Kev Rowland One of the (dis)advantages of being around the scene for way too many years, is that my brain tends to fill up with musical garbage, and I can recall a debate taking place in the Kerrang offices over whether the latest Ted Nugent album was any good, and agreement being reached that if it did not have his name on the cover they would have probably rated it much higher. I was thinking that as I listened to the first song on this album, “Slaughter The Martyr”, as it is a stunning track showing that Robb Flynn is still full of new ideas all these years down the road, but I wonder what the critics will say? I was fortunate enough to see these guys play when they came to New Zealand to support Slipknot on the ‘All Hope Is Gone’ tour and was incredibly pleased as they had been on my bucket list for years. They were as brilliant as I expected them to be, but since then there have been quite a few changes, and while bassist Jared MacEachern has been there since 2013, both Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka (guitar) and Matt Alston (drums) have joined since the last album. Given the importance of both Phil Demmel and Dave McLain to their sound over the previous decades that is quite some hole to fill, so what to do?

In many ways Robb Flynn has looked back inside himself and poured everything into a rethink of the band so while we still have the rough core sound, Jared’s high clear vocals are being used in a way not dissimilar to the role ICS Vortex used to play in Dimmu Borgir, and they have allowed themselves to move away from the core into more commercial areas yet always with that strong link with the past. Given they were probably always going to get some critical backlash since the departure of key personnel, they went the whole hog and have released a concept album which is set in a futuristic wasteland where the sky is always crimson red. It tells the tale of two characters, both faced with incalculable trauma, whose stories become bloodily entwined as the story progresses.

I confess, the first time I played this my thoughts were “this is a great album, but it’s not Machine Head”, but the more I played this the more I thoroughly enjoyed it and instead I started thinking “isn’t it great that the band have expanded and don’t want to just play ‘Burn My Eyes’ for the rest of their career”. This album may not be quite what many people will expect when they see the name on the cover, but while this is certainly their most diverse album to date, it is also their best since ‘The Blackening’ and is well worth discovering.

Kingcrimsonprog For me, Machine Head are one of the most important and definitive bands in Metal as a whole, and while their popularity and respect have waxed and waned over the years, and while band members have come and gone, they always release top quality live material, and have at least some utterly killer songs on even the most critically and fan lambasted studio records.

The last few years have been another dip for the band, who were beloved in the early-mid nineties, gained some more recognition but lost a lot of respect in the late nineties, had an almost-breakup-causing critical and commercial flop at the start of the noughties, later to rise phoenix-like to become many people’s favourite band for over half a decade, around the time guitarist Phil Demmel (Vio-Lence) started working with the band. Eventually iconic bassist Adam Deuce exited the band. Then they released the critically and comments-section savaged Catharsis album from 2018 and their popularity took an absolutely massive hito the point where the band became a joke in the eyes of many, and unique drummer Dave McClain (Sacred Reich) who’d been on every single Machine Head release except for the debut sadly left the band, with Phil Demmel who’d become one of the most fan-beloved members also exiting in tow... leaving the band seemingly a smoking ruin.

The intervening years have seen sporadic one-off singles, short EPs and pre-pandemic a reunion of the line-up of their debut album playing that classic record live in full, (plus a new drummer and guitarist playing the other songs for the rest of the concerts... two different band line ups at the same show... all very...untidy), and session players on some of the recordings, making them lose that unified band unit feel. In short, its been a mixed bag.

Now the thing is, realistically, Catharsis is nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be, sure it’s a bit overlong, sure there are some questionable stylistic shifts for a few songs (and a few parts of other songs). Agreed; the lyrical direction was ill-advised and turned a lot of people off… but for the most part, the main basis of the album at the end of the day was exactly the same stuff that people loved about albums like ‘Ashes and The Blackening, it wasn't that big a deal frankly. People were also complaining about the use of slur in a song (but this was a song actively decrying prejudice and preaching unity, and making a deliberate point against the use of slurs by the way) yet seemed happy to ignore the fact that “Slanderous” on everyone’s-favourite (or at least second-favourite if you prefer the debut) album The Blackening did the exact same thing and no one ever talks about it.

