It feels like it is customary to Machine Head. Out of habit, you know. The band had its screw-ups, I agree with that and Bloodstone and Diamonds is my personal pain up to this day. Robb Flynn also said and did some mind-boggling thing. At the same time, he admitted his mistakes at least and even not decades later (interesting, what does Corey Taylor and Dave Mustein think about this). An attempt to fix it was made with the band’s previous work Of Kingdom and Crown; successfully or not it’s a different story. But the jackal express still runs from the previous century – yeah, it’s about The Burning Red – until today with a little pause in 2007. Now we have a brand-new album, Unatoned and metal boomer battalion is back to action; read the comment section on YouTube under the new singles and embrace the shitstorm – “Machine Head is not as good as it was once” and all that bollocks. At the same time there is no definitive answer when the band was good: on the first two albums or at The Blackening too. Metal elitists can’t find the consensus, as usual, so the question remains open.
But is Unatoned really that bad? Well, let’s take the latest single “Bonescraper”. We have a poppy harmony here and some disjointedness here and there, especially between verse and chorus. However, there are some interesting moments in this song and it’s catchy, admit it. “Outsider” is more anthemic and little less catchy but has a lot of drive, combining typical Machine Head harmonies and fast recitation with a bouncy riff. And some clean vocals, of course.
These two tracks, nevertheless, don’t represent the whole album. “Unbound”, the first released single shows much more: sick drowning main riff and lots of others. They aren’t stitched seamlessly but, let’s say, you have no any dissonance feeling. Opening “Atomic Revelation” deceptively starts with a couple of piano notes but gains pace and brutality very quickly. Some melody appears in verse but for the most part it’s a fast track, made on thrash/groove riffs and pretty good solo. “These Scars Won’t Define Us” is also a thrashy one, performed only by the band on the album version.
“Addicted To Pain” is based on crushing riff and later some other elements added as well. Fast-paced, full of riffs and melodic chorus it, according to Robb Flynn, “evolved after a tongue-in-cheek challenge to “write a nu-metal song,” which resulted in Scruggs (guitarist Reece Scruggs joined the band last year) coming up with a fantastic set of riffs”. However, the next one “Bleeding Me Dry” is much more nu-metal, pretty slow-paced and potent. Rest assured, the band will be smeared for this song just like for two “ballads” (it’s a bit odd to use such term as applied to Machine Head but I have no other) – “Not Long For This World” and the ending “Scorn”. If the first one reminds, let’s say, “Darkness Within” by the sound and the structure, just singed with clean vocals only (the first song made that way, according to the band), “Scorn” is a classic piano-based ballad, something that Robb wanted to do for years, never succeeded and finally did. I agree, it’s very debatable to put this song on the Machine Head album and not Robb’s solo work, for example but it is what it is.
In the end I want to quote Robb himself: “It’s not our heaviest record; I would never say that it’s our heaviest record. It’s got a lot of melody” and that’s true. Just like the truth is that it will never be another The Blackening and we all know it. So, let’s get back to the main point: is this album really bad? No, it’s not. It has its strong parts and some weaker ones. There are some catchy things and some really huge riffs. Say what you will but I can’t call it “mid-table mediocrity” like some critics already did. As for me, everyone will find something good in this album.
Unbound will be released on April, 25th via Nuclear Blast.
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