riffs are lame, and they just feel like all that was wrong with the '90s heavy music scene at the time. And the closing title track is just a plodding, droning ballad. So, are there any upsides to this album?! Honestly, the cover of the Police's 'Message in a Bottle' is still listenable to me in 2025. Not great by any stretch of the imagination (and certainly doesn't hold a candle to the original), but the fact it's a departure from the rest of these tracks makes it somewhat enjoyable. What else? Well, 'Devil with the King's Card' has some sludgy, doomy riffs that I like, even if the rest of it is dross. 'I Defy' has some faster energy to it. Still sub-par, but not unlistenable. And to be fair, 'The Blood, the Sweat, the Tears' is still okay in my books. Not as good as I thought it was in my old review, but not horrible. 

Fuck me, sitting through this album again was hard! You know, as I get older I find I'm actually more tolerant of albums I never enjoyed prior. The Burning Red has to be one of the few CDs in my collection that's only gotten worse to my ears over time! It's definitely not a tolerable nu metal album for me these days that's for sure. It's definitely not one of the worst albums I've ever heard, but unless I decide to re-review it again in the near future, it'll remain on my shelves untouched for many more years to come! It's albums like this that have always tarnished Machine Head's reputation with me. I don't deny that there's stuff in their catalogue I like, but it's difficult to take tripe like this seriously - especially after dropping a genuine classic just 5 years prior with Burn My Eyes!

Adam's rating: 3.4/10

Original review:

Given that this album is constantly being labelled 'nu metal', I was expecting it to be a total piece of shit. Well, I don't HATE nu metal, but there aren't many albums in that sub-genre I would regard as classics. Rob Flynn looked like a total douche at this point with his bleached-blonde spiked hair, a total product of late 90's/early 00's fashion. All he needed was one of those horrid flame shirts and he'd be all set. The Burning Red is by no means a decent album - it's mediocre at best - but it wasn't the total catastrophe I was told by many a Metal-Archives user either. It's more like a blend of groove and nu metal - kind of like The More Things Change... meets ---insert nu metal band here---. I found it to be listenable for the most part, but the only track that really stood out was 'The Blood, the Sweat and the Tears', mainly because it sounded closer to anything off the first two records. I also assumed that their rendition of The Police's classic 'Message in a Bottle' would be one of the worst things to ever happen in metal, but it wasn't half as dire as expected. I don't actually mind it as a nu metal album - the majority of stuff I've listened to from that scene I found to be pretty awful if I'm honest, but at least this was listenable overall. I don't really like it as a Machine Head album though, if that makes any sense.
Adam's rating: 5.5/10

SUPERCHARGER          2001          (Roadrunner)

- Standouts: NONE! 

This manages to be even worse than The Burning Red!! To be fair, I've always felt Supercharger was a pile of wank, so I wasn't expecting to go into this updated review with high hopes. The first song, 'Bulldozer', is promising for a whole 1 minute thanks to it's opening riff - that is, until Robb opens his mouth and the track crumbles into a cringey nu metal mess. It's crazy how a grown man can become more immature the older he gets!! Just listen to 'American High' from this disc, which is still hands-down one of the WORST metal songs ever written in my opinion. Here's some sample lyrics:

- "Me and my friends readin' the Satanic bible thinkin' we should start a band"

- "I fuckin' hated school except for hanging out with my friends, the outcast that was startin' up a band"

- "I'm that kid you tried to punk in English class, now I'm in a band and your kissing my..."

The man was about 34 years old when he recorded this song!! 34 and he's bragging about his high school bullies supposedly kissing his ass 'cos he's in a successful band now! Just shut it Robb. 'American High' is undoubtedly the song I hate the most here, but the triple-threat of cringe-inducing, nu metal schlock - 'White-Knuckle Blackout!', 'Crashing Around You' and 'Kick You When You're Down' - are almost as bad. I've always tried to avoid gatekeeping metal here on this blog - I'm totally guilty of it sometimes I admit - but in this instance I couldn't give a toss. It's albums like this that are exactly what's wrong with nu metal to me, and why so many metalheads exclude it from the heavy metal scene in general. Heavy metal is often cheesy, but that's okay - cheese is fun. The worst nu metal on the other hand, can often be cringe. That's the difference for me at least. And so many nu metal fans don't understand why the genre is rejected so commonly on huge databases like the Metal Archives and why serious metal critic sites such as Angry Metal Guy stay away from it. I get it, this is an entirely subjective opinion and I fully understand that plenty of people also enjoy nu metal. That's fine. Even I like System of a Down and the odd Slipknot or Korn track, but in general it's not for me.

I think The Burning Red was poor, but it definitely wasn't as obnoxiously nu metal as Supercharger!! By the time I got to 'Nausea' for this updated review, my brain was hurting from all the lazy detuned riffing, scratching, guitar harmonics, rapping, edgy teen lyrics and everything else that comes with the tunes! I had to take a coffee break because I genuinely cannot sit through this mess in a single sitting. Maybe 'Blank Generation' is listenable because it sounds closer to the stronger factors of the last album (not that that's anything to brag about), but that's about all the praise I can give. Actually, scratch that. When the rapping starts about 2/3rds of the way in ("So here's to our collagen lips and saline tits, to our growth hormones and antibiotics, to the Hollywood world we made out of Barbie doll hearts..."), I wanna faceplant the floor again.

I just can't help but shake the feeling that Supercharger is the sound of a band being as dishonest as possible, like they were just seeing who else was big at the time and copying them to try and earn the headlining slot at Ozzfest in the early 2000s. I get that musicians have to make a living, but changing your sound and selling out is disrespectful to the fans who gave you momentum in the first place. Reminds me of a certain Swedish melodeath band who also dramatically changed their sound in the late '90s and never looked back!! Again, at least bands like Slipknot and Korn were always nu metal. Machine Head were not. The worst MH album, and quite possibly one of the worst albums I own in general.