There were also a load of negative Americans with different political views than lyricist Robb Flynn getting upset about Robb writing about politics, despite the band making their name on the album Burn My Eyes which is absolutely dripping with politics and current events... and no one gave them grief about that album's political lyrics.

In short, everyone took leave of their senses, blew everything completely out of proportion, and the band took a devastating hit that would have killed most bands, over some absolute mountains-out-of-molehills nonsense that in a sane and rationale world would just be seen as just a minor blip in an otherwise superb run of albums.

The internet trolls, the clickbait writing websites and the crowd-following print journalists who seemed afraid to defy the mob and stick to rational and measured criticism (eg. “It’s a bit flabby, and there are some problems, I dislike the lyrics, but mostly, its pretty much the same as the last four albums really,” rather than “OMG this is the worst crime against my ears since nails met chalkboards y’allz. Stop talking about politics and literally commit suicide, Robb Flynn!”) had spoken. I even saw hatchet job negative reviews of the live shows, even though I know from personal experience they were brilliant live on that tour.

So, here we are four long and gruelling years later, and Machine Head have released their next full-length studio album, and have a chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of the public, right the ship, and navigate themselves back into their position of one of the most beloved bands in the genre (well, in the UK and Europe at least, I know the US has always been a bit less doe-eyed about them than us Brits have been).

Of Kingdom And Crown (I’m not typing out all the caps or “Ø”s) is the band’s tenth proper album, first concept album, and first with Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka (Decapitated) on guitar.

Lyrically, it is a large course-correct for the band, who got savaged for talking about politics and using hip hop style delivery last time, instead now focusing on a Red Sky nightmare world and the intertwining story of two tragic characters Ares and Eros with a much more Locust/Blackening vocal delivery on most of the songs.

Musically, its also a course-correct, in so much as all the bits from the last album that people criticised are gone, (which as I keep saying, was only a small part of the album anyway, blown way, way out of proportion), which leaves it pretty much sounding exactly what you would expect from any Machine Head album released after The Blackening.

There are big crunchy grooves, fun pinch harmonics, intermittent speedy Thrash sections, furious guitar solos, a mix of growls, screams and shouts in the vocal department, some ballady parts but in songs that transform later into either groovers or thrashers later on.

There is a fair bit of clean singing, but nothing more than was on 'Ashes or Locust anyway, not excessively so. Even the cleanest, most commercial song “My Hands Are Empty” which came out near the start of the pandemic as a standalone single, does have some big dirty stinkface riffs in it to balance out that “woah-oh-wah-oh-a-oh-a-oh-oh” chant (which as a random side note, Five Finger Death Punch have totally stolen on their new album - listen to their song "Judgement Day" - pretty suspiciously close vocal melody, right?).

Some of the standalone singles released prior to this record but after the band imploded were good ("Do Or Die"), but some of them were weak, (Circle The Drain") and lacked a certain magic. I was worried that without Phil and Dave, that maybe Machine Head would be forever lessened and wouldn’t ever fully recover, even if they got close.

Some of the tracks from this album (actually, about six) were released in advance, which reassured me somewhat, as tracks like “Rotten” appeared to be mixing the best parts of Catharsis, (deleting the controversial parts) with a kind of Burn Me Eyes / The More Things Change vibe, and tracks like “Choke On The Ashes Of Your Hate” seemed to be going for that pedal to the metal speed and aggression that made The Blackening so enjoyable.

Sometimes hearing too many songs in advance can harm an album (I still don’t like Megadeth’s Thirteen as much as I should for this reason, it only feels like a half a new album to me) but in the case of this album, I think it was nice to get used to parts of the album in advance to cleanse the palate and clear the air. When hearing the record as a whole, with each song in context and in the correct order… it takes shape as a proper full album.

