Nuclear Blast Records
Out Now
Words by Jimmy Glinster
MACHINE HEAD is a name that’s well and truly earned its place in Modern Metal history.
Even with a few hits and misses on albums, depending on which shade of the Machine spectrum you fit, they are a band that continue to deliver no matter what faces them. Robb Flynn, their fearless leader and only original member, is a true testament to this and by his own regards, and aptly titled podcast No Fuckin’ Regrets, continues to show that he has none. So, love it or hate it, Machine Head are still going strong and have just delivered their latest effort ØF KINGDOM AND CRØWN.
Now, rumour has it that this is a concept album which honestly gives me the shits just thinking about, but I’ll put my personal biases aside and give this album the chance it may or may not deserve. Who knows, it could be my new favourite Machine Head album to knock The Burning Red off its long-standing mantle.
Anyway, you can all hate on me for that later, but for now, let’s get to the review!
A few solitary guitar notes bounce around as Robb enters with some haunting clean vocals. It’s ominous, and the atmosphere is somber but still somehow intense, and I’m expecting at some point with the opening track Slaughter the Martyr will soon burst into some epic Machine Head riffing. Yep, there we go, those signature harmonics and all. Damn Robb, goddamn! It’s class Machine Head, it really is. It’s fast and heavy, but not over technical with that annoying noodling that you hear in a lot of modern metal. It’s good solid riffs backed by a tight and thumping rhythm section. Solid start to the album!
Choke on the Ashes of Your Hate possibly has one of the best opening riffs that I’ve heard for a long time, and once the track gets going it’s straight up thrash that only momentarily pulls back for a touch of groove in the choruses. It just doesn’t let up, not even during a quick bass interlude. It’s angry, it’s really fucking angry, but I probably should have guessed that by the songs title!
Well, I wasn’t expecting a death/black metal track, but that’s exactly how Become the Firestorm smashed me in the face with its intro. It’s fast, real fast, and really heavy, except for some weird super clean vocals that poke their head in for a short moment while the band continues to destroy. This actually doesn’t sound much like a Machine Head song to me, but who cares, it’s fucking good and fucking heavy! Some dualling guitars towards the end of the track pull the song back a little until a crazy guitar solo excites the track again!
An interlude titled Overdose breaks the chaos momentarily while we hear a heart rate monitor stop, and a nurse tells us that the overdose was too strong and that we’ve lost her. This obviously has something to do with the concept story, but the riffs have been too crazy for me to focus on the lyrics. And let’s be honest, I probably don’t care about some made up fantasy story, this isn’t the Marvel Universe, and I’m not a comic book fan.
Next up is My Hands Are Empty which we all heard back in 2020 with all its Ho ho, Ho-hou- ho-hou-ho, ho-ho’s, ho-ho’s. And as much as I’d like to take the piss out of that for sounding like a chant from a piss weak soccer match, I’ll leave it alone because it’s actually a pretty fucking good track. You’ve all heard it, and if you haven’t, go fucking hear it!
Unhallowed begins sounding like a ballad, but very quickly picks up the pace with some more solid riffing! It does pull back again, and we hear Robb sing cleaner than I think I have ever heard him sing. This will be a hard track to swallow for fans of Machine Head that hated anything commercially viable, like some of the tracks from the Burning Red and Catharsis. Fuck y’all though, I don’t care, and I’m pretty fucking sure Robb doesn’t either. I like it, it’s a softer track in moments, but still an absolute banger when it needs to be!
Another interlude titled Assimilate creates an atmosphere which I’m sure somehow fits in with the concept, but also acts as the intro to Kill Thy Enemies. This is a slower and much groovier track, but it’s still heavy as fuck. The slower vocals let us hear Robb’s solid screams for what they are, and how we knew them from the earlier Burn My Eyes and The More Things Change days. Did someone say Machine Head ending?
No Gods, No Masters, now that sounds like my kind of jam. Totally not what I expected, though, until it’s exactly what I expected. Solid double kicks pull the verses together and keep the song flowing until it slows back down for some more melodic and rhythmic choruses. I’d usually say this is an experimental track due to the constant shift in styles, but in the big scheme of things, it’s just a track where the band has thrown in influences from all of the previous albums. Oh, there is also a Machine Head ending for the breakdown, so you can’t complain about that.
A quick tasty tom fill kicks off Bloodshot which once it kicks in sounds like a Max Cavalera track. I’d even swear Max is doing guest vocals on it, but I can’t find any information to back that up. This track absolutely bangs with riff after riff of absolute carnage.
There is one thing this album is definitely not, and that’s Rotten. That’s what the next track is titled though, and Robb tells us very quickly that “everything is rotten to the core”. I must note here, that even though this is a concept album, you would not pick it by the choruses that whether planned or not, Robb leaves open to interpretation in the real world. Holy shit, that breakdown, damn! Oh, and the solo also fucking kills! Take note, this is how you write a metal song!
I’ll skip the outro track Terminus, and you probably can too. Love him or hate him, there is a reason why Robb Flynn has stayed on the top of the game for so long, and this album is a perfect example of it. It’s got the riffs, and it’s got the groove, and at the end of the day it’s heavy as fuck, just the way we all like it!
Insert “Machine Head Ending” here …
