Machine Head were once considered the heirs to Metallica’s throne in the heavy metal world. They did not however live up to those expectations but it did not stop them from releasing some good albums. I really like The Blackening from 2007 and The More Things Change is a great one as well in my books. As the fans have come to expect there are many longer songs on this album. In fact, only one song is shorter than five minutes, and that makes up for quite a long album even though we are only given 10 songs in total. That is on the special edition so the total of songs on the original version is seven.
On the special edition I go there are two versions of Darkness Within and I must say that I like the original version better than the acoustic. Machine Head has always been good at having variety among their tracks and they keep that up here as well. There are thrash metal songs, there are slower songs and there are songs with acoustic parts. I do think that Robb Flynn is at his best as a vocalist here, the clean vocals have never sounded better. The guitar duels between Flynn and Phil Demmel would make any fan of shredding start drooling. So there are a lot of good points with this album. Listen to the album opener I am Hell, such a strong track and the perfect way to start the album.
One thing that I do not like is the children’s choir on Who We Are. It just seems out of place on a otherwise very heavy album. That song is in general the weakest one so the original version of the album does not end on a high note. Other than that I must say that I am impressed with Machine Head. They follow up the mighty The Blackening with another fine album. There might still be hope for world domination after all. For metal fans everywhere