Adam's rating: 2/10

Original review:

The Burning Red wasn't exactly a great Machine Head record, but it was at least an okay nu/groove metal album. Supercharger on the other hand, is just poor on all levels. 2001 and Slipknot's Iowa was probably the biggest thing in metal, and Machine Head had ditched any of their groove/thrashing sounds of the first two albums and made an entirely nu metal album. Every song sucks, and they're full of quasi-rapping and that fucking annoying scratching guitar sound that was popular in the scene at the time. 'Bulldozer' kind of started things off okay until Robb starts singing, and it's all downhill from there.  'American High' also contains some of their shittest lyrics ever, examples: 'Asteroids beat out homework, Slayer beat out Zeppelin, not the sharpest noggin', that's why I'm in this band', 'I fuckin' hated school except for hangin' out with my friends, the outcast that was startin' up a band' etc. 'Crashing Around You', which I'm pretty sure was a single, is as nu metal as it gets, it's no wonder you don't find any new bands that sound like this anymore. Yeah, this album sucks. 
Adam's rating: 2/10

HELLALIVE          2003          (Roadrunner)

Despite this live album being recording during the band's 'nu metal years' (i.e. the early 2000s) and about 2/3rds of these tracks consisting of songs from The Burning Red and Supercharger, I can actually sit through this CD! Well alright, maybe not 'American High'! But songs like 'Bulldozer', 'The Blood, the Sweat, the Tears', 'From this Day' etc. all sound far better on stage than they did in the studio. Maybe it's just the higher levels of energy from the band members, or maybe I'm just far more tolerant of live music in general? Hmm, probably a combination of both. I'm not saying these songs are legitimately great from the live perspective, they're just played in a way that makes them sound more fun. You can feel the sweaty stage presence. Of course, there's stuff on here from Burn My Eyes and The More Things Change... too. When will 'Old' ,'Davidan' and 'Ten Ton Hammer' ever not sound good? I like the way Robb abrupbtly stops 'Ten Ton Hammer' during the intro only to have a go at the audience for being too tame! 

A 7/10 for me because as good as the band's performance is, there's only 14 tracks in total and naturally I'd have preferred to have seen more songs from the first 2 records. Still, if I can sit through a live recording with a few songs from an album I scored a 2/10 (Supercharger), Machine Head certainly deserve some praise here! A fun disc overall, if inessential. In my old review I gave this a 7.1/10, I've rounded it off to a 7 for this update. Unlike the rest of my old reviews from 2017 on this page (up to 2014's Bloodstone & Diamonds), I deleted the old Hellalive review 'cos I somehow found a way to make it shorter than this updated one!

Adam's rating: 7/10

THROUGH THE ASHES OF EMPIRES           2003          (Roadrunner)

- Standouts: 'Imperium', 'Elegy', 'In the Presence of My Enemies' 'Vim'

Anything is better than the utter travesty that was Supercharger, so by default Through the Ashes of Empires seems like a return to form. It ditches the nu metal leanings of the whack predecessor and returns to a sound that is more comparable to the first couple of albums, only with a slightly more modern metal take. Riffs-wise I can hear some Burn My Eyes-style musings in opener 'Imperium', but there's also a lot of melodic guitar parts and clean singing that you wouldn't hear on said debut. I used to love this track, but for some reason I get Killswitch Engage metalcore vibes from the melodic touches whenever I hear it now. I mean, it does still work - but I'm no fan of metalcore either! I still like 'Imperium', just not as much as I used to. I like the sludgy 'Elegy' too - this one is almost prime Machine Head! A silly modern-sounding clean part around 2/3rds of the way in stops it being a 'banger, but it's close enough! Thankfully the lengthier 'In the Presence of My Enemies' is one of the best songs on here. There's a lot of Pantera worship going on, but it rocks my socks off at least. 'Days Turn Blue to Gray' is fairly decent as well. Not perfect due to some minor modern melodic metal irks, but certainly not a bad semi-ballad. 

I think when I first reviewed this album I must've listened to it directly after Supercharger, because I was being far too kind with that 7.6/10. Of course it sounded really good after hearing that piece of shit! There's things I like about most of these tracks, but there's almost always things I can pick holes with too. Songs like 'Seasons Wither', 'Wipe the Tears' and 'Left Unfinished' for example, have fast thrashy parts that I dig, but Robb somehow found a way to fit a fucking annoying whiny metalcore-like vocal melodies in there too. I don't know how he does it! 'Bite the Bullet' is a bit of a mixed bag too - the heavy riffs are pummelling, but I don't like the constant switch up in clean/heavy transitions. On paper it can work, but the modern stylings of the clean parts don't settle all that well with me. The "Scream with me, bleed with me" part of closer 'Descend the Shades of Night' is fucking lame, but like most of these tracks, there's also plenty of riffs and segments in it that I like too.

The best song here is probably 'Vim'. It could've easily fit on Burn My Eyes. This one is an all-out riff fest, and it kicks ass. No stupid whiny vocal bullshit, just straight up heavy groove metal with a hint of thrash thrown in for good measure! I also like the production too. In fact, I don't think any Machine Head album has been recorded badly, even the nu metal one's!

One thing I do agree with in my old review, is the fact I mentioned 'Imperium' laid the foundations for a lot of Machine Head songs from hereon. In fact, Through the Ashes of Empires in general sounds like the start of Machine Head's 'modern' era (with the exception of a particular turkey they put out 2018!!). They don't necessarily directly rip-off this record on their later releases, but the way it blends old Machine Head with modern metal techniques is kind of Robb Flynn in a nutshell (and let's not forget his occasionally-cringe lyrics). He has a recognisable groove metal sound he created with Burn My Eyes, but he's also guilty of trend-hopping and sometimes blending the latest flavours of month with that trademark sound on whatever project he's working on. It sounds like I'm just slagging the man off. Maybe I am. I just think he's inconsistent is all. He can write really good songs when he wants to, but sometimes his ego takes over and he embarrasses himself. I don't think there's any particularly shameful moments on Through the Ashes of Empires (unlike some other MH songs), but it definitely has it's flaws. The highs of this album can be up there with Burn My Eyes at times, but there's a long list of issues here too. Either way, this is just one man's opinion of course. For every metalhead that takes issue with Machine Head, there's a dedicated MH fan. Probably.

A score within the 6/10 ballpark is in order here. Even though there's problems with a lot of these songs, I don't think any of them are outright unlistenable. I don't enjoy some of the clean/melodic bits, that much is true - but every single track here also has things I do enjoy about them (the riffs are usually strong from start to finish). A few I pretty much like full-stop. And I can't deny that at the time the actual musicianship/playing from all the guys in the band was probably the best yet on a technical scale. The most inconsistent set of songs in my entire collection then? Maybe! Overrated, definitely. Whichever way I look at this thing, it's still a hell of a lot better than either Supercharger or The Burning Red!

Adam's rating: 6.2/10

Original review:

Thankfully that nu metal scene was pretty much over by the time this disc was released, and it's definitely a step in the right direction. But is it a return to form? Meh, I dunno. It sure beats the hell out of the last two, but I don't think Machine Head had any 'masterpieces' to begin with. Burn My Eyes was a great album, but I don't consider it to be a masterwork. Either way, Through the Ashes of Empires starts off with the superb 'Imperium', the foundation for which many of their songs are now built around. Big, crushing riffs that still retain some melody and a sense of progression. They also had a go at writing a ballad(ish) epic number, 'Descend the Shades of Night', which is a decent song for sure, but I've always thought Robb Flynn's voice just isn't quite right for these kind of tunes. He handles all the aggressive stuff just fine, but I was never a big fan of his clean voice, which this song features plenty of. If I hadn't ever listened to the travesty that is Supercharger, I'd probably enjoy his vocals more in general, but there you go. 'Seasons Wither', at first glance, kind of had me interested 'cos I misread it as 'Seasons OF Wither', one of my favourite Aerosmith tunes! It's not a cover of course, it's just another decent Burn My Eyes-esque chugging number. 'In the Presence of Enemies' and 'VIM' are really cool too. The lyrics are a bit hit-and-miss however. 'Left Unfinished' has a lot of unnecessary, almost nu metal cursing on it. I don't give a shit about how much profanity is on a record so long as it actually works, but on a song like this, it's just there for the sake of being there and comes across as immature and dumb. Musically though, the album is consistent. I didn't hear any riffs or lead work that I didn't like, and the whole thing was pretty enjoyable overall, so it's a fair effort all 'round.  

Adam's rating: 7.6/10

THE BLACKENING          2007         (Roadrunner)

- Standouts: 'Clenching the Fists of Dissent', 'Aesthetics of Hate', 'Slanderous', 'Wolves'

I must confess, I've got a bit of chip on my shoulder when it comes to The Blackening. I remember all the hype and critical praise it got when it first came out in 2007. Critics were literally hailing it as a Master of Puppets for the 21st century, and one of the best metal albums in years. I'll also confess that I can be kind of a contrarian guy when I want to be. For example, I was quite keen on getting tattoos when I was in my early 20s, but almost everyone I know started getting them. I'm 33 now and I still don't have one. I also don't like having things shoved in my face and being told constantly how great something is. I never even watched Game of Thrones because I was fed up of being told how amazing it supposedly is - and maybe it does deserve the praise it gets! But when things are overhyped in this sort of manner, it just makes me not want to digest whatever thing is garnering so much praise! And this was exactly the case with The Blackening back in '07 for me. I didn't actually buy my own copy until at least 2008 from what I can remember, because I waited for the hype to die down a little.

When I did finally get hold of The Blackening and hear it in full for the first time, I thought it was a good album. And that was it. In my old review I listed a whole bunch of albums from 2007 that I enjoyed more, and while I think I was exaggerating with some of them just to prove a point, I wholeheartedly still do like a handful of those more than The Blackening to this day (those being Saxon - Inner Sanctum, Evile - Enter the Grave, Mayhem - Ordo Ad Chao and possibly Nile - Ithyphallic). I can kind of understand why a newbie to the metal genre might be blown away by The Blackening on first listen - the musicianship is very professional and maybe even progressive at times, the songs can be long and impressive-sounding if you're used to standard pop music and the album is very well-produced too. But even when this dropped almost 20 years ago (Christ, I'm starting to feel old!), I was already listening to bands like Testament, Annihilator, Exodus, Venom etc. as well as all the big names like Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera and whoever else. Machine Head weren't doing anything to really leave me in awe of their music at that point, and they never have. Not to say they can't write a good song - look at Burn My Eyes. Great record. But I don't think they ever did anything genre-defining on any of their albums, let alone The Blackening. If anything, they were more innovative on their first couple of albums because at least the whole groove metal thing was still relatively new in the '90s. A masterwork album doesn't have to be innovative to be great though, and I fully understand that. But there's nothing about this album that hasn't already been done before, and better at that. I think that's also a big part of what's caused this chip on my shoulder that I've been struggling to shake off for so many years. People compare it to Master of Puppets, but that album is just better in every single way (and MoP isn't even my favourite Metallica record)!

On top of all this, there's 8 songs in total here and 1 of them I don't even like! That would be 'Now I Lay Thee Down', which was also the first track I remember hearing back in '07 long before I actually bought my copy of the album. I think it was included on one of those freebie CDs with Metal Hammer magazine (who were obviously dick-riding the album at that time). Come to think of it, it may also be a contributing factor as to why I held off buying the album for a while. Anyway, it's a surprisingly catchy song melody-wise, but the Deftones-like intro grates on me and Robb's vocals are all over the place. Sometimes he's harsh, sometimes he delves back into that whiny metalcore bullshit, and sometimes he's essentially doing spoken-word on it. I've always thought this song sucked and almost felt like it written for as much Kerrang! and Scuzz music video airplay possible get back in the day. 

Thankfully the rest of the songs are decent overall, and largely stronger than what Through the Ashes of Empires had to offer. The middle part of 'Slanderous' is killer; full-on, old-school thrash metal. In fact, this song in general is tip-top modern groove/thrash, and potentially even up there with the highs of Burn My Eyes. I also really like 'Aesthetics of Hate' - fast, frantic, thrashing... a good time. Not to mention heavy of course. Robb apparently wrote it in response to an article slamming Pantera's Dimebag Darrell, but musically it's far too thrashy to sound like Pantera. And that's cool! The twin-guitar soloing is pretty excellent too, lot's of nice, almost Thin Lizzy/Iron Maiden-type dual harmonies. 'Wolves' has a strong groove and also manages to thrash pretty hard. Maybe it didn't need to last 9 minutes, but at least the barrage of riffage that comes with this track is almost always headbangable (that's not a real word, sorry!). Speaking of long tracks, well, a few of these songs are long. Opener 'Clenching the Fists of Dissent' is fucking 10 and a half minutes, while closer 'A Farewell to Arms' manages to be just as long too! But credit where credit's due, the songwriting from an instrumental point of view is creative enough that justifies their lengthy playing times. That's probably the high point of The Blackening for me - the actual music itself. The music is a far cry from albums like Supercharger (thank god), and I'd even argue that the best riffs on here might even top Burn My Eyes. The guitar solos certainly do that's for sure. Just not the vocals!

Yep, even though I think tracks like 'Halo' and 'Beautiful Morning' are again on point musically (especially riffs-wise), sometimes the clean vocal parts grate on me in the same way that some of the songs from Through the Ashes of Empires did. Like I said before, there's something about Robb's clean vocals that automatically make me compare them to metalcore. The good news is that his clean vocals aren't entirely unlistenable for me - in fact, I even get why he does it because almost every song on here save for maybe 'Aesthetics of Hate' comes with it's fair share of melody too. But I just don't like the way he approaches clean his singing. It doesn't mean said tracks like 'Halo' and 'Beautiful Morning' are ruined for me - I still like them overall because the musicianship can be pretty stellar on them from an instrumental point of view, it just means they're flawed to my ears. 

If someone was to ask me what I consider to be the most overrated album in all of metal, then The Blackening would certainly be up there. I don't know if it's the most overrated, because people don't seem to talk about it as much as they did several years ago (although you'll still see it at the top of most critics' ranking lists). But it's definitely overrated to me whichever way I look at it! But I'll also go along with the fact there's a lot to like about The Blackening too. The guitar work from Robb and Phil Demmel is impressive, and the solos can be absolutely scorching. The songs are dynamic and even with all the different transitional styles, they almost always flow rather well. It's easily one of Machine Head's best albums in this sense. The production is clean, but when the music's as intricate as this, it kinda needs to be. Also, there's very little in the way of cringe-inducing lyrics. Let's be honest here, Robb is not the greatest poet in the world, and even some of the best Machine Head albums can be lame lyrically. But I can't really think of any lyric on this album that made me laugh out loud at it's own stupidity. 