Without hearing those tracks repeatedly and letting them sink in over weeks (or in some cases months, or in one case years) I would have just been sat here nervously wondering: Will it end up as a soulless carbon copy of old glories to please an ungrateful fanbase? Will it end up a misjudged technical death metal album due to Vogg’s inclusion? Will it be a repeat of all the mistakes of the over-discussed Catharsis now that Rob lacks Dave and Phil to talk him out of bad decisions?

In reality, none of those things were true. Its just a good Machine Head album. Its not just better than Catharsis, its upper half of their whole discography. It would be unrealistic to expect it to be the best album of their whole career or anything… but its not going to be one of those forgotten pity-comeback albums either, thr ones that people say they like for a year or two, then talk trash about once the next album is better.

There are some intro/interlude tracks to help with the story, that I have seen some people criticise, but you can just skip them, like we all do on River Runs Red or World Coming Down, without it ruining the whole record.

If you are an unpleasable internet troll who only likes Burn My Eyes or The Blackening and nothing else, then this album won’t win you back into the fold. If however, you are the sort of person who finds Through The Ashes Of Empires or The Locust among their favourite albums, then this record should be very satisfying for you. The album is consistent, flows well, has some diversity so it doesn’t get boring but sticks to what the band are good at, it gives the fans what they want without being pandering about it. It is in short, an exercise in Robb Flynn doing what he is good at, with a capable backing band that stop it feeling too differently than the glory years. The concept, while not all that inspired, very handily keeps Rob away from his worst lyrical tendencies too. Always a bonus.

I really do hope as a community, we can now just sweep all the negativity of the past four years under the carpet as the minor blip it should have always been, and get back to loving Machine Head unashamedly without having to listen to a load of negativity about it. I look forward to reviewing their next album, when hopefully the review can just start with what the album sounds like and how good it is or not again. I've already got tickets to see the band live and I really hope they play a lot of material off this record live, it will fit in really well with the 2003-2014 material.

SilentScream213 Burn My Eyes is a great example of Groove Metal done right. The riffs here are awesome, still with a Thrash edge and not too one-note. The rhythm section is full of energy and while there are plenty of midtempo sections, they’re usually filled with interesting drumming, or change up the patterns quickly enough that it doesn’t get too repetitive. Of course, the best parts are when they dial the energy all the way up and those Thrash influences shine through.

There’s a fair bit of other influence touched upon here as well, including Metalcore, Alt Metal, and even some Nu Metal. I don’t think any of that was intentional, but Machine Head managed to create a debut that sounded entirely unique at the time. Probably the best part is that it still holds up today without issue, having a much more timeless modernity to it than a lot of early Groove Metal. If I didn’t know this was 1994, I would never have been able to date this.

Kingcrimsonprog Civil Unrest is the new single from veteran Bay Area Metal band Machine Head. It is the third non-album single made since the controversial Catharsis album and their very public split with long term band members Phil Demmel and Dave McClain.

Some comments sections on the internet are absolutely lighting up at the moment with people shocked and appalled that Machine Head have suddenly made a political song about race relations due to current events in the news. The thing is though; Machine Head writing about racism is nothing new. Machine Head writing about politics is nothing new. Machine Head writing about current events is nothing new either.

Their last album featured the track ‘Bastards’ about the current political climate in the US, prior to that the non-album single ‘Is There Anyone Out There?’ was about feeling disbelief about and disconnected from racist musicians in the news at the time. Even on their classic The Blackening album there’s a track called ‘Slanderous’ full of anti-racism lyrics. Before that, their fan favourite song ‘Imperium’ opens with the line ‘fuck your prejudice.’ Oh yeah, and all the way back to their 1994 debut album Burn My Eyes they’ve been talking about racism and current events, like Rodney King and the L.A. Riots. Heck, on the track ‘Old,’ which is basically the title track of that album, the first thee words are ‘‘1994. Corruption. Racism.’’ That’s the current, political and racism boxes all ticked in the first 30 seconds.

In short, you really shouldn’t be surprised about it!

Now that the educational portion of the review is over, we can discuss the actual music. The first track, ‘Stop The Bleeding’ features guest vocals from Killswitch Engage’s Jesse Leach. I figure Rob must have decided to do this because the guitar itself is very Killswitch sounding. The first 30 seconds of the track could almost be Killswitch if you didn’t know any better. It’s a nice, catchy up-tempo riff, with a sort of loud/quiet dynamic. Towards the end though, it sounds classically Machine Head, slow riffs, harmonics, groove that could fit on the first two albums if the tone weren’t so bright. In the way Zakk Wylde has a signature sound, so does Rob Flynn. New drummer Matt Alston also does his best job of attempting to stay true to the established Machine Head style. Definitely not a throwaway song.

The next track on here is ‘Bullet Proof’ which is a lot heavier, dirtier and nastier. Its got a similar stock market/wall street lyrical theme as ‘In Comes The Flood’ from Bloodstone & Diamonds and musically it mixes the heavier moments from Through The Ashes Of Empires (think the ”On Your Grave I Will Stand” section of ‘In The Presence Of My Enemies’), with the clean-but-not-clean moments in the style of The More Things Change, topped off with the nice guitar solo trade-offs in the style of all the albums since and including The Blackening. Its basically a career retrospective in one song. For my money, this is probably the best individual song the band have put out since Bloodstone & Diamonds.

Overall, Civil Unrest is just two short and angry songs released spontaneously in a strange year, but if it is any indication of the future, I think maybe Machine Head should be album to find their feet again after their midlife crisis of the past few years.

Kingcrimsonprog To say this album is controversial is an understatement. To understand it, you really have to look at the psychology and recent history of the band and it’s frontman, Rob Flynn. When Machine Head first arrived on the scene in the early ’90s with their almost universally loved debut album and its follow up they were the hot new thing. By taking Thrash Metal, slowing it down, adding in lots of groove and Hardcore they ended up creating something unique that genre pedants still can’t agree on (Groove Metal or Post Thrash or just a weird version of Thrash, the arguments are endless). After that, when Nu Metal was popular and still new and exciting, the band who had always been talking about Hip Hop and Rap since their early days introduced Rap and Hip Hop elements into their music and changed the production and guitar styles, in so doing they made something altogether different that garnered both huge success and then huge backlash for their next two albums. After the backlash and all the constant criticism, the band almost broke up and their popularity plummeted drastically, but instead of throwing in the towel, they changed paths again and then released what can only be described as four of the best albums in the entire history of Heavy Metal… their stellar run from their return-to-glory Through The Ashes Of Empires to Bloodstone And Diamonds are four straight up faultless masterpieces, crowned by their beyond-popular The Blackening which is hailed as a classic by more people than there is time to list.

For the two albums after The Blackening though, even though they were incredible, it did not get the band the Festival Headliner status they justly deserved. Furthermore, after touring the material from those four albums, most of which is so lengthy and diverse that it absolutely ate up all the time they would get on festival slots thereby letting them only really play 4 or 5 songs… the band decided to start doing ‘An Evening With Machine Head’ shows where they could play multiple hour sets (often without a support act, although I’ve seen them twice, once with support bands and once without).

When doing those ‘evening-with’ shows and now having room to play more than just 4 or 5 of the newer era songs, they were able to drop in material from all over their career. Even tracks from the Nu Metal period that many people claimed to hate, but which the band are now getting nostalgic for and people seemed to be loving live.

So here we are in 2018; after four albums of absolute perfection, melding progressive flair, blistering thrash, flashy technicality, beautiful dual guitar melodies, and diverse mixtures of fast, slow, sludgy and groovy… the band needed to try something else to make a play for their absolutely-earned but frustratingly elusive festival headliner status. Full of nostalgia for the Nu Metal era and feeling no reason to be tied to a formula that isn’t giving them the success they deserve, Machine Head entered the studio and came out with Catharsis. The name has been explained as describing the writing process. Instead of having to hide away new ideas like incorporating poppy keyboard sounds that Rob is listening to on the radio, or delving back into the in their eyes unfairly overlooked Nu Metal stuff was cathartic for the band. Even though it is superb, they don’t want to just repeat The Blackening fifty times. It wouldn’t be fun as musicians. So back come the bouncy riffs and street-level lyrics, and newly incoming are the Jordan Fish sounding keyboard sections. That gets mixed in with the successful formula from the previous four albums, and the resultant mixture is what we have here on Catharsis.

