'And Robb Flynn Wept For There Were No More Band Wagons To Conquer...'
I'm in the process of taking a retrospective blog and looking at the future this time out in something that could see me with egg on my face or people nodding sagely and saying the bloke with the ranty blog about shit no one listens to is right.
Presuming someone else finds it, reads it and forwards it on to them of course.
Still this bold move is because I am hoping to be proved wrong this time; in jumping the gun and laying my cards on the table too early I am seeing if I can be surprised again and get the cutlery to eat a large slice of humble pie.
It's not something I do often, I don't like the taste and even if I deserve it I'd usually make up some excuse like I'm allergic or something to avoid eating it.... but in this case I'd happily go back for seconds.
And the reason is that I'm talking about Machine Head here.
I got into metal when I was ten.
Iron Maiden were about to enter their difficult middle years which would cause even me to doubt them, Metallica hadn't yet crushed all before them with the Black album, Soundgarden had gotten round to Louder Than Love, Guns n Roses were actually a band and elsewhere even the Prodigy were still tripping their tits off in a warehouse hoping the bloke they were hugging wasn't a policeman.
So it was all established acts that had been around and were recommendations at that point.... by mid nineties I was out exploring my own music indulgences - Megadeth had given way to the far more superior SLAAAAYYYYYYEEEERRRR, the likes of Atomic Rooster and suggestions of Warrant had been laughed off in favour of Alice In Chains and a new generation of bands started appearing on the radar including Korn, Fear Factory and Machine Head, bands which were now 'mine' as I was there at the start.
In 1994 Machine 'Fucking' Head (as they are affectionately known) released the landmark Burn My Eyes, an album so massively good they managed to ride the shock waves of it's impact still to this day.
The live shows they backed this slab of incredible with saw them blow the aforementioned SLAAAAYYYYYYEEEERRRR off the stage whilst supporting them.
Yes you read that right, whisper it if you have to... SLAAAAYYYYYYEEEERRRR. Off. Stage. Granted they were touring the below par Divine Intervention album but still... impressive.
However problems were swiftly round the corner and the rotund of girth Chris Kontos was having problems remaining on the drum stool. When I saw them at Donington '95 they had to get their drum tech to stand (sit) in as the band member had suffered an allergic reaction to Brown M&Ms or something.
By the time it came to record their sophomore record - 1996's The More Things Change - he had been replaced by the more equipped to function slaphead Dave McClain. In quiet gatherings clandestine groups will mourn the fact that Kontos was a better drummer, but the fact is McClain has ably manned the kit for six of the band's soon to be seven studios albums and done a damn fine job of it live too.
Trouble was never far away for the band though and Pineapple Headed gurner and sometimes guitarist Logan Mader was next for the exit door. The recording process for TMTC had been fraught with problems and the strain on the inter band relationships had taken it's toll with Mader departing stating Flynn was a dictator, himself having crashed into rehearsals late and high as kite on meth insulting and cursing the other band members and wondered why he was given his P45.
Next recruit was the dubious appointment of one Ahrue Luster.
Not only did his arrival coincide with head scratching and a wondering who the guy with the polka dot bandanna was, but also a shift in public tastes. By now Nu Metal had the world in it's grip and the band ditched long term producer Colin Richardson for flavour of the month Ross Robinson (Korn, Limp Bizkit, At The Drive-In and Slipknot).
The Burning Red was an immensely popular album at the time - both critically and fan wise, but featured two songs which in corporate elements of rapping into the verses. Given that Flynn had cut his long thrasher hair off into a peroxide dyed spikey do and was seen wearing what suspiciously looked like Red PVC pimp outfits it was no surprise that mutterings began to take voice that Machine Head were chasing the bucks... the most famous to put voice to these feelings was former champion Kerry King who dismissed everything they had done since Burn My Eyes and it would turn into a petty war of words publicly between him and Flynn on a regular and boring basis.
If the Burning Red dodged this bullet, the follow up Supercharger got it both barrels, the reviews were lack luster, fan reception was underwhelming...
It is the worst thing that Machine Head have ever put their name to with many of the songs featuring rap elements, gay vocal lines and in the case of the god awful American High Flynn singing the riff accapella before the start of the song. Amazingly no pointed out that it sounded like a shit Tarzan cry until after it was released...
The odds weren't good and releasing a single called Crashing Around You accompanied by a video featuring skyscrapers on fire and falling into the earth on September 12th 2001 was just bad luck by any stretch...
Despite still delivering the goods live Machine Head's stock was falling fast.
Ahrue decided he didn't want to make 'heavy' music anymore and jumped ship, but not before taking the customary pop at Flynn's way of running the band.
I'd like to file him under the Where Are They Now rest home for non-descript losers who are a footnote in history, but sadly he joined Ill Nino for their second album and has made a fairly good stab at ensuring they aren't successful or heavy as well.
So actually after the unbelievably rubbish Enigma we'll leave him there...
It seemed highly likely that Machine Head would never rise again. A now bit part metal band out of fashion, out of time and out of a record deal in the US.
However Phil recruited former Vio-Lence running mate Phil Demmel and whilst Avenged Sevenfold and Killswitch were out making a name for metalcore the 'Head came roaring back with a thrash metal album once more.
A change in the musical landscape? Fresh input?
Whatever the band have delivered two stone cold classic metal albums in the form of The Ashes Of Empires and 2007s benchmark metal album The Blackening.
On the face of it you can't argue that Machine Head weren't back and making the kind of albums you thought they would follow TMTC with.
You would think it is Machine Head's time to step up and into the void that will be left when Judas Priest retire, when Slayer finally stop twitching and when Metallica realise they can probably just release packaging these days and people will buy it.
Until now.
14th June saw the release of 'Locust' (Advance Mix) the forth coming single (?) advance track or whatever the hell you call individual tracks release these days where no one makes any money from music, and the result is.... kind of underwhelming.
Everyone expecting a full on balls out track will be a little disappointed to put it mildly.
It's nearly as long as anything off the last two albums clocking in at nearly 8 minutes, it has the heavy/quiet/falsetto bit that they have been doing lately but it all sounds a bit... well phoned in. A bit weak. Poppy almost. Down right fucking odd at times... Flynn's vocals have always been a selling point on Machine Head to me and the bizarre pronunciation on the lyrics is extremely off putting.
Maybe I'm just being jaded and looking at it in the light of an album it'll make sure - it's memorable enough, but it makes me wonder if Machine Head are a little lost.
Twice they have blown through the current trend and found themselves out in front as leaders and then stumbled and fell.
Maybe they are better when they are the underdog, maybe they can take an idea and Machine Head it up a little and make it great - The Burning Red was the best Nu-Metal album ever released in essence - but when it comes to striking out on their own do they have the chops to be innovators?
I'm not convinced, sure they have the skills - you don't produce albums like Burn My Eyes and The Blackening by being 'okay' but then again you down make The Number Of The Beast, Reign In Blood or Master Of Puppets by being content and this is what concerns me.
'Locust' is average Machine Head by numbers and the band stand a chance of being crushed under the weight of expectation.
Of course I could be wrong... the track hasn't had it's final mix and it is a single piece of music I have waited four years to hear, but I fear a sense of Deja Vu is kicking in...
Prove me wrong Rob, prove me wrong...
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