By Carl Zielinski

Gargoyle staff reporter


Posted Friday, March 30, 2007, The OG, arts

AT A GLANCE

— CD: Machine Head, “The Blackening”

— Release date: March 27, 2007

— Machine Head's Web site

— Machine Head's MySpace page

— Machine Head's Wikipedia entry

SINCE THEIR FOUNDING in 1992, Machine Head have had the uncanny ability to follow trends within the metal scene. When their first album, “Burn My Eyes,” was released in 1994, Pantera had already made its mid-tempo aggression and shouted vocal style popular.

Similarly, their explorations of rap-metal in the late '90s happened at a time when bands such as Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park had popularized this hybrid.

Even though their sixth album, “The Blackening,” sounds closer to the pounding metal of their debut, Machine Head have also started pandering to the rising metalcore movement.

Band leader Robert Flynn's mixing of shouted and sung vocals, as well as the over-the-top aggression mixed with flashes of attractive melody sound remarkably like metalcore bands Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine.

Even though I don't typically enjoy the sound these bands produce, “The Blackening” was one of the most energetic and complex new albums I've heard in the past year.

Despite the running time being over an hour, the album never drags and is punchy all the way to the end. And while some trimming might have benefited the album (the average song length is around seven and a half minutes), the band varies their material enough to make the length only a minor hassle.

The vicious opener “Clenching the Fists of Dissent” in particular is proof of how Machine Head have overcome their flirtations with rap. The mournful acoustic intro bursts into a violent, somersaulting riff that would make Metallica or Slayer proud. The remaining eight minutes are downright brutal, and packed to the brim with acrobatic guitar work from Flynn and fellow guitarist Phil Demmel.

One high point would be the lyrics. Political rage plays a major role for most of the album, ending with the epic “A Farewell to Arms.” The powerful moment when Flynn
utters, “War hawks and senators/ They sit right, so trite/ Never their sons will know/ What it's like to fight/ But soldiers are dead/ And children have bled/ And the silence is numb/ What have we become?” left me laughing at those who say metal only has lyrics along the lines of “I will kill you.”

However, Flynn takes time from this train of thought to attack conservative columnist William Grim, who insulted guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott of Pantera and his fans the day after Dimebag was murdered.

Grim certainly takes a beating, as in the middle of the song “Aesthetics of Hate,” when Flynn growls, “The words I read on the screen left me f———g sick/ I felt the hatred rising/ You son of a bitch/ You branded us pathetic for our respect,” also saying, “I hope you burn in hell.”

The one complaint I have with this record is that although the band mostly manages to handle their lengthy songs, they don't get it right all of the time. The spiraling number of riffs, while at first entertaining, ultimately ends up sounding like simple overindulgence more than technical skill on tracks like “Wolves.”

Fortunately, for fans of guitar solos, Demmel and Flynn make the album worth every second. The harmonized guitar parts and vocals on the song “Halo” and the five solos in “Aesthetics of Hate” and six in “Clenching the Fists of Dissent” are spectacular, and ended up reminding me of the guitar work of early '90s Megadeth.

While Machine Head will never be a band you hear on the radio, “The Blackening” is definitely worth a serious listen or three, if you're up to the task of putting in an hour devoted to nothing else.