Bloodstone & Diamonds

Bloodstone & Diamonds is not an album that abandons all the common sense, critical praise and good will that Machine Head had suddenly developed with The Blackening and Unto the Locust, but it's a solid step backwards in terms of quality, somewhat of a 'dumbing down' that shows the band for whatever reason missed what they were doing beforehand. You've still got a few outbreaks of the more agile, thrash-inspired riffing and some exciting lead sequences, but this one goes for grooves and accessibility a little more than the albums leading to it, and some of the aforementioned faster breaks aren't really interesting. I think if I were to condense it all down to about 3-4 tracks you'd have a worthwhile followup to Unto the Locust, but it's padded out with some songs that don't exactly leave any impression on me.

The catchier tracks like "Now We Do" and "Killers & Kings" are wisely staggered on the frontside of the album, the former a groover reminiscent of Through the Ashes of Empires era but with the add-on of some symphonic strings, and the latter a a thrashing 90s-style pounder with a couple frilly little riffs in there to keep it feeling busy. I also dug the melody at the beginning of "Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones", but that one kind lapses into the nu metal with rock chorus stuff that I was never a fan of in this band's hands, even if Robb's voice sounds half-decent on the more atmospheric, emo moments where he's festooned with little melodies. After that I find it hard to remember much of anything... "Sail Into the Black" is a pretty atmospheric track with some creepy little piano sounds and an epic length to it that eventually surges into giant rolling double bass grooves, but I feel like the harder hitting parts don't live up to the beginning; and "Beneath the Silt" is another track with some potential even though it's got a dirty chuggy nu groove beneath it, I kind of like the psychedelic filtering on the vocals, and again he's got some good singing parts on that and deserves a little credit.

The instrumentation is fine, with another of the band's stronger drum showings when they hit those grooves, and a lot of subtle percussive builds during a lot of the atmospheric parts of which there are probably more here than any other Machine Head record. Bass sounds good, production on the guitars is just the perfect contrast of heaviness and melody, and while Flynn is still doing a lot of the Phil Anselmo style tough guy grunts and growls, he's clearly improved all around. I also think that lyrically this might be the peak for the group, the lines seem fairly well thought out compared to some of the garbage on the disc to follow. The last third of the album is partly a waste of time, with the soft ballad "Damage Inside", the throwaway sample track "Imaginal Cells", and the other songs back there doing a mix of the Korn-like nu metal vocals with a few thrash parts to try and smooth them out, but all told Bloodstone & Diamonds isn't a complete dropping of the ball, it's still much better than anything the band had put out prior to 2007, and if you were a fan of the two previous albums then you might have breathed a collective sigh of relief. Maybe for the last time...

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Being one of the most divisive bands in all of metal music lends itself to a unique standard of scrutiny only paralleled by other similarly divisive groups such as Metallica, Sepultura, and In Flames. Having the name Machine Head printed on the album cover means that we go into our personal listening experience of the album with an audible tainting of preconceived notions and strong opinions.

We generally accept it to be true that Burn My Eyes was an early groove metal masterpiece, bridging thrash with a more melodic and rhythmically complex style while adding elements of hardcore into the equation. We also generally accept that this style allowed a natural progression into the much maligned alternative metal of the time, and that Machine Head didn’t release another truly classifiable metal album until 2003’s Through the Ashes of Empires, which was followed by their second modern groove metal masterpiece: 2007’s The Blackening.

And that—outside of some general acclaim for 2011’s Unto the Locust—is mostly where the conversation stops. Rob and Phil fell on creative differences, Rob at best descended into total madness and at worst became a self-aware meme, they released the Catharsis album which was a mouth vomit-inducing abomination far worse than any of their 90’s nu metal forays, and we all moved on—but wait! What about 2014’s Bloodstone and Diamonds?

In objective terms, a good album is built as a full artistic work—whether contextual or not—to be a complete listening experience. The atmosphere and emotional arc of the full work must be considered. A great album fulfills this, but also makes each song independently great in-and-of itself. A fantastic album does both, but also challenges our preconceived notions of a particular idea or genre and creates something unique. And make no mistake, Bloodstone and Diamonds is a fantastic album.

It is heavier than The Blackening, more innovative and challenging than Burn My Eyes; it is truly Machine Head’s unsung masterpiece. The discord between Rob and Phil is visceral, and while discord within a band often spells disaster for the final product (I’m looking at you, St. Anger) that is far from the case here, rather adding desperation, depth, and an overall melancholic atmosphere of depravation overlaying the anthemic, high energy tracks.

