Right at the start I have to say that I'm a huge Machine Head fan boy. When I first heard Burn My Eyes in 1994 it had a huge impact on me. Songs like Davidian, Death Church and Old were crushing thrash anthems that alleviated many evenings of boredom. The album has also, over the years become incredibly influential. In fact, i think that debut album has been plagiarised non stop by a whole host of more recent metal-core bands.

After the seminal debut, the band sort of lost their way. In the face of huge media hype and the overblown marketing of their label Roadrunner, Machine Head just seemed to crumple. By the time the fourth album Supercharger came round, the band was a shadow of their former selves. Pandering to the trends of the time had become the norm for Machine Head and while I still loved the debut the rest of the albums left me completely cold.

Then in 2004, Machine Head rose almost phoenix like. The band released their best album since their debut with Through The Ashes Of Empires. While that album was heavy and marked a return to their thrash style it still had a few cringe worthy moments (particularly some of Robb's clean singing that sounded like Korn-lite).

So it's 2007 now and Machine Head released their sixth studio album. Named The Blackening, the pre-release buzz and hype surrounding this release made it seem like 1996 all over again when the band was on the verge of releasing their second album The More Things Change. The album leaked onto the Internet a few months before the actual release and I've been listening to this album for a few months now.

The album has a few things going for it. First, some killer riffs courtesy of Flynn and his old partner in Vio-Lence Phill Demell. The lead playing too is pretty good through out the album and I think Demell is a lot more comfortable with the band now than he was on the previous album. Dave McLane has to be one of the most underrated metal drummers around today and while his performance on The Blackening is not as flashy at it was on Through The Ashes... he pulls off a terrific performance behind the kit. Adam Duce has always held up the bottom end competently and on The Blackening you can hear him a lot more clearly than before.

So anyway, we all know that these chaps can play but what about the music ? What about the songs ? Are they any good ? Well, the answer's a bit tricky. The songs are all long. Two of the 8 songs on this album are over 10 minutes long. Now, for a thrash metal band, 10 minute songs are a tricky affair and for a Thrash metal band that has steadily flirted with trends, a ten minute song is something that could be disastrous. Machine Head for the most part, manage to pull it off. The songs are filled with some kick ass thrash riffs, some great lead playing and a rhythm section thats very very tight. At the same time, there are these parts on almost every single song that seem to be there only to please the 14 year old Trivium fan. Case in part is the intro to Now I Lay Thee Down which sounds like something the Deftones may do. Robb Flynn's clean vocals have always been a bit weak and its no different here. Especially when he tries to do the whole soaring melodic clean vocal type thing that Killswitch Engage popularised.

Still this is Machine Head and when they throw commercial considerations out of the window they can write a brutal heavy as fuck thrash metal song. Aesthetics of Hate and the blistering Beautiful Mourning stand out on the album for just being completely unapologetic angry thrash metal songs. Album opener Clenching The Fists Of Dissent is over ten minutes long and is a pretty good song as well. The centre piece of the album though is the lengthy and melodic Halo. I'm sure thousands of metal core kids are going to love this song. Mixing catchy melodic parts with Machine Head's trademark riffing and some more clean singing from Flynn, the song seems written for the live audience and targeted at the trendy scene kids. I'm pretty sure the twin lead workout in the middle of the song is going to make a lot of these kids cum. Halo isn't a bad song. It just seems manufactured.

And that really sums up the problem with The Blackening. There are some truly awesome guitar parts on this album. Some terrific songs as well but at the end of the day, it seems like these songs got so fucking long simply because the band wanted to fit in parts to please all their fans. Something for the old loyals who had stuck around faithfully and something for the new generation of fans who think Trivium is the next best thing to sliced bread.

What I'm left with is a strange album and even after about 6 months of listening to this I can't decide how much I like/ hate the songs. For a band of this stature, it is quite disappointing that The Blackening seems a little dull and is guilty of pandering to trends. It's not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination but at the same time I was expecting a lot more this time around.

Year Of Release - 2007

Label - Roadrunner