Gods Among Insects

Well, it's probably taken me this long to get through/get over my humble pie experience so with the dust settled and everyone a bit more calm about the whole thing I thought I would offer my thoughts on the new Machine Head album in a blow by blow review.

So most people have viewed the juggernaut that was 2007 album The Blackening as a benchmark in modern metal or 'the sound of modern metal' as claimed by one pock marked, future Lou Reed collaborator at the time and no matter how much hyperbole surrounds that release, it remains one of , if not, the best album Machine Head have made, not least for the incredible 'Halo'.

In the four years since it's release the band have toured it into the ground through necessity; there came a time when they should have gone home but the opportunities could not have been turned down for a band on the comeback trail as they were. To be honest by the end I heard less than stellar reports of their usually impeccable live show and was only mildly disappointed that traffic in London made us miss their support slot to Metallica at the O2 because let's face it I've seen them so fucking many times (and three previous shows on that tour alone) that without fresh material it felt like groundhog day.

Earlier in the year I ran my mouth about the new single, the early release, rough mix... and how it was a bit 'Meh', for all the bold statements of experimentation, the talk of surprises and the unveiling of this track was a little flat for me.

Why in truth because it was a familiar touchstone - too straight forward and nothing particularly ground breaking, still like the proverbial child at Christmas I was all over the album like a cheap suit when it leaked onto the web (fear not my expensive Metal Hammer fan pack was already ordered, just waiting to turn up late not early and minus the special things I should have had for ordering before the deadline), and this is what I found...

Machine Head 'Unto The Locust'

I Am Hell (Sonata in C)

The album starts with a chorus of Flynn's singing a chanting acapella in Latin which is almost sanguine if not a little unsettling. As this draws to a close it gives birth to a monstrous down tuned chug as Flynn crashes back in, gone are the soothing vocals, now he is growling 'I am death...' in your ear.

As an intro it is block levellingly heavy, but by no means the end of Machine Head cranking the tension as about three and a half minutes in it changes to a furious thrash assault with a soaring chorus.

The musicianship has kicked on vastly from it's predecessor; no slouch on the drums in previous outings, here Dave McClain puts in the second best performance of his life...

It's easy to wax lyrical about music - I do it all the time for The Sleeping Shaman - but I did sit and listen to this track unfold in utter disbelief at how fucking nutty, how good and how downright life affirming it felt to be proved a paranoid Doubting Thomas as the tender classical strings usher this song to it's false ending.

Maybe not a Sonata in the strictest sense, clocking in at nearly nine minutes it is easy to see how Machine Head racked up 50 minutes with only seven songs...

Be Still & Know

Picking up from the fading notes of the opener the second track kicks off with some Maiden/Priest esque lead work that folds into one of those rolling, mid paced groove riffs that the band have done so well in the past, but instead of going head first for the bludgeon Machine Head open this up into a huge chorus that, having headlined Wacken (and will, if rumours prove true, do Download) and have booked an arena tour of the UK, has one eye on getting large crowds of drunken metalheads to raise their horns and bellow along like pirates belting out a rum soaked shanty whilst Flynn and Demmel engage in some of their finest fret pyrotechnics yet and Adam Duce keeps it contained with his predictably tight basslines.

One thing that is noticeable over the first two tracks is how much improved Flynn's clean vocals are as well - Never far from his trademark growl he also has increased his singing range and delivery.

Locust

And so to THAT song...

Having endured a complete sonic kicking and had style and expectations exceeded over the course of the first two tracks Locust makes sense now. Better production and sat where it is, the sinister guitar tone of the intro is perfect, the song itself fine. It fits, it doesn't sound out of place and suddenly it clicks.

It is a little Machine Head by numbers and will never be a favour of mine, but it is catchy as hell and as it says 'These hooks sink in...'.

This Is The End

Apparently the first song written for the album and one of the craziest pieces of drumming on a Machine Head record. The classical intro does little to prepare you for Flynn's 'Fuck You' song as it is heads down and charge from start to finish.

