Machine Head

By Francisco Monteiro on Sep 27, 2011 in Cd Review | 0 comments

Album: Unto the Locust
Label: Roadrunner
Tracks: 7
Release Date: September 23rd, 2011
Lenght: 48′ 58″

Riff Score: 7.0/10

Post-Thrash / Groove Metal veterans Machine Head return with “Unto the Locust” after four years. They stayed true to their roots delivering seven new cuts with their ever characteristic, highly energetic sound, but is this the logical successor to their previous album, the critically acclaimed “The Blackening”?

When talking about the path that Machine Head has trailed through the last years, it’s easy to tell a story of a bright and determined start that held the promise of a great future, followed by a period of identity crisis, with debatable choices, and a final stage of redemption, on which the main characters of this story set their feet firmly on the ground and established themselves as a force to be reckoned…This path resembles a three act play, with the bright beginning (“Burn My Eyes”), the dreadful middle (“Supercharger”) and the epic conclusion so far (“The Blackening”) taking place…

And four years after “The Blackening”, a brilliant album on which the band toughened and technically improved the sound of their re-invention on “Through the Ashes of Empires”, they return now with “Unto the Locust”, following the same artistic path they’ve been on for nearly 8 years now. Although “Unto the Locust” represents a very solid and consistent effort by Machine Head, truth is, the path that was once trailed at a furious pace and an energetic drive which resembled a non-stopping train firing at all cylinders, is now being trailed on “auto-pilot” at a moderate speed on this new album…

Evaluating the overall feel, I could certainly say that “Unto the Locust” can be defined as a mixed bag of styles from different Machine Head eras, blending the dark tones and heavy grooves of “The More Things Change” with the technical prowess and riff attack of “The Blackening” and “Ashes”, occasionally punctuated by some passages that make us remind of that not so good, and thankfully, long gone “Supercharger” era… But I guess you could say “Well, that’s what defines Machine Head’s sound”, and that would be true, but that’s probably also the main issue with this album…Machine Head had a huge task to follow up “The Blackening”, and when we were expecting for a culmination of the last two albums in the form of a masterpiece, we only got the same old Machine Head we are used to hear. A progression and a new stage were expected, but, no complaints about the overall quality of this record, which, although being just a fusion of different styles of the ‘Head, it still has it’s moments.

The band sounds tight and technically proficient, so no complaints there. Robb Flynn still delivers his anger-tinged screams and vocal nuances faithfully to his identifiable style and the “Vio-Lence” guitar duo of Phil Demmel and Flynn presents itself playing razor sharp riffs, emphasizing interconnected melodies and furthering even more the use of “Maiden-esque” double leads throughout the whole record. In the rhythm section department, Adam Duce’s bass sticks competently to the guitar, but probably the main star in this record is drummer Dave McClain, who once again shows us his out-of-the-ordinary drumming skills, presenting an assorted selection of different rhythms and a powerful resonating presence while executing his double bass patterns…

Now into the music…The album kicks off with “I Am Hell”, a song with three well defined stages, beginning with a choir of various Flynn’s voice takes, building a marching anticipation before blasting into full thrash riffing mode. The song ends with a dueling of fast picking guitars that wouldn’t be all out of place on a melodic death metal record. This song is one of the high points of the album, as it kicks off powerfully, reminding us of the aggression of “Aesthetics of Hate” from their previous album.

Of the next two songs, both of them have singles potential. “Be Still and Know” shows a display of groove laden riffs, a big chorus and overall a pretty regular structure with a fairly thrashy feel in the solo section. “Locust” the first single from the album, is built upon an imposing clean guitar riff, before breaking into some “Pantera” styled groovy riffs and typical melodic progressions, punctuated by the occasional guitar harmonic, very inherent to the guitar sound of Machine Head. The heavily palm muted bridge section followed by a vocal interlude with double lead guitar harmonies are noteworthy, but overall, while enjoyable, both of these songs end up being only above average efforts for Machine Head’s standards…

The following two songs “This is the End” and “Darkness Within” have certain sections that could have easily been on other albums, whereas the first one sounds like a leftover from “The Blackening” sessions, the second one wouldn’t be that off on the “Supercharger” album. While “This is the End” has some fast picking riffs and galloping thrashy parts, even with it’s “circular” structure, it manages to be more interesting than “Darkness Within” which has to be the low point of the album, a song where the background passages for it’s vocal melodies are the main drive of the song, reminding us of some avoidable “Supercharger” moments…Machine Head is capable of better than this, we know it…

As the album draws to a close, the songs start to pick on the fury left behind in the first cut. “Pearls Before the Swine” has some of McClain’s best drumming passages recorded to this day, being this the track where we hear the most angered screams of Robb Flynn on the album. A few time changes here and there and the powerful groove created between the drums and the guitars make it on of the best cuts in the album, but the other high point of this album, and probably its best song, it’s the finishing track “Who We Are”. A really great, speed metal like, double bass ripping moment, with lots of breaks, sharp cutting riffs, two different great solo moments, and a vocal duet between Flynn and Duce, working to the fullest extent. If all the songs were in the vein of “Who we Are”, we would have a total winner of an album on our hands…

Overall, “Unto the Locust” fluctuates between a presentation of thrash rhythms intercalated with some groove filled moments and some occasional snippets of technical excellence, but it’s really nothing we haven’t heard before from this band and probably done in a more relevant way.

It’s a good and solid straightforward metal album, but somehow, it lacks that extra something to make it really special. Machine Head die-hard fans will probably love it, since the band remained true to their sound, but hope remains that in their next effort, Flynn & Co. will be able to deliver something more than what we already heard before…Machine Head have the talent to do it, and “Unto the Locust” will probably be one more fairly enjoyable and listenable stepping stone towards their masterpiece…Only time will tell…

Review by: Luis Alves

By: Francisco Monteiro