Returning to what I said at the beginning of this review though, this album doesn't blow me away. It didn't then and it certainly doesn't now. It doesn't mean it's a bad album, not at all. In fact, the music's an easy 8/10 for me. Rock-solid groove metal with seamless thrash and prog elements. But Robb's vocals are more like a 5/10, maybe a 6 on a good day for me. And the vocals are a big deal. With some bands, not so much. But Robb Flynn is the face of this band he wants you to know that. And considering there's vocal parts on this album I flat-out don't like - plus a whole entire song that I fucking hate ('Now I Lay Thee Down') - I can't give this supposed 'masterpiece' a score any higher than a 7.5/10. 

And that still means I've upped it's rating since my old review!

Adam's rating: 7.5/10

Original review:

As much as I enjoy certain records in Machine Head's discography, their reputation and fanbase kinda pisses me off, and The Blackening is the reason for it. Back in '07, this album got so much hype that publications everywhere were hailing it as one of the best metal albums of the 21st century, maybe even to Master of Puppets level of quality. It's not of course, nor are Machine Head one of the best bands in metal (in my own worthless opinion anyway). In my experience, their fanbase annoys me along with the critics because they seem to claim the band to be one of the most intelligent, creative and talented bands in the genre. I remember chatting to some fat guy in the campsite at Sonisphere Festival 2014 who said he cried at one of their 2011 shows because it so 'epic'. 'Course, he could've been trolling me (plus he had been drinking...I had been drinking...in fact everybody drinks at a festival), but this was a hardcore Machine Head fan I was talking to!

Anyway, The Blackening. I don't think this is a 'bad' album by any means, but no way is it a five-star record. It's probably not even a four-star record either thanks to the mallcore bullshit of 'Now I Lay Thee Down'. In fact, here's some metal albums from 2007 that I enjoyed more than The Blackening: Saxon: The Inner Sanctum, Evile: Enter the Grave, 3 Inches of Blood: Fire Up the Blades, Megadeth: United Abominations, Vital Remains: Icons of Evil, Mayhem: Ordo Ad Chao, Municipal Waste: The Art of Partying, Iced Earth: Framing Armageddon - Something Wicked Pt. 1, Nile: Ithyphallic, Down: Down III - Over the Under, Darkthrone: F.O.A.D., Exodus: The Atrocity Exhibition...Exhibit A...it's a pretty long list as you can see.

The clean intro to 'Clenching the Fists of Dissent', track one, is obviously a nod to Metallica's 'Fight Fire With Fire' or 'Battery', only it's pathetic. Happily, the rest of the song is solid once it gets going. You see, at least half of this album consists of nine minute-plus so-called 'epics', and other than 'Clenching the Fists of Dissent', ALL of them are thrown in for the second half of the record, one after the other. Granted, 'Wolves', 'A Farewell to Arms' and 'Halo' are all good songs in their own right, but putting all of these lengthy numbers one after the other is just dumb and means the album flows horribly. Of the normal-length songs, 'Beautiful Morning' is probably my favourite, an (almost) full-on thrasher. For the most part however, the album just feels overblown and unnatural; I mean, these are good songs, but they're not 'masterpieces' like that 14 year old who's just discovered metal will tell you. And I really don't think Robb Flynn has the voice to do a lot of the more melodic and clean bits justice; he's fine for the heavier, shoutier type of stuff, but I'd rather have a clean singer in general on any 'epic'-length song (unless it's like, death or black metal obviously). Other than the dire 'Now I Lay Thee Down', there aren't any 'bad' songs here, but the order of them that makes no sense. And no way is The Blackening 'one of the best metal albums of the 21st century' - maybe if you've never listened to metal before, this this thing will blow you away, but for anyone serious about the genre, this is nothing special. Sorry, but it's not. 
Adam's rating: 7.1/10

UNTO THE LOCUST          2011          (Roadrunner)

- Standouts: 'I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)', 'Locust', 'This Is the End', 'Darkness Within', 'Pearls Before the Swine'

How do you successfully follow-up the critics' own "21st century Master of Puppets", aka The Blackening? Well, you continue down the same path I guess! Of course, I am not on board with The Blackening's overhyped reputation, but I will agree that it's a good album. Anyway, I've always thought Machine Head did a good job following that record up with 2011's Unto the Locust. The track listing is short but sweet - just 7 songs, but all of them well-composed and thought-out. Not that The Blackening was an overblown mess (despite what I wrote in my old review below); it had plenty of lengthy tracks, sure, but it was only made up of 8 songs in total. Either way, less is more. 7 songs and an almost 49 minute overall length is a sensible way handle things in my opinion. Also, there's no obnoxious bandwagon hopping here. Musically Locust feels like a continuation of it's predecessor, and that's how it always should have been.

And the songs are pretty damn strong too. Maybe 'Be Still and Know' is a little sketchy to my ears because of Robb's slightly irritating clean vocal style once again, but the melodic guitar work on it is insane. The guitar harmonies are superb, and the soloing oh-so clean! I think 'I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)' is a raging opener too. It's apparently made up of 3 different passages, but I hardly noticed. It flows very smoothly despite the slow opening build-up. For the most part, it's a bruising groove/thrash hybrid and showcases what the band do best. The song 'Locust' is one I played a lot back when this thing appeared 14 years ago. The ominous intro is nice, and the main riff has a Pantera-like groove yet doesn't feel like a complete Dimebag rip-off either. The chorus is even kinda catchy, and it's 7 and a half minute length means it's full of interesting riffs and dynamics. Great track. 'This Is the End' also comes with a dark yet melodic intro before erupting into a ridiculously tight thrasher. A more modern-sounding thrasher of course (don't expect Exodus-like riffing!), but this is Machine Head after all! Again, the guitar work is stellar. The vocals less-so once again, but I still really like this one.

I suppose 'Darkness Within' features has some experimentation on it. It's definitely a ballad, yet Robb found a way to make it work somehow! A lot of his vocals on it are mostly clean, but not necessarily in that annoying metalcore whining style. If anything, I get more of a grunge aura in this respect. It still has it's heavy parts, but overall 'Darkness Within' is a nice departure musically from the rest of this CD. 'Pearls Before the Swine' is a mostly no-nonsense thrash-orientated riff-fest (with a few small moments of progressive songwriting like most of this album), so by default it's pretty great. Finale 'Who We Are' is maybe my least favourite song on the album due to it's large focus on vocals, but it's certainly not terrible. Erm, apart from the children's choir that comes and goes that is! Whatever. Kind of a mediocre track, but mostly okay overall. Some versions of this album come with 3 bonus tracks, including a cover of Judas Priest's 'The Sentinel'! Mine is just the standard edition, but I just listened to the Priest cover on Spotify, and it's actually pretty damn fun!

