MACHINE HEAD — The Blackening (review)

MACHINE HEAD — The Blackening album cover Album · 2007 · Groove Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Warthur
Machine Head's The Blackening serves up competent, listenable thrash metal, no more and no less. Fans of the subgenre will doubtless enjoy themselves, though I do have to wonder how many will find themselves playing these compositions on repeat; to me, it feels as though there's a hollowness to the material here, a little too much flash and not quite enough substance. (Part of this may be the way the band take an approach of never doing anything by halves on the album - whether it's a riff, a lyric, a drum beat or whatever, it's turned up to 11 and screamed out - but somehow, the end result doesn't feel quite as forceful as an approach with just a little more subtlety to it might have). Still, full props to them for standing up for Dimebag on Aesthetics of Hate.
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
The next album is a bit more dynamic :-). personally I´ve been really hooked to Machine Head after they returned to a more "straight" thrash metal style on "The Blackening". It´s almost needless to say but I don´t really enjoy their alternative period.

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