Speaking of anthemic tracks, the album starts with “Now We Die” which uses strings to quickly build energy and explode into one of the most intense, anthemic songs Machine Head has ever composed. Complete with some giant riffs, some of Rob’s best vocals, a chorus you can’t help but sing along with, and a rather tasteful alla breve section/breakdown, this song really embodies everything good about Machine Head’s past efforts while preparing you for the rest of the album.

The same energy can be felt all the way through “Night of Long Knives.” Then comes the second act of what I consider a three act album, starting with “Sail Into the Black.” The intro separates the first act from the second, and it builds perfectly into the song. That’s one thing this album does particularly well—development. Sometimes chaos is welcome in metal, but often times emotion is best conveyed through subtlety and dynamic development. That is the case here.

The choice to include the sole ballad “Damage Inside” as the intro to the third act was brilliant. It is the last piece of rising action before the climax, “Game Over,” and gives it a sense of—dare I say—catharsis.

Although I have neglected to dissect each song individually, I will make a couple broad notes: The musicianship on this album is perfect. There is no virtuoso guitar or highly technical, ultra-fast drum display, rather the songwriting is at the height of their refinement. Despite the long runtime, the songs never feel redundant. It never feels as though they focus on one theme for too long, and the themes build upon each other. Everything feels carefully calculated while at the same time discordant and intense, reflecting the discord within the band at the time.

Give this one a chance. This album is a snapshot of beautiful artistic minds falling apart under the pressures of the legacy they built, and it is far too good to be ignored simply because it’s a Machine Head album.

Highlights:
- Now We Die
- Killers and Kings
- Beneath the Silt
- Game Over

Machine Head are back again after their epic 2011 release Unto The Locust with a brand new highly anticipated album Bloodstone & Diamonds which has a lot to live up to because since The Blackening, Machine Head have been on a ladder that only goes up with each release topping their previous and this album is no different. Bringing new things to the plate while still keeping it Machine Head.

First up is the monstrous and epic 7 minute long Now We Die. This song is structured amazingly well with nothing becoming repetitive. A variety of instruments such as violins and other harmonies are used in the perfect places with Robb Flynn's roaring vocals searing over the top of them. With huge choruses that lead to unbelievable bass drops and solos this song has it all and it's only the first song. Things get keep getting better when the next song Killers & Kings starts. Shorter, faster and harder. Dave McClain shows off on the drums with a technical and fast song with subtle uses of certain cymbals and flares on the double bass. Now I am not normally a fan of breakdowns, I find that they hurt the flow of a song but Killers & Kings unleashes a thunderous breakdown about halfway through that doesn’t ruin the song but compliments it.

Sail Into the Black and Damage Inside are both much darker and slower songs, showcasing Robb Flynn's ability to come across as softer and sad. Sail Into the Black is the longest song on the album but doesn’t really give you that impression. The first 3 minutes of the song is softer and mesmerizing, the use of acoustic guitar and subtle piano is what creates that sort of dreamy atmosphere. On the flip side though there are songs that are quite aggressive in true Machine Head fashion. Songs like Game Over and Night of Long Knives have grinding riffs with fast solos and have strong and aggressive lyrics, which makes the song sound very angry.

Jared MacEachern, the new bass player, is settling in so well it's like he has been in the band for years, he even had an input on the music for the song Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones. His bass playing is excellent with none of it being drowned out by any other instrument. Listening to the sort of news room style interview on Imaginal Cells it really does bring to light some interesting facts and questions, it is an interesting idea which I like. And what better way to finish off the album than leading it to Take Me Through The Fire a hard hitting song that has memorable choruses and brilliant riffs that close out one of the best albums of 2014.

One small problem with this album is that some songs are a little long and repetitive, songs like Eyes of the Dead and Beneath the Silt are impressive songs but could be shorter and still get the same point across. All in all there isn't anything that is unbelievably exceptional or different from their previous 2 albums, however it is definitely Machine Head in all its splendour. This is without a doubt a diamond among the rough and would highly recommend it.

It seems as though Machine Head have carved themselves a nice little niche style-wise in the third chapter of their existence, after they quit making nu metal albums and decided to go back to pushing the boundaries of groove metal. They did so by co-opting theatrical grandiosity and operatic themes while adding more melodeath, thrash, and metalcore into their repertoire of riffs, grooves, and rhythms. This was light at first on Ashes of Empires, peaked in intensity with The Blackening, and fully matured into this style with Unto the Locust. Judging by the music on this album, they're content to stay with the Locust style as it keeps their possibilities for songwriting wide open and potential for scale nice and big. This album of itself is the logical consequence of Unto the Locust, a big, loud, epic, grandiose, third world war atmosphere towards the album. It brings the high sung, operatic choruses, big song lengths, and theatrical atmospherics such as cellos and violins with thick and heavy distortion pedal effects for the guitars. Being big and overblown is Machine Head's game now, and it's a game they play skillfully, It's no Blackening, and It's no Locust, but they still deliver the power in metric ton after metric ton.