I had positive things to say in my old review of this album, and I still do. I find this one doesn't get talked about as much as The Blackening, yet the music is just as good, if not better. And to be honest, I'm actually in favour of it's shorter length and 7-song track listing. It only feels much more streamlined for it. I'll admit that I did think The Blackening flowed far better than I remembered when I listened to it again for my updated review, but it still has 1 song I'm not keen on at all. Locust on the other hand, is enjoyable from start to finish - not necessarily a classic, but a great piece of work none-the-less. The guitar work is better across the board; I think Phil Demmel deserves more credit for his contributions. The production too, is just as strong as before. It's a powerful-sounding record. I think production is something Machine Head have nearly always done well overall.

Again though, I can't be too kind. I don't think I'll ever be fully satisfied with Robb's vocals post-Burn My Eyes. Even though there's less whining on Locust overall, there certainly are times where his singing rubs off on me the wrong way. Nowhere near annoying enough to ruin any of the songs thankfully, but it does make me wonder just how much more I'd enjoy Machine Head if Robb were to hire a new vocalist and just focus on the guitar/songwriting/production side of this band. His vocals along with the obvious fact that some of their albums are just blatant sellouts are what make Machine Head such an inconsistent band for me. And of course, Burn My Eyes is still a better album than Unto the Locust. At least in my eyes. But for what it's worth, this is certainly one of the stronger albums in their catalogue for me.

Adam's rating: 8/10

Original review:

I was expecting more of the same with this album, after their apparent massive success with The Blackening, and while that is kind of true, Unto the Locust is thankfully a much better crafted slab of modern metal. The guitars have improved, with better and more memorable riffage that blends the classic Burn My Eyes thrashy grooves with Maiden-esque melodies and superb lead work. Plus, the album flows way, way better than the predecessor. It consists of only seven songs instead of ten, and while most of them are around seven minutes long, the whole album is at least 12 minutes shorter than The Blackening. It's quality over quantity, basically, so it's not overblown like the former. It's as if they actually sat down and ironed out the creases; it's a much more thought-out record overall. I still don't think it surpasses the debut, but it is probably their second best! It's just a great album all in all. Apparently some versions of the CD feature three bonus tracks, including a cover of Judas Priest's 'The Sentinel'. If I'd actually researched and known this before-hand, I would've tracked down which ever version this is, but there you go.
Adam's rating: 8/10

BLOODSTONE & DIAMONDS          2014         (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: 'Now We Die', 'Killers & Kings', 'Night of Long Knives', 'Sail into the Black', 'Eyes of the Dead'
Until this year (2025), 2014's Bloodstone & Diamonds was the last Machine Head album I bought for a very long time. I was kind of done with them for a number of years after this record, not necessarily 'cos I thought it was bad, rather I think I was just fed up with all the underserved critical acclaim they were getting (in my opinion of course). I thought The Blackening was a solid album, but nothing groundbreaking. Unto the Locust I liked a lot, but again not a classic. And then there was this, which also has a Metacritic score of 96/100 for fuck's sake. My old review seems to be lukewarm; the musicianship was strong once again, but I found the album to be unnecessarily long at 70 minutes. Meanwhile Dom Lawson gave it 5 stars and said of the album "Striking an exquisite between brute force, insistent melody and bold experimentation, this is the finest mainstream metal album of 2014 by a huge margin." - because of course he did. Again, maybe if any of these records were among some of the very first metal albums I'd ever heard, maybe I too would consider them to be seminal. I think they're good, that much is true! But they weren't among the first metal albums I listened to, and I don't consider them to be seminal. 

Other than Burn My Eyes, Blackening and Locust, I hadn't listened to any of these albums in ages, so I couldn't remember how most of the tracks on Bloodstone & Diamonds went. I'll definitely say that it's a more melodic album overall than the last 2 or 3 - however, while songs like 'Now We Die' and 'Killers & Kings' revisit familiar territory with the same modern groove/thrash-tinged sound, the guitar leads feel a bit more prominent in the songwriting this time. 'Now We Die' even dabbles with string arrangements (!!), but both these songs get the album off to a fairly strong start. I dig 'em. 'Night of Long Knives' is pretty thrashy overall, and mixes Burn My Eyes-style riffing with catchy, anthemic vocals. Good stuff overall, even if Robb's clean vocals on it still aren't quite my cup of tea (no surprise there). The almost gothic-style 8 minute 'Sail into the Black' is possibly my favourite song on this album however. It starts off incredibly dark and atmospheric, and the way it transitions into a soaring, heavy ballad is pulled off very well. Maybe one of the greatest songs from any of the last few records. I think 'Eyes of the Dead' also does a good job of mixing tight, technical thrash with massive grooves. Again, kind of hard to fault it musically, just not always a fan of Robb's singing!

'Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones' is largely modern-sounding and whiny, and that definitely doesn't settle well with me. The second half picks up on the heaviness however, so it isn't entirely redundant. I can say the same thing for 'In Comes the Flood'. Also, the sludgy, grimy riffing on 'Beneath the Silt' is great, but the vocals kinda halt this tune dead in it's tracks as soon as Robb comes in! He has this weird, almost Matt Bellamy-ish lingo going on at times. And Muse are one of those bands that musically I've always somewhat enjoyed, but vocally I'm on the fence with. 'Beneath the Silt' is certainly not unlistenable, but definitely leaves me feeling uneasy overall. The mellow 'Damage Inside' feels like filler, almost like an interval for 'Game Over'... and 'Game Over' really rubs me the wrong way! I actually get nu metal PTSD from this one!! The way Robb almost raps his way through it once the music picks up speed just hurts my ears, and in general I think this is easily the weakest aspect of the album. 'Imaginal Cells' is just an instrumental with spoken-word bits. It is what it is. And sadly, the album closer 'Take Me Through the Fire' doesn't quite work for me either. The thrashy part is nice, but a lot of it is just a bit too Through the Ashes... for me, and not Burn My Eyes enough. That probably makes little sense, but I know what I mean!

I still think this disc is too long, unsurprisingly. Sorry, but I do. Unto the Locust was just 7 songs, but that album was much more tight and concise by comparison. They could've easily cut 'Imaginal Cells', 'Damage Inside' and 'Game Over', plus maybe one of the other questionable tracks on here and you'd likely have a stronger album overall. As it stands, Bloodstone & Diamonds lasts 70 minutes in total, making it the second longest Machine Head album ever (rather worryingly, the next one is even longer...). 70 minutes is okay so long as the music is actually consistently strong throughout, but I find this one to be a bit spotty overall, with a few songs I can easily skip and not feel bad about it. At least Flynn's done another pukka job with the production. The guy knows how to make his records sound good sonically, I'll give him that.

