You can always tell a Machine Head
track from a number of motifs – namely lots of harmonic notes, lots of beastly
grooves and lots of blood-pumping sing-growling courtesy of Rob Flynn. Over
time, the Oakland metalheads have also brought in a number of new stylistic
features. The Blackening saw them garnering more
progressiveness and old-skool thrashiness, whilst The Locust introduced orchestral strings and
more symphonic tracks.
Entering
this album, I was a little anxious Machine Head’s sound might have started to
stagnate by this point. The two singles that dropped beforehand, ‘Now We Die’
and ‘Night of the Long Knives’ although undoubtedly Machine Head, brought
nothing new or that exciting to the table – except maybe some surprise blast
beats on the latter track.
Fortunately,
as it turns out after listening to the record, these singles are some of the
least interesting numbers on the album. The rest are fairly creative and show
some clear improvements to the band’s sound, the first being Rob Flynn’s singing.
‘Beneath the Silt’ features some dynamic clean vocals that I’d usually expect
only off a Deftones track. Other moments include the long percussion-free
segments of ‘Sail into the Black’ and ‘Damage Inside’ in which gothic vocal
harmonies are also employed creating a truly ghostly quality. There's a real
focus on atmosphere on these tracks that has never been the case
in previous Machine Head releases. The softer parts are more ambient than ever.
And
the heavier parts are heavier. Contrasting the eerie ballads, are
tracks such as 'Ghosts will Haunt my Bones' which introduce some new
sludgy, low-tuned riffage. ‘Game Over’, meanwhile, takes the speed and
hostility up beyond 'Aesthetics of Hate' to a level of intensity that rivals
some grindcore bands. All I can say is the group better be careful playing this
live – people in the pit might die.
A
personal gripe I have with the album is the lengthiness of some tracks here.
‘Game Over’ could have been left as a snappy two minute frenzy and had more of
an effect. Similarly, ‘Sail into the Black’ could have been cut a couple
minutes short and gets a bit repetitive towards the end.
The
choruses on this record also sound a bit samey and the lyrics aren’t
always inspiring. Revolutionary clichés such as ‘wake up America’ do nothing
for me (In fact, it just sounds like to two Greenday hooks got mashed up).
★★★★☆
TRACK TASTER: