Do or Die

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.