I have to say I love this song.

It shouldn't really work... the drumming is a lightning blur of shuffling beats - sychopated and blast - the chorus has a melodic, almost falsetto part that should make you wonder what drugs they were on, but the whole is simply fantastic, especially the biting sting of 'This is the end of our respect denied, Stand with us or stand aside'

Darkness Within

And so to the major talking point of the album. In the press build up the band were hesitant to spoil the surprise or try and explain this song and it was truly with deep curiosity that I listened to it.

It starts off starkly with an acoustic guitar and Flynn mournfully croaking like a man old beyond his years as he sings some of the finest lyrics he has ever written:

I see the damage that I've done,
And search for redemption.
But I am just a broken man,
Whose soul cries out to understand,
How the madness shatters me,
Upon the stage on bended knee,
I scream aloud at skies above,
That answer mute bereft in love,
I struggle not to fall from grace,
I sing the hyms of my disgrace.

The personal depth that is thrust up in the six plus minutes the track runs for is incredible; thinking back to those mid nineties interviews where it was all hard man talk about drugs, gang violence, now he honestly quite unashamedly sings this pean to music setting him free and it sends shivers up and down my spine.

Mysteries forgotten chords,
I strum in vain to please the lord,
But he has never answered me,
And faith has waned eternaly.
In empty men who pass along,
The woes of all religions wrong,
Now the shadowed veil it falls,
Heed the Clarion call.
So pray to music,
Build a shrine,
Worship in these desperate times
Fill your heart with every note,
Cherish it and cast afloat.
Cause God is in these clef and tone,
Salvation is found alone,
Haunted by it's melody,
Music, it will set you free.

Musically it is almost a power ballad, it is another song that clearly has one eye on audience participation in big venues, but fuck it. You do not hear that kind of honesty often enough in music, sure we get the 'poor woe is me' white middle class shit still - Christ listen to Limp Bizkit or Staind's new albums, but this is from the heart. And it's excellent.

Pearls Before Swine

The penultimate track is the closest thing to a straight forward Machine Head track of old. Compared with Locust et al. it is short and furious in the old school The More Things Change Way. It is another above par track in an album full of potentially great ones, but strangely because of it's straight forward nature falls short in the description... if you liked Spine, Frontlines etc then this is a track for you.

This Is Who We Are

And so to the final epic...

Starting disconcertingly weird with a choir of the bands kids singing the chorus to be before McClain launches the last march-like tempo... I have said this all throughout about headlining, but I can see this being the set closer before the encore type track.

It is mammoth; Flynn commanding his orchestra proclaiming 'This is who we are, this is what I am, we have no where else to go, divided we shall stand!'. This track is full of bombast, a statement of 'Fuck you, we are home' that brings a tear to even the most cynical (Hello!) and we can even forgive the slightly cheesy 'Into Glory We Shall Ride' part.

Why? Simply because it is the most joyful fucking celebration of acceptance, that's why.
This band has taken an absolute kicking in their time and if the North American reviews are to be taken on face value are still getting kicked by their home country, despite releasing Burn My Eyes, The More Things Change, Through The Ashes Of Empires and The Blackening, but are here they are strong and on top of their game defiantly telling you if you don't like it, then shove it up your ass, and I for one love them for that.

I'm not going to make the judgement over whether it is better than The Blackening here, I loved that album, the band loved that album and it is certainly special. They were keen not to make Part 2 and that they have achieved. To my ears they have made a fucking great piece of music that should help establish them at the top of the current metal bands pushing for the future of metal. After 20 years (yesterday) of paying their dues Machine Head are special, are brilliant at what they do and this album deserves to sell by the truckload.

It is different; it is not as furious; however it is sublime.

Next time I will be exhaling the vile though I am afraid as I take on Lou and The Reeders 'interesting project' Lulu.