Do or Die

Common sense would seem to dictate that courting controversy and putting out thrash metal, regardless of the stylistic variant of the latter, should be a recipe for success. But in the particular case of Robb Flynn and his de facto solo project Machine Head, as the classic quote from Casino eloquently put it, "this guy could fuck up a cup of coffee". It isn't for a lack of ability to get the job done in the musical department that this former master of 80s thrash turned post-thrash trend-hopper continually undermines himself, but more so his ego causing him to make bad decisions in both the composition and performance department that prevent even his better creations from realizing their full potential. Case and point, the most recent single out of this band Do Or Die, a veritable exercise in reestablishing one's musical credentials following a flop LP and then canceling it all out by predicating the lyrical content of an otherwise solid thrash tune upon having skin so paper-thin that it's only visible in two dimensions.

When discounting the two glaring flaws in this otherwise shining example of how modern groove/thrash can work wonders, namely every sound and word coming out of Flynn's mouth, this is arguably the best thing to ever come out under the Machine Head moniker. The high octane riff assault that rounds out most of this song is a sort of perfect marriage of vintage 80s Bay Area insanity out of the Vio-Lence and early Forbidden arsenal with a modern, chunky production, assaulting any would be listener at a break-neck tempo. Coupled along with this is a punishingly heavy breakdown moment after the first of multiple guitar solos that arrives seamlessly and perfectly embodies every strong moment that failed to be fully exploited on this band's mixed bag debut Burn My Eyes. Speaking of lightning speed and flashy guitar solos, additional praise ought to be thrown Flynn's way in spite of himself for tapping two highly competent musicians in lead guitarist of Decapitated fame Vogg and kit-destroyer Matt Alston of Devilment to replace Phil Demmel and Dave McClain, as both of them play their proverbial asses off.

If this song had been an instrumental, it sadly would have been better for it, because what lay on top of this otherwise stellar return to form can be best described as the most cringe-worthy, mealy-mouthed pile of word salad under the guise of lyrics. As best as can be explained, Flynn apparently hasn't gotten all of the homeboy out of his system following the disastrous nu-metal flop that was last year's Catharsis, arguably the worst album to come out of the American heavy metal scene in 2018 save Ministry's decrepit attempt at political pandering minus any degree of musical intrigue AmeriKKKant (the fuck does an 18th century German philosopher have to do with the KKK any way, Al?), and has even gone so far as to up the ante by trying to ape today's mumble-rap craze (hence the popular meme Flynn Shady). Suffice to say, Flynn still can't carry a tune to save his own life, but has managed to make matters even worse by throwing a whiny rant of novella proportions over top of a solid thrash tune, virtually canceling out what would have been a full on thrash assault.

Against all better judgment, the only thing that can be said with regard to this sad excuse of a lyrical counter-punch at Flynn's critics is to offer some words of wisdom to someone who has already committed himself to the contrary. "Do Or Die" is a song that suffers from a massive identity crisis primarily because its author has been suffering from one ever since the mid-1990s, the only remedy for this for all of the liabilities in this band's formula to be stripped away and replaced with a more stylistically consistent approach, or to put it more plainly, Rob Flynn needs to hire a real vocalist, knock off writing lyrics completely, and either decide whether he wants to write nu-metal or thrash tunes, because the two cannot coexist together. Absent this, he might do well to take a different lyrical approach and maybe try his hand at returning to something vocally along the lines of what was done on Unto The Locust. And if any remnant Flynn apologists or the man himself wishes any further convincing, they would do well to consider that at present, Phil Anselmo is a considerably superior lyricist and vocalist, contemplate that on the tree of woe before hanging yourself from it.

The newest style pivot by Machine Head (or, for a more realistic band name, Robb Flynn and Paid Associates) feels so fucking disingenuous, possibly even moreso than all their other past style changes. Yeah, Machine Head have never been a band you couldn't accuse of trend hopping in search of greater mainstream recognition, but considering how terrible Catharsis was and how poorly received by literally everybody it was, going back to a pretty straightforward thrash metal sound was both kind of expected and totally hollow and meaningless. Machine Head are a band that fans of will swallow up no matter what, detractors will despise regardless of the quality of their music, and they'll remain a top billed name in metal because we as a society are not allowed to have nice things. Speaking as somebody who used to be greatly into Machine Head as a teenager and fell out of interest with them as time went on, this just reeks of desperation on Robb's part to try and get some goodwill back after the unmitigated disaster that the last album was, which means thrashy guitars and fast drums, but Robb Flynn's gonna Robb Flynn whether you like it or not, and that means we get RAPPING VERSES in the year 2019 with the most cringeworthy lyrics imaginable.

From a musical standpoint, Do or Die is short, sweet, and to the point, a sub-four minute thrasher that feels like an outtake from The Blackening, the album that brought Machine Head back to prominence in 2007. The main riff is every safe, generic, modern thrash riff you've ever heard, broken up by gallops and power chords because we can't get too extreme, now can we? Not like you can really hear the riff that well because of Robb's rapping, but we'll get there. It doesn't rip all the way through though, the riffing and d-beat drumming broken up by the obligatory "We need a breakdown in here because people still eat that shit up for some reason and it'll sound good live" section about two minutes in, but it's thankfully brief, going only eight measures before heading into the guitar solo. It's a quite nice twin lead too, unfortunately wasted in the mire that is modern day Machine Head. Still, in spite of (or possibly because of) its cookie cutter nature, it's the most inspired thing Machine Head have made since Unto the Locust, since the band are only ever good at making groovy, thrash-ish stuff anyway, yet it all feels like a front put on trying to camouflage a main writer that is incapable of making anything genuinely inspired or from the heart anymore (Eternal Nightmare was 31 years ago, and Robb ain't ever participating in anything to that level ever again, I can assure you).

