Unto The Locust
After the epic grandeur and perfection of *The Blackening*, Machine Head delivers *Unto the Locust*, an album that lives up to its deserved reputation. The band doesn’t waste ideas here or water down its best ones; it hits everything dead-on, and the welcomed complexity is a great relief for a genre often hampered by groups unable to break free from self-imposed rules and limits. At seven and a half minutes, “Locust”, like many tunes here, starts with melodic introspection before tearing the listener’s head off with vicious guitar riffing and demanding drum rhythms. “This Is the End” kicks up dirt while sneaking past some of the most intricate and tuneful guitar lines heard in modern metal. Produced by leader Robert Flynn, the sound is no-nonsense and in your face, like an intense closeup where one can make out every little scratch and instrumental piece. The special edition is an even greater value; it features three bonus cuts, including an acoustic, stripped-down take on the album’s most sensitive track, “Darkness Within”.
Though they once flirted with nu metal, Machine Head have settled into a more experimental and expansive place, with multi-part songs that make use of strings, choirs, and more.
But Machine Head seem to be a band that managed to successfully recover from an ill-advised "rap metal detour" (1999's The Burning Red), and have subsequently sworn their allegiance back to headbanging fare, as evidenced by such releases as 2011's Unto the Locust.
There's a reason MACHINE HEAD are one of the most talked about and successful bands in metal today. Very few have been able to take as many chances that paid off and even fewer have managed to evolve from album to album while never fully abandoning their roots. Much like METALLICA, MACHINE HEAD rose...
With Machine Head, I have to try my best to be fair. 2007’s The Blackening was an awesome record, but I’ve always had trouble getting really into them otherwise. But this new album has been getting some shining reviews lately and a lot of big time Machine Head fans seem to like it, so perhaps there