Daniel MorrowReview: Machine Head - The Blackening
June 12th 2008 09:20
Hello again everyone,
Now I know that this album came out last year, but I figured I'd review it anyway since it is one of the best Metal albums I've heard in a long time.
Now, cliche title aside, The Blackening is definitely Machine Head's greatest album to date. Personally, I have never really been a big fan of Machine Head. Until The Blackening, I only had a few songs in my collection, and they didn't get played very often. A friend told me how good The Blackening was, and I saw it on sale, so I decided to give it a go. I realized just how right my friend was.
Now, in my view, I believe this album is the best example of what Heavy Metal is in the 00's. Just as Metallica's "Master of Puppets" did in the 80's, this is an album that grabs hold of the listener from the moment the clean acoustic guitars give way to grinding distortion, and doesn't let up until the feedback fades to nothing at the end of the final song. Now I must apologize in advance for how much I am going to compare it to MoP, but as you will see, there are many comparisons.
The Blackening's first track "Clenching the Fists of Dissent" opens with a low pad and reverberating middle-eastern sounding shout. Then come in the clean steel-string acoustic guitars (Battery anyone?) and there is a slow build as more layers come in, building ever so slightly. When it finally gives way to the break-neck main riff of the song, I found myself instantly reaching for the volume knob to crank it up.
Something else that surprised me was how Mr Flynn's vocals have improved. In everything I had heard of Machine Head up until The Blackening, his vocals had been fairly monotonous, and often not really in any kind of "key" as such. On The Blackening he has much more emotion, and pitch, in his vocals, as me manages to produce growls with a note behind them now, rather than just growls, and he even layers real singing and harmonies in a few of the tracks.
The dueling guitar solos are expertly executed and definitely set a standard for the art from now on.
Now, as I mentioned before, I find this album has many similarities to MoP. It opens with acoustic guitars leading into a very fast track, has a number of tracks that are over 8 minutes in length, contains some very abrupt and sudden tempo changes, is 8 tracks long, and shows that the band has reached a whole new level of musicality and confidence.
Since getting this album, I have told several people how good it was, and even though they, like myself, had never really been fans of Machine Head, those that bought the album agreed with me whole-heartedly.
In 20 years time, I believe that this album will be to the next generation of Metal fans what "Master of Puppets" was for people like myself. A master-class in Heavy Metal that will stand as one of the few albums each decade that manages to capture the hearts and ears of close to an entire generation of Metalheads. If you don't have this album yet, as a certain Aussie music icon would say, "Do yourself a favor" and get it A.S.A.P.
There really is so much more I could say about the album and what makes it so good, but this post would become a novel, and you'd get bored. Plus, I'd rather you discover most of the album for yourself.
But come on... "The BLACKENING"? Now that DOES sound like it belongs in the 80's. lol
As always, comments welcome.
Dan
Now I know that this album came out last year, but I figured I'd review it anyway since it is one of the best Metal albums I've heard in a long time.
Now, cliche title aside, The Blackening is definitely Machine Head's greatest album to date. Personally, I have never really been a big fan of Machine Head. Until The Blackening, I only had a few songs in my collection, and they didn't get played very often. A friend told me how good The Blackening was, and I saw it on sale, so I decided to give it a go. I realized just how right my friend was.
Now, in my view, I believe this album is the best example of what Heavy Metal is in the 00's. Just as Metallica's "Master of Puppets" did in the 80's, this is an album that grabs hold of the listener from the moment the clean acoustic guitars give way to grinding distortion, and doesn't let up until the feedback fades to nothing at the end of the final song. Now I must apologize in advance for how much I am going to compare it to MoP, but as you will see, there are many comparisons.
The Blackening's first track "Clenching the Fists of Dissent" opens with a low pad and reverberating middle-eastern sounding shout. Then come in the clean steel-string acoustic guitars (Battery anyone?) and there is a slow build as more layers come in, building ever so slightly. When it finally gives way to the break-neck main riff of the song, I found myself instantly reaching for the volume knob to crank it up.
Something else that surprised me was how Mr Flynn's vocals have improved. In everything I had heard of Machine Head up until The Blackening, his vocals had been fairly monotonous, and often not really in any kind of "key" as such. On The Blackening he has much more emotion, and pitch, in his vocals, as me manages to produce growls with a note behind them now, rather than just growls, and he even layers real singing and harmonies in a few of the tracks.
The dueling guitar solos are expertly executed and definitely set a standard for the art from now on.
Now, as I mentioned before, I find this album has many similarities to MoP. It opens with acoustic guitars leading into a very fast track, has a number of tracks that are over 8 minutes in length, contains some very abrupt and sudden tempo changes, is 8 tracks long, and shows that the band has reached a whole new level of musicality and confidence.
Since getting this album, I have told several people how good it was, and even though they, like myself, had never really been fans of Machine Head, those that bought the album agreed with me whole-heartedly.
In 20 years time, I believe that this album will be to the next generation of Metal fans what "Master of Puppets" was for people like myself. A master-class in Heavy Metal that will stand as one of the few albums each decade that manages to capture the hearts and ears of close to an entire generation of Metalheads. If you don't have this album yet, as a certain Aussie music icon would say, "Do yourself a favor" and get it A.S.A.P.
There really is so much more I could say about the album and what makes it so good, but this post would become a novel, and you'd get bored. Plus, I'd rather you discover most of the album for yourself.
But come on... "The BLACKENING"? Now that DOES sound like it belongs in the 80's. lol
As always, comments welcome.
Dan
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