MACHINE HEAD — The Blackening (review)

MACHINE HEAD — The Blackening album cover Album · 2007 · Groove Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Kingcrimsonprog
This is a phenomenal release from the Bay Area metal band Machine Head; adding thrashier riffs back into their sound and delivering excellent dual guitar harmonies, improved production and better vocal performances than their last few albums.

You may also have heard that this album is the heaviest thing they’ve done since ‘The More Things Change,’ and you heard correctly, this is as heavy as is reasonable, but is far catchier, more intelligent and more progressive than ‘Burn My Eyes,’ or its excellent follow up.

The band admit to listening to a lot of Rush when writing the album and consequently the album features longer songs, virtuosic solos and melodic sensibilities. They seem to have developed their ‘emotional’ style from their previous album Trough The Ashes Of Empires further and improved upon it tenfold, keeping the clean vocals, acoustic passages and melodic guitar solos within the overall sound, but adding them on top of a much heavier and more thrash influenced album. The result is a mixture between crushing heaviness and moody atmosphere; with a mix of tempos, styles and interesting song structures.

Highlights include the catchy ‘Slanderous,’ the heavy ‘Wolves,’ and the ferocious ‘Beautiful Mourning.’

At the time of its release I remember saying that it was either ‘Through the Ashes…’ with more attitude or ‘Burn My Eyes,’ with more brains but whatever it sounded like, it’s simply astounding. Interestingly, this album has since went on to become a classic album in its own right, held in extremely high regard and achieved an almost mythic status among many younger fans. The Blackening has seemingly become the Machine Head to beat, knocking their debut album off of its long held position as fan’s most loved Machine Head album.

To summarize, this very is a good record, with absolutely great performances and great production. If you have any interest in Machine Head whatsoever, you really owe it to yourself to give The Blackening a listen. I doubt you will be disappointed.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Deviance Deathcore
ASHES INTO BLOOD
Buy this album from MMA partners
Equilibrium Atmospheric Sludge Metal
BESRA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tension Between Rot And Genesis Sludge Metal
ANTHESIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Recycle Brain Crust Punk
C.P.G
Buy this album from MMA partners
Cartography Of The Mind Deathcore
TETHERED
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us