It wasn't particularly easy to rate this album at first. I gave it a 6.5 in my old review, but I don't think I like it that much any more. At the same time, I did the maths and still think there's more pros to this one than Through the Ashes of Empires (which I gave a 6.2). The guitar playing and musicianship is pretty spectacular throughout B&D, and a few of these tracks are as good as some of the better one's on Blackening and Locust ('Now We Die', 'Sail into the Black'). The problem is - and like many Machine Head albums for me - there's a few songs I can't get fully on board with, usually because of the way Robb sings them. And then of course there's 'Game Over', which I think is flat-out terrible. But whatever. That's just how this band is with me I suppose. I think with a few alterations and a handful of song removals, this could've quite easily been a 7/10 for me. There's a few great songs deserving of any metal playlist here, just not enough of them. 

Funnily enough, this is the highest rated MH album on Metal Archives. It has a current rating of 83% from 7 reviews. That's a lot higher than most of their other records on that site! Maybe Dom Lawson was onto something!

Adam's rating: 6.4/10

Original review:

What is it about this band?! One minute I really enjoy hearing 'em and especially admire the riff-work from Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel, the next minute I'm just sick of 'em. Don't get me wrong, I thought Unto the Locust was pretty damn good because it kept the tracklisting to 7 songs and wasn't as overblown and tedious as The Blackening. Through the Ashes of Empires was decent too, yet I feel like at this point, the formula that started with said album has just gone on too long. Bloodstone & Diamonds follows said trend, but it's fucking 70 minutes long! Who the hell do they think are?! It's long enough to be a double album! Instead, what you get is The Blackening part II; 12 songs in total, and more than half of them clock between 6-9 minutes long. Look, if these guys were a progressive rock band like Yes or Rush, it wouldn't bother me. But they ain't. They're not even that smart, even though they think they are. The guitar work and riffs may be more than competent throughout, but because the whole record is pointlessly long, I can't even give you any examples. By the time I got to track 10 ('Game Over'), I couldn't be arsed with it any longer. I had to come back and listen to the remaining songs another time. It's a shame because the songs individually are good, this band just have no idea what they're doing when it comes to compiling them. They should have just made the whole thing a double album instead. 

By the way, these songs may be good overall, but to me they aren't especially great, save for maybe 'Night of Long Knives' and 'Now We Die'. The problem I have with what this band does nowadays is the inconsistencies of Robb's vocals. You the get crushing riffs and aggressive vocals, then the next second you get some mellow, mid-tempo harmonies that work well in small doses BUT NOT WHEN EVERY SONG HAS THEM AND THE RECORD LASTS 70 FUCKING MINUTES!!! I must be listening to Machine Head for the wrong reasons, then. But I came into this one more enthusiastically because I thought the last album was great overall. In conclusion, Machine Head take themselves too seriously. Sorry, but it's true.
Adam's rating: 6.5/10

CATHARSIS          2018          (Nuclear Blast)

- Standouts: Huh?

I gave up on Machine Head for a number of years after Bloodstone & Diamonds, and when I heard that it's follow-up, 2018's Catharsis returned to a sound that had more in common with Supercharger than The Blackening, that was the final nail in the coffin for me! Erm, until 2025 anyway!! I think maybe the band's headlining slot at this years' Bloodstock Open Air (I'd quite like to watch at least a bit of their set this year, last time I saw the band live was in 2012...) combined with their latest record, Unatoned, may have something to do with my decision to pick up the albums I missed out on for those years. Being the sad bastard collector I am, this meant I also had to purchase Catharsis - the album I'd deliberately avoided! Truth be told, it wasn't actually this album that made me give up on MH several years back - like I said in my Bloodstone & Diamonds review, I was sick of the hype they were getting at that point. It was purely coincidence that they followed up B&D with such a polarising album! Even the professional publications gave Cathrasis mixed reviews!! Meanwhile, on Metal Archives the album holds a measly 23% rating from 9 reviews. That makes it lower than Supercharger's pathetic 28%!! Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to reviewing this disc for this newly-updated page. 

And guess what? The album does indeed suck. I could just leave it at that and move on, but I'll at least discuss it in some detail. I don't know how he managed it, but Robb Flynn successfully managed to return to the sounds of nu metal on Catharsis. I honestly didn't think it was possible. To me, you had to be around in the late '90s/early 2000s to actually be nu metal, just like you had to be in the UK around the late '70s/early '80s to be New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Even bands that were leaders of nu metal back then don't really sound that way anymore. For example, I don't think Slipknot's latter material sounds like the debut or Iowa from when nu metal was raging in popularity. Yet with tracks like 'Beyond the Pale' and 'Triple Beam', Robb's taking us back to 2001 and that short, spiked blonde hair look he sported during the Supercharger era! Yes, expect cringe-inducing guitar riffs, cringe-inducing vocal melodies, cringe-inducing rapping and cringe-inducing lyrics . Oh fuck, the lyrics!!

Flynn was born in 1967, so by the time Catharsis dropped in 2018, he'd have been 51. Well, that 51 year old may as well have been 15 mentally, because a lot of the lyrics on this album manage to be the edgiest shite he's ever penned to date. It's either that or he's just attended university for the first time in his life and been hanging out with a bunch of 18-21 year olds who think they're political experts now. Here's some examples:

'Volatile':

- "Volatile. This world is fuckin' volatile. Fuck the world!"

- "Don't blame the false elites when Nazi assholes march the streets!"

'California Bleeding':

- 'Don't give a fuck if I'm banned, the fucking rodents down at Disneyland. Highway 5 down to 99, I'm getting head near the Fresno sign."

'Bastards':

- "And every politician stood there idle and so smug, empowering the racists, and 2nd Amendment thugs."

- "But we won't go away, you won't forget our name! The pussy generation, the PC and the brave."

- "Remember there is love. Our words can stop their guns."

'Razorblade Smile':

- "This is an all-black Russian hack, go USA! Trump's in bed with North Korea and that might just be gay."

In fact 'Bastards' is actually one of the worst 'metal' songs I've ever heard. Ever. You know how I said 'American High' was one of the worst metal tracks ever written? Well 'Bastards' is worse, trust me. The thing is, I don't mind when bands get political. Politics in music has been around forever. Unless the band/artist in question is an outright fascist or fully-blown communist and makes either of those positions be known, if the music's good and the lyrics have been written in an intelligent manner - regardless of whether or not I agree with them - I can still listen and enjoy whoever the artist in question is. I like Rage Against the Machine's music. I like Ted Nugent's music. One is left-leaning, the other is conservative. Whatever. I don't care. They've both made albums I like. But on 'Bastards', these lyrics are so fucking dumb and juvenile in the end that it just makes it unlistenable. I mean, the music itself itself is terrible anyway, but Robb raps about his political views in such a teenage manner that it's just fucking lame. He even uses racial slurs that I can't even repeat on this blog to get his point across. It was bold, I'll give him that - but if you want similar points to the ones he's making, only written in a far superior and less edgy direction, then go listen to Dead Kennedys or something. 

I've made it quite clear in my FAQ that I don't discuss politics on this blog. I might briefly mention the politics whatever band talks about, but I never critique or outright debate because I'm bored of all the division that happens all the time in music communities these days. I have my own political views like everyone else, but I keep them to myself. I don't care that Robb Fynn is a liberal or whatever you want to call him. If he was a republican, I wouldn't care either. That's his choice. I just think the way he projects his points is often dumb and hard to take seriously. In short, don't be an obnoxious cunt.

Anyway, there's 15 fucking songs here, and in total the album lasts nearly an hour and 15 minutes!! To rub salt into the wound, that makes it the longest Machine Head album!! Nearly 74 minutes of shitty throwback nu metal music, garbage lyrics written by a middle-aged man who thinks he's 17 again and there's even vocal melodies here on songs like 'Beyond the Pale', 'Behind a Mask' and 'Heavy Lies the Crown' that seem to hearken back to painful emo music of the mid-2000s!! I can't and won't talk about all these tracks in detail because in truth, I've listened to this album in full just once, and I also attempted to sit through it again unsuccessfully (I turned it off by the time 'Bastards' came on). Normally I listen to an album at least a handful of times before I even think about reviewing it, but with this I just can't. And no, my opinion of it won't change with repeated listens! I just know it won't!! The only thing this album has going for it is the fact that occasionally you might hear a solid riff or 2 that may have fit on any of the previous 4 or so MH records. And also the production is of high quality as always, but even if the album sounds good to the ears from an mastering point of view, it doesn't mean shit if the songs are bad. Which they are of course. Fucking dreadful even. 

I knew this would be bad, but I didn't realise it'd be worse than Supercharger. Clearly long-time members Phil Demmel (lead guitar) and Dave McClain (drums) thought so too because both left shortly after Catharsis. Phil even said he left because he didn't enjoy his job anymore and didn't like the direction Robb had been taking the band in throughout the last 3 years of his tenure. Demmel had been in the band since Through the Ashes of Empires while McClain since The More Things Change...!! You'll read a lot of divisive opinions on Flynn online. A lot of people don't like the guy, and the impression I get is that his ego took over when they wrote and recorded Catharsis. My opinion? I think he's a talented guitar player, producer and songwriter that suffers from major inconsistencies and being a man-child when he wants to. He can write good songs as evidenced throughout Machine Head's career. He can even write good lyrics when he wants to. Yet he's also capable of putting out utter dross - also as evidenced on albums like Catharsis. As for his actual singing... well, sometimes he's my cup of tea, sometimes he's not. 

Either way Catharsis is an apocalyptically abysmal train-wreck of an album. The fact it came after creative high points like The Blackening and Unto the Locust is staggering!!

Adam's rating: 1.5/10

OF KINGDOM AND CROWN          2022         (Nuclear Blast)

- Standouts: 'Slaughter the Martyr', 'Choke On the Ashes of Your Hate', 'Become the Firestorm', 'My Hands Are Empty', 'Bloodshot', 'Rotten'

The one upside to making an album as disastrous as Catharsis is the fact things can only get better with your next release. This is certainly the case with Of Kingdom and Crown... as it fucking well should be!! One thing that really confused me when I unpacked my CD from the post is the title itself - why is it stylised as ØF KINGDØM AND CRØWN, and why is every single 'O' in each track stylised in the same manner? I always thought it was a Scandinavian thing. Moreover, on Spotify why is every song listed with Caps Lock turned on?! I thought that was a silly pop/hip-hop thing to do! As it happens, all of this nonsense is also a Robb Flynn thing to do. Well that doesn't surprise me.

But hey, the good news is that Of Kingdom and Crown is a step back in the right direction! Despite the loss of Phil Demmel and Dave McClain (Phil being replaced by Decapitated guitarist Wacław Kiełtyka who has now left as of 2023 and Dave replaced by Matt Alston who is still present as of 2025), the music seems to pick up where Bloodstone & Diamonds left off, and thankfully forgets Catharsis even existed. The first 3 tracks are damn strong in all fairness. And I immediately noticed a huge shift in Robb's clean vocals when the first song, 'Slaughter the Martyr' came on for the first time. Did he take singing lessons during Covid?! I genuinely looked through the CD booklet and Wikipedia page to see if it was even him singing!! It is of course, but still - he's gotten much better at doing the clean stuff now! He can still be a little whiny and emo-ish at times, but at least his actual singing ability has gotten better now. Anyway, 'Slaughter the Martyr' is kinda similar to 'Clenching the Fists of Dissent' from The Blackening, in that it's a slow-building, almost proggy 10 minute epic that blends melody with pure aggression. And it's good! 'Choke On the Ashes of Your Hate' might just be the most Robb Flynn-sounding song title ever, but musically this is an all-out modern thrasher that rips arse on all levels. Maybe the heaviest Machine Head song of all time? I'm not sure, but maybe! 'Become the Firestorm' has some almost death metal-like influence in some of it's riffs and particularly the ultra-precise drumming. I'm guessing this comes with the new band members. The chorus is kinda cheesy and melodic (stupid song title), but I still dig this one a fair bit.

I'm surprised at how much I like 'My Hands Are Empty' too. This is a more melodic track compared any of the previous 3 (although it still comes with a nice level of aggression when necessary), and it's standout party piece is it's vocal melody that returns throughout. I think it helps that Flynn is a better singer now, and it's getting a thumbs-up either way. 'Kill Thy Enemies' is a mid-tempo stomper that's heavy from start to finish. It has some melody in the middle of the song, but it's largely downplayed (and the guitar solo is pleasant too). It's nothing especially ground-breaking, and it doesn't quite match up to the mid-tempo stuff from Burn My Eyes either - but it's definitely solid. I think 'Bloodshot' is a nice and simple no-frills metaller too. Nothing pretentious about it, just good heavy riffin' and strong mid-tempo thrash vibes. Robb's angry vocal delivery on 'Rotten' is kinda cheesy at times, but the music is rather strong on it again, and not annoying to me in any way. Just good groove metal, that's what this is.