Now; there’s two things that can make a certain time of metal fan do a spit-take. One of them is a Heavy band going Nu Metal. Another is anything that sounds like Bring Me The Horizon. So naturally; there has been a hell of a lot of negative reaction to this album. Not helping that is the world being so much more right wing now, people are complaining constantly about the socially conscious lyrics of this as if its a new thing. As if they weren’t singing about this all the way back on Burn My Eyes. As if the universally praised The Blackening didn’t have ‘Slanderous’ on it. As if Metal fans haven’t been praising bands like Anthrax and Nuclear Assault for being socially aware all the way back in the ’80s. As if music fans haven’t been praising bands like Dead Kennedys and Rage Against The Machine and the hundreds of other bands (I mean, there are so many more left wing or liberal rock and metal bands than its even worth counting, why is this even a topic of discussion?). I mean, its not as if Rob Flynn has ever guest starred on an Earth Crisis album or something is it? Oh wait…

Ok. So that’s the broad strokes out of the way. On to the specifics. It is almost an album of two halves (its almost two albums its that long, over 70 minutes… how does that compare to Unto The Locust getting pettily criticized for being too short?). The first half shows off the more experimental stuff. Songs like ‘Kaleidoscope,’ ‘California Bleeding,’ ‘Triple Beam’ and the album’s centerpiece ‘Bastards’ is where the real diversity and controversy lies. If you haven’t heard it or about it yet, ‘Bastards’ has been described as a folk song; four chords that have been around hundreds of years etc, and it climaxes with a shuffly drum beat that could be Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphies. It is a very surprising move from the band and sounds like nothing they’ve done before. ‘California Bleeding’ has that same style of lyrics that the much criticized ‘American High’ off of Supercharger had. ‘Kaleidoscope’ and the Title Track have touches of keyboards that have that Jordan Fish BMTH sound. There is a slight Slipknot influence on opener ‘Volatile.’ ‘Triple Beam’ despite having an absolutely brutal sledgehammer riff in it, is much-hated by people for being a very clear Nu Metal nostalgia moment. I think bands like Cain Hill and King 810 coming out, and bands like Coal Chamber reuniting, as well as fans at ‘Evening-With‘ shows enjoying the Burning Red material so much can explain this. This type of music was important to the band at one point and it must feel fun to write like this again and not have to feel ashamed of it. (Well, until now when the inevitable backlash came).

The rest of the album however is a bit more traditional. Its nothing you’ve heard before but if you really think about it, it is within expected limits of Machine Head. I mean, this whole album’s titular catharsis was them rejecting and pushing against those limits and that’s why the first half is the way it is. So of course, sure there is a bit of diversity in the second half too, with ‘Hope Begets Hope’ having a slight System Of A Down influence in the quiet guitar parts, and the odd melodic pre-chorus on the Motorhead tribute ‘Razorblade Sigh’ are a new addition but its all within the limits of a between-albums jump in their last four albums run. They were never four exactly identical albums and there was a reasonable jump between each, but the second half here is very much suitable for anyone who has loved the band’s renasiance period. Don’t let people who don’t like all the change in the first half let you miss out on the quality stuff at the end. There are riffs as crushing as anything on ‘Locust or ‘Diamonds, there are guitar solos as good as the stuff on The Blackening and there are vocals as good as anything on ‘Empires. I mean ‘Heavy Lies The Crown’ opens up with violins, but so did ‘Now We Die.’

Even though the heavier moments are what we all come to Machine Head for, one of the highlights is ‘Behind A Mask;’ a semi-ballad that sounds like a superb mixture of ‘Darkness Within’ and ‘Descend The Shades Of Night’ but with an almost Bon Iver backing vocal, some tasteful electronic snare sounds, and absolutely and a stunningly simple but beautiful guitar solo.