I'll say it right now: Robb Flynn is a fucking goober. I say that because only a completely self-unaware, self-serious goober like him could write lyrics like this without a hint of irony, spit them out with total sincerity, and release them in 2019. You just know he feels like he's dripping with Big Brain Energy while rapping about how "There's not a metal band I ain't influenced" (a clearly demonstrable fallacy if I've ever heard one) and railing against haters and the memes they make about him on the internet. Look at how much better he says he is than the haters, people! Give me a fucking break. This is basically the metal song equivalent of a temper tantrum. I mean, the dude says the word "fuck" TWENTY NINE TIMES in this song. Hey Robb, Slipknot called collect from the year 2000. They want their lyrical crutch back. While at least this song isn't spoken word slam poetry with totally unnecessary n-bomb droppings in it, it really isn't all that much better. They say to not feed the trolls online and not letting the dumb shit people say get to you, and this guy literally wrote an entire song feeding the trolls and railing about how the dumb shit people say doesn't get to him. That's Sonic Syndicate's MO, Robb, and don't you DARE steal it from them!

So yeah, I really don't have much more to say about this. This song is phony nonsense from a phony, nonsensical band, fronted by a dude that doesn't understand that, hey, not saying anything is sometimes the considerably better option. The more I think and write about it, the lower the score goes. Don't listen to this, and ignore future Machine Head for the good of your ears.

Line-up changes seem to help MH somehow. Sadly, nothing can help Robb Flynn. This song is the perfect illustration of what I am saying. Previous single was an acoustic version of the song that was already released as Flynn’s solo project like 6 years ago. Now meet and greet Do Or Die.

Just hearing this song fueled me with determination to write something. I don’t know if this is about song quality or about me being annoyed by life. In any case, for now, I am going to ignore vocals and lyrics no matter how “fantastic” they are. Let’s talk guitars. Guitar sound finally hits the mark. It’s pounding, groovy, with deeper tone which sounds more hateful and contrasts well with pale jaded vocal performance. I’ve listened to some of their older material and I might even go as far as saying that guitars sound as strong and convincing as on The Blackening. Here they have better low-end, while the aforementioned album has more distinct mid-tone coil whine to its guitar passages. The chorus on Do Or Die might make you turn away with its simplicity. If you get through, you meet something that someone who knows Machine Head is familiar with- Unto The Locust. Riff reminds me of This Is The End from UTL. And I would say that’s a good thing. guitar Picking part going into your typical groovy roar which is less present on UTL. Solo is nice without complex guitar dueling. At least guitar players are satisfied. We will see for how long they will play in MH.

Drums are great. I just can’t help but love D-beat. double bass intensifies closer to the end of the song and it makes for a wonderful peak of speed and pummeling. Sound itself is a bit to shallow for my taste. Enough to cause subjective complaints but not enough to call it downright bad. Everything works. The same can be said about bass guitar. You get a great look at how bass is getting by in solo part. No aggression and no stupid distortion. Distortion is only used at the very end on Flynn’s vocals. I guess I have to say something about vocals and lyrics.

Lyrics are fucking atrocious. Our old friend once again decided that people just don’t understand MH. On top of it- “die motherfucker die” is not exactly the freshest line to say as the main song hook. And you know what is the other catchy hook here7 “I am fucked up in the head”. Ironically, this could be true. Maybe we shall gather some mental help for Robb. I laugh like a crazy maniac whenever I hear this bark. How fake and plastic it all sounds on top of actually superb musicianship and production.

I have two theories on why this song is rather good. Either Flynn is bouncing back after negative reception of Catharsis or new musicians are not yet oppressed by him. Waiting for another single to confirm one of the two.

I'm a long time Machine Head fan, and have realized how hit and miss this band can really be, especially with their release last year. But this track seems to deviate from that style instrumentally, given everything in this department is actually top notch, even in comparison to tracks from 'The Blackening'. The riffs and drum patterns sound closer to something from that album, and even a cross from 'The More Things Change', and the production is really clean. Even Robb's vocals sound impressive, with a lot of aggression present. But that's where the problems begin, because the lyrics are incredibly cringe-worthy.

I honestly don't know what Robb was thinking, with lyrics such as :

'I don't give a fuck about your stupid little scene
Reaction videos and all your pussy little memes'

It just makes no sense that he was able to write such brilliant lyrical content in earlier albums, but here, it just sounds like an edgy teenager who hates their parents, as well as people on the internet. Also, the chorus sounds like its a parody of Dope's 'Die MF Die'.

Overall, I like the direction the band's headed in musically, and I hope they release more with this as the core sound, minus the lyrical content. With Vogg being the new guitarist, there does seem to be some hope for the band's future.