Out of the songs on this album, they seem to serve two purposes, either as atmospheric pieces, or as big powerful battle anthems for the next world war.

The more atmospheric songs are also some of this albums bigger strengths, they overwhelm you and gives off a feeling of enveloping darkness and an uneasy calm, best exemplified on Damage Inside and Sail into the Black, giving the feeling of being trapped in a dark brig contemplating how you ended up there. Imaginal cells is another atmospheric piece with the only vocals being snippets of a speech on paranoid apocalyptic predictions of future war, disaster, and rebellion with a trudging riff to accent the conflict heavy atmosphere. They even do their best Meshuggah impression on Beneath the Silt, but thankfully this song isn't some trendy djent piece, but rather an atmospheric sludge piece with distorted acoustics and vocals that gives off a feeling of being drenched in said silt and dragged down a slow river in a dank, dead swampland.

The massive battle epics are the other side of this album; especially with the first two songs, Now We Die and Killers and Kings run on high energy, charging riffs and big loud choruses. Songs like Game Over, Ghosts Will Haunt my Bones, and Take me Through the Fire tend to be chorus driven and while decent sounding, they have very cheesy sounding lines and choruses that spoil the mood. However, this isn't an omnipresent problem as more ear-catching and groovy riffs with a lack of cheese choruses appear in songs like the terrifying piece Night of Long Knives, and the hard groover Eyes of the Dead. Special hardline war-like atmosphere is created and blended with the battle charges in the song In Comes the Flood with it's political lyrics which offer a sound reminiscent of what rebel soldiers would listen to while storming Washington DC in the heat of battle. On Bloodstone and Diamonds, the war theater is the first thing the listener sees in their mind.

As an individual album, this stands high and mighty all by itself though it does fall somewhat short of Locust and The Blackening. It suffers quite some bit from length problems, as these songs would be much more bearable with lengths of about 2/3 what they are. We don't need all of this padding just to make this album feel "epic" the atmosphere of the songs themselves does that. Some of the cheesier choruses could also be ironed out and given a reworking as something rougher and less awkward. With those removed, I'm certain this would be an album on par with Unto the Locust. However, If you love this band, you have patience, and want to go straight to the war theater, into the chaos, this is your album! See you on the front lines, soldier!

1994 was a desperate year for heavy metal from fighting back the American alt-rock scene. Machine Head’s debut classic ‘Burn My Eyes’ was a needed call to arms. That album forced heavy metal to rise up and fight back the constant onslaught of grunge. Throughout Machine Head’s earlier years they went through turbulent times with consistent lineup changes, albums of varying strengths and record label issues; however Robb Flynn’s vision of his band forever stayed true. In 2007 the reward came with the universally accepted ‘The Blackening’ which was hearkened a modern classic of thrash and groove metal. ‘Unto The Locust’, 2011, was a strong effort however it divided opinion in that ‘The Blackening’ manifestly did not. Three years since ‘Unto The Locust’, Machine Head still are going through a strange sense of déjà vu. Four string and founding member, Adam Duce, leaves the band, they move to Nuclear Blast Records and most importantly ‘Bloodstone & Diamonds’ comes off the back of two of the most impressive metal albums released in the past 10 years. No pressure then…

Since The Blackening Machine Head have explored their ability to produce longer songs, often incorporating different instruments and spoken word passages. Their second single, Now We Die, opens with a climatic string assembly and continue behind 7 minutes of a thunderous mid-paced groove with drummer Dave McClain never missing a beat. Yippee Ki Yay mother fucker. Experimentation is found in other long lasting burners throughout the album in tracks such as the sinister Sail Into The Black. Within this elegy is a breeze of hushed repetition, simplistic piano and subtle acoustic guitars followed by a storm of throbbing riffs and distant crashes that add to the dynamic texture of the song.

There is still a sense of familiarity in this record however. Killers And Kings keeps to the typical thrash side of Machine Head that we all love. Viciously fast, harsh vocals, pounding breakdown and a menacing solo: What more can you ask for? Game Over also is reminiscent of the anger Robb’s lyrics instill, ‘For as long as you’re alive I’ll curse your worthless name’, as well as the best introductory song to new bassist ‘Jared MacEachern’.

