Machine Head - The Blackening

Year: 2007
Genre: Mallcore

For the past year, I've been calling Machine Head's "The Blackening" the most overrated album of 2007 without hearing the whole thing. Today, I listened to the whole album and I was right. Lost my appetite. All because of listening to this abomination. People have been raving about Machine Head's latest record, "The Blackening." Some have been comparing it to Metallica's early material. Some have even gone so far to say it's the greatest metal album ever. But I want to say this. I would rather eat a KFC bucket of my own shit than to listen to The Blackening again. Machine Head are trying to be progressive metal but they failed. They also try to sound like old school thrash metal at times, and it only ends up sounding like Trivium. I want to know why people are acting like The Blackening is the greatest album of all time. It's nothing new. You might as well be listening to Shadows Fall or Bullet for My Valentine or some other emo-metalcore bullshit. Machine Head were always a trendy band. Hopped on every bandwagon. Look at the facts. When "Burn My Eyes" and "The More Things to Change" came out. Groove Metal was big. They followed the trend. Everybody wanted to sound exactly like Pantera and those two albums sounded boring and uninspired. Then came Nu-Metal. Robb Flynn became Flava Flynn. Machine Head recorded "The Burning Red" and "Supercharger" of which are some of the worst records of all time. Even some of Machine Head's hardcore fans thought those albums sucked. Soon, Metalcore became big with the rise of crappy bands like Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage. Machine Head followed this trend and released "Through the Ashes of Empires" and now "The Blackening." Like the album before it, The Blackening is a metalcore album. Now with more retro-thrash leanings. It features alot of the things that makes the current "metal scene" suck so badly. Clean emo vocals, generic and overdone groove riffs, Cliche and idiotic lyrics, Modernized sound, Pointless breakdowns, poor song structure, etc. Not to mention it's sad excuses for thrash metal riffs. Some of these songs are 9 minutes long but they are poorly done.

Robb Flynn's vocals sound like his normal wanna-be "tough guy" voice with a pussy Killswitch Engage-esque whinny emo voice. In one of the softer moments of "Halo," he sounds extremely bitchy like he's about to cry. This album is filled with musical cliches. I don't even know where to start. Sure, Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel can play guitar but does that really matter? They aren't doing anything that special. The riffs are recycled from countless other bands. Tons of boring groove riffs and lame post-"thrash" riffs. The lead guitar playing is nothing special either. It just sounds forced and dishonest. People say Machine Head aren't nu-metal anymore I hear tons of nu-metal moments in pretty much every song. I mentioned before that the lyrics are crap. Alot of them have to do with "teen angst." It sounds pathetic coming from a 20 year old loser but it's much worse from a 40 year old man.

Overall, listening to The Blackening all the way through was self-torture. I literally feel sick to my stomach and wish to have the last hour of my life back. The Blackening is probably the most overrated album of all time. Don't believe what you are told. This is not a masterpiece or a modern day classic. This is just a pathetic attempt at prog. metal, thrash, and metal as a whole. There is nothing unique about copying something bad that has been done before and playing it for 10 minutes. This is just boring and pathetic.


0/10