Like almost every Machine Head album for me though, there's some stuff on here that doesn't always sit too comfortably with me. I don't dislike 'Unhallowed', but it's also a little too 'vocal' and ballady for me too. I can sit through it because there's parts of it I do like, but some of the modern rock-style vocal arrangements aren't for me. I can take it or leave it. I'm not into 'No Gods, No Masters' either. Catchy and anthemic, yes, but my old-school boomer tastes finds it too modern overall. It sounds like Machine Head, granted. But as you know, this band doesn't always connect with me. I find that that the final track, 'Arrows in Words from the Sky' is 'sorta semi-enjoyable for me too. Robb's clean vocal are again, more enjoyable than they've been for a long time, but it's shiny modern-ness almost clashes with 'Bloodshot' and 'Rotten'. Fortunately it's still one I can listen to, but it's definitely not a choice cut either.

Let's be honest here - I knew this was gonna be better than Catharsis before I even listened to it. But Of Kingdom and Crown did manage to surprise me in other positive ways. Obviously there's Robb's new and improved vocal ability which is nice, but what really surprised me is the fact I think I might enjoy this one as much as The Blackening. Even though the album continues in a similar trend to The Blackening, Unto the Locust and Bloodstone & Diamonds, I think there's some subtle touches here and there that keep Of Kingdom and Crown sounding fresh. I don't think the new guys are better than Demmel or McClain, but they do at least bring some new energy to the band - and the level of technical proficiency remains the same. And I think the fact they threw in some more simplistic, Burn My Eyes-esque numbers like 'Choke On the Ashes of Your Hate', 'Bloodshot' and 'Rotten' among more ambitious one's like 'Slaughter the Martyr' and 'My Hands Are Empty' really helps the flow of this record overall. The whole thing lasts just under an hour and that's fine with me (especially after 74 minutes of noise pollution on the last album!!).

I think the 7.8 score is pretty respectable. I like this album quite a lot. It's very good. I don't think it's great - it has a couple of songs that don't get my juices flowing as well as some vocal arrangements that are kind of iffy which is kinda standard for Machine Head with me at this point. Obviously it got critical acclaim from the mainstream critics once again. They were even pretty accepting of Catharsis compared to the average metalhead, so that figures. I don't think this is one of the best albums of the last few years in general, but after the travesty that was Catharsis, I can at least praise Robb and co. for putting out something I've been enjoying a fair amount.

Adam's rating: 7.8/10

UNATONED          2025          (Nuclear Blast)

- Standouts: 'Atomic Revelations', 'Unbound', 'Addicted to Pain'

A couple of months ago I had zero intention of picking up 2025's Unatoned (again, stylised as UNATØNED, and every time an 'O' pops up in the song titles, they use the 'Ø' instead. I guess this is the norm from now). After my sudden urge to dive back into Machine Head's catalogue though, I ended up buying this thing a few weeks ago. I was kind of expecting a continuation of the last album, Of Kingdom and Crown, but having sat down and listened to it a few times now I can say that's not really the case. For starters, the album's much shorter than, well, anything they've ever put out to date. The whole thing lasts just 41 minutes, and out of 12 songs, only 1 of them lasts more than 5 minutes ('Bleeding Me Dry'). It's incredibly rare for this band to not include at least 1 epic-length number. I'm not really for or against the shorter album length. If the songs are still good then it doesn't matter to me. Of course, I've gotta listen to them first to find out!

Opener 'Atomic Revelations' sounds typical of modern Machine Head to me. It kind of ticks every box musically. It's hooky, it's heavy, it's groovy, it's dramatic. It's good. Not amazing of course, but solid. They follow it up with 'Unbound', which again is mostly heavy and rage-inducing, but also comes with the odd melodic vocal sections. As with the last album, Robb Flynn's maintained that same improved clean singing tone here on Unatoned, which I for one found to be far more listenable than his older approach to that style. Either way, this song's pretty good too. 'These Scars Won't Define Us' brings some thrash tones to the record (albeit highly modernised, polished thrash), and so does 'Addicted to Pain' up to a point. The latter seems to blend the thrashy side of MH with the catchy, melodic half - and it works for the most part. I dig the punky up-beat riffing of 'Shards of Shattered Dreams' and I will say that of the softer tracks here, the closing ballad 'Scorn' is at least a reasonably enjoyable one.

As with nearly every Machine Head album since the dawn of time, not everything here floats my boat. 'Outsider' leaves a bitter taste - It's a bit mainstream metal-sounding to me with it's annoying vocals and 'riffs that aren't really riffs'. The guitars are heavy, yes, but not memorable. A bit like djent-style riffage. 'Not Long for this World' even adds some electronic tones, and I really don't get on with it. It's basically a whiny modern metal ballad I could do without. Not Catharsis-levels of sucking, but it still sucks. 'Bonescraper' might be catchy, but something about it just reeks of lazy songwriting to me. It's a blatant attempt at a pop metal hit, and it's not surprising that it was released as a single. I don't like it, in case you couldn't tell (though it isn't as bad as nu metal MH). The same goes for 'Bleeding Me Dry' - it might be longest track on the album, but it's still a fairly boring, tame radio-friendly metal romp that does almost nothing for me.

Meh. I can't see myself listening to Unatoned much more this year, and it doesn't feel like a grower either. It has some good songs, some bad and some that manage to be both. but the worst thing about it is simply how unambitious it feels. The bulk of it feels like a bunch of modern metal singles all thrown together with no real thought behind how they sequence together. Even though I find albums like Through the Ashes of Empires and The Blackening to be overrated, there's no way in hell I'd ever call them unambitious or lazy. But many of Unatoned's songs feel underwhelming and even the actual instrumentation is a substantial downgrade from 2022's surprisingly strong Of Kingdom and Crown. To me it feels as if Robb was trying to appeal to the mainstream metal market (if you can really call all these bands 'metal') - you know, the Ghost's, Sleep Token's, Avenged Sevenfold's etc., whilst simultaneously trying to add elements of the Machine Head we got with albums like Bloodstone & Diamonds and Of Kingdom and Crown. Unfortunately it just doesn't sound that good at times. To me anyway.

On the plus side, I'll still take this over albums like Supercharger and Catharsis any day of the week. Even though Robb was clearly trying to make this album more accessible than the last (which it is), the songs aren't embarrassing even if I don't particularly like a lot of them. And as always, everything here is well-produced once again. So maybe if you go into this CD expecting modern radio-metal, you might enjoy it more than I did?

Adam's rating: 5/10

Closing thoughts on this discography:

This has got to be one of the spottiest catalogues I've ever heard from any band. Albums like The Blackening and Bloodstone & Diamonds may be overrated in my opinion, but I can sort of understand why some people regard them so highly. But it's crazy to me that a band can release an album like B&D and then follow it up with the absolute catastrophe that is Catharsis! As terrible as The Burning Red and Supercharger are, at least they were released during peak nu metal popularity. That makes sense. However, even 2025's Unatoned manage to surprise me in all the wrong ways. It's mad how Robb Flynn goes from a fairly deep record like Of Kingdom of Crown to what is essentially a mainstream radio metal platter! Machine Head will always be guilty of jumping on the bandwagon I guess. At least we'll always have Burn My Eyes.