Review of Machine Head - "Bloodstone & Diamonds"

MID-MAJOR MAYHEM

By: Geoff Teach

Every metal act that spends twenty years in the international spotlight will eventually gain its fair share of detractors. It’s inevitable. Whether the acts follow a tried and true recipe that they have cooked up since their inception, or if they are constantly evolving and changing their sound, all acts that live long enough to see two decades pass will amass critics. However, in the case of the Bay Area's Machine Head, you will not find any detraction here. I began listening to Machine Head in 1999 with the release of “The Burning Red” (Roadrunner Records), and I distinctly remember how taken I was with the power, volume, and pure punch of their music back then, and nothing has changed. Over the years, while the band’s most visual and vocal founding member, Robb Flynn, has altered his façade and tweaked his brainchild’s music, to me, the root energy has always remained the same. It is for that reason alone that I have never turned my back on Machine Head, and I’m certainly not about to start now, especially when they have just released another masterpiece.

This past Monday, the California-based quartet released their eighth studio album, “Bloodstone & Diamonds” (Nuclear Blast U.S.A.), and after listening to it many times now, only one word keeps coming to my mind that properly sums up this opus: Ambitious. From the symphonic opening notes of “Now We Die” right through to the final, crushing apex of “Take Me Through The Fire”, Machine Head has put out an album that is as epic as it is intricate, and as powerful as it is poetic. Dynamics abound on this album, and nothing seems to be held back. Acoustic guitars, Gregorian chants, full symphony accompaniments, and the familiar Machine Head harmonic vocals are all expertly interwoven with groove, death, and thrash metal elements to produce an album that takes its listeners on a killer ride.

My favorite cuts on the twelve-track effort include the aforementioned “Now We Die”, “Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones”, “Beneath The Silt”, and the raging “Game Over”, but while these four tracks are incredible, they still pale in comparison to the album’s finest achievement, “Sail Into The Black”, a hauntingly monumental, eight minute exploration into an ocean of darkness and loss. Truly, I’m blown away by “Sail Into The Black”, and the rest of “Bloodstone & Diamonds” for that matter. I cannot stress enough how much I encourage all metal heads to buy this fantastic album.

Keep It Metal! \m/

To listen to “Sail Into The Black” and “Game Over” off of “Bloodstone & Diamonds”, just press play below!