Now; I don’t think this album is anywhere near as deserving of criticism as it is getting. (Really?! Your review was so impartial thus far, how shocking!). That being said, I do have some personal-preference issues. I for one am not a fan of the lyrics. Not the political stuff, I actually like that. Its the poor-taste vulgar stuff that feels out of place. I don’t want to hear ‘sucking dick’ or ‘getting head’ or ‘eating pussy’ or ‘a boner for miles’ from the same band who wrote the excellent lyrics to ‘Locust’ and ‘Clenching The Fist Of Descent’ …that is not to my personal taste. I also am not a fan of the weird effects on the drums at times. Sometimes, the music will cut out and Dave will be about to drop a really powerful drum fill but the production job will put an effect on it and make it sound strange and toy-like and detract from the impact. I also don’t like the decision to use less rhythm guitar and do the dual leads over only bass. It sounds a bit empty compared to previous albums some how. Lacking a certain power. Not album ruining but a little niggle worth pointing out.

Is it going to topple Unto The Locust as my own personal favourite Machine Head album? No. Is it going to topple The Blackening or Burn My Eyes as the band’s most known and loved classic album in the public opinion? No. That being said; It is the travesty people have been hyperbole-gushing about? Hell no. Is it a return to Nu Metal? Not really no, there are tiny amounts only. Is it a betrayal? No, don’t overdo it now guys. Is it even a bad album? No.

There are a few aspects that aren’t to my taste, there are a few aspects that will have more militant bullet belt wearing fans crying foul. The majority of the album however is still the same thing Machine Head always do: Unique drums. Heavy riffing. Interesting solos. Rob Flynn’s voice. There is an absolute load of good moments on the album, and the lesser moments have been greatly blown out of proportion.

PS. Another really great reason to check this album out? The bonus disc! If you get the right version you get a full length ‘An Evening With’ show live in San Francisco in 2015. It has 21 entire songs performed superbly and well captured. It has all the MH livery and banners and the good light show. The band are firing on all cylinders. The crowd seem pretty into it. The camera work and editing aren’t annoying or distracting like some concert DVDs. Heck; The DVD is good enough to be a full price release on its own merit. I highly recommend you check it out. Even if you’ve heard ‘Kaleidoscope’ or ‘Bastards’ or something and are skeptical about the new album, how can you argue with live renditions of tracks like ‘Game Over,’ ‘Aesthetics Of Hate,’ ‘Imperium’ and the like?

Kingcrimsonprog Elegies was the first live DVD from Machine Head; recorded, just like their Hellalive album at the Brixton Academy in London, three years later in 2004 and released in 2005.

Like with Hellalive, the band play a mixture of material from all of their studio albums up until that point to an excited british crowd, but this time the band were riding high on the critical success of Through The Ashes Of Empires. Their performance is very strong indeed, with new guitarist Phil Demmel giving the band an additional edge. The dual guitar sections from Through The Ashes Of Empires sound amazing on this DVD, they really take on a life of their own in the live environment.

The tracklisting is excellent, presenting the very best of Machine Head, new songs like ‘Imperium,’ and ‘Seasons Wither,’ sound fantastic alongside the all time classics like ‘Ten Ton Hammer,’ and ‘Davidian.’

The band aren’t afraid to drop some of the more emotional, sophisticated music like ‘Descend The Shades Of Night,’ and the title track from ‘The Burning Red,’ confidently bringing the evening to a chilling standstill, before returning to the blistering metal that made them famous.

Visually and in terms of audio, the DVD is pretty great. I personally would’ve preferred if the film grain filters hadn’t been used so often and that the concert was shown in a straight beginning to end session, without the non-live footage in between songs, but ignoring that, the look and sound is great and when you add that to the incendiary performance you have a really great concert recording overall.

The extras feature a short but interesting history on the making of Through The Ashes Of Empires in addition to some music videos.

To summarize, the Elegies DVD is a must have release that no Machine Head fan should be without.