Generally there is nothing about Bloodstone & Diamonds that is remarkably different from its predecessors however it does step up the game… This is mainly due to the gargantuan choruses evident in Beneath The Silt, juxtaposing the elements of heavy and light music, and standout track Night of Long Knives. This song incorporates everything Machine Head are best at: the pummelling riffs, masterful dual harmonies, Dimebag solos and a chorus that hasn’t been as big since the epic: ‘Let freedom ring with a shotgun blast’.

Through every guitar squeal, grunting growl and rolling bass lines Machine Head have once again proved themselves the be one of the most infectiously loved mainstream metal band in the world. It makes you wonder just how they can possibly better themselves.

I have been a Machine Head for quite some years and I really dig their early stuff ("Burn My Eyes") as well as their later works ("The Blackening"), so naturally I have been following them with anticipation during this time. Back in 2011 when they dropped "Unto The Locust", I was really torn between my opinions of it. It wasn't on par with "The Blackening" at all, being rather weak in comparison. However, it wasn't a bad album either. After that album I started looking forward to their next album, thinking "maybe next time around". Well, now I am here with the result in my hands, but not quite an answer. See, this is, just like its predecessor, a very mixed bag of tunes, only that there are almost the double amount of tunes this time around.

Earlier this year we got introduced to the first sign of this album: the first single "Killers & Kings". I didn't really think much of it at the time, but maybe I wasn't into the groove metal mode either. More recently we were introduced to the opening track "Now We Die". At first I felt a little disappointed, but it quickly grew and it's really a decent track, even though not their best opening tracks judged by their last two or three albums. "Killers & Kings" really grew (quickly) as well, and I really find it one of the more exciting tracks on the album, as well as a very thrashy one. While listening to the album I start to really get this feeling that it's a heavily thrash-oriented album. Certainly more so than their previous efforts. As the album pounds on this gets even more obvious with tracks like "Night Of The Long Knives" and "Eyes Of The Dead". "Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones " feels like a second part of "Be Still And Know" from the previous album, but not quite as interesting. Still quite early on in my listening process, Machine Head does something extraordinary and refreshing - they do "Sail Into The Black". That is really the most interesting track of the bunch here, with a lengthy dark, almost gothic, calm intro before it just slams away in pondering double bass groove rhythms. There's something truly haunting about this song and I couldn't stop listening to it afterwards.

The album continues its crusade for the bloodstone and diamonds, but halfway through it really loses its pace drastically. It's like the album was really promising as something strong, and then just bang! - it loses all its energy and interest. The first point where this is evident is "Beneath The Slit", the album's worst track to my ears. It's got a cool doom-y riff, but it's too down-tuned making it sound like lousy nu-metal. I truly hate nu-metal (including MH's own middle-era albums). Robb Flynn's vocals really doesn't make anything better about it either, singing in a very Deftones influenced way. After this my ears just seem to be beyond saving for the rest of the album, and so they shall obviously not be.

After the blasphemy called "Beneath The Slit", Bloodstone & Diamonds really just becomes an utter bore-fest for the remainder of the album. "Damage Inside" proves to be quite the light in the dark among these tracks, but with its mere three minutes of length, it's barely able to save the experience. When the last track "Take Me Through The Fire" is over, I'm sighing and feeling disappointed, this time around again. I'm really left with a feeling that I expected more from this, but what really bugs me is that the album started off so strong and promising, just to end up only a decent bag of treats. Ultimately I still think it's for the better that this album has twelve tracks instead of seven, as "Unto The Locust" did. Because of this we can pick out the best six or seven, and make it an album like its predecessor, but with even stronger tunes. But in reality, this album is more than that, it's six good ones and six bad to mediocre ones. Too bad, really.

The album's mixing duties were handled by good ole' Colin Richardson who did "Burn My Eyes" back in the early days, as well as many other masterpieces from the 90's. Andy Sneap also worked with the mixing stages of this album. Here we have two appreciated metal producers, and while the album certainly sounds huge and heavy, I can't understand why everyone of these "professionals" (still) make albums that compressed (a.k.a. "brick-walled"). Like always with metal these days, digital clipping is present and no dynamic range is to found whatsoever. At the end of the day I also find myself wishing the album was rawer and "dirtier". I truly miss the hardcore groove sound and live-feeling of their first two albums with every new Machine Head album released since "The Blackening". Machine Head simply do not sound dangerous anymore.

This album is a mixed experience. I cannot really recommend it to metal fans except for the die-hard fans of the band itself. If you are interested in checking out the album, then I would suggest listening to the first six tracks on Spotify and ditch the rest. Make a playlist of the first six, possibly accompanied with "Game Over" and "Damage Inside", but no more. With that, you can have a good new Machine Head album. With the whole album you will always have only a decent one.