Machine Head seem to be a bit of a Marmite band for most people – you either love them or hate them. Personally I don’t get the hate, especially towards newest offering Unatoned. Is it the best album in the band’s discography? No, it also feels like a weaker album when compared against its predecessor Of Kingdom and Crown.
That being said I like the album on it’s own merits. Where the previous album felt slightly bloated in number of tracks and overall duration department, Unatoned has gone for a lean and trimmed approach – 12 tracks totalling a 42-minute run time. I actually feel this could have been trimmed slightly more.
Brief intro Landscape of Thorns feels superfluous, the album launching straight into Atomic Revelations would have made for a more explosive start. Mid album spacey interlude Dustmaker feels out of place within the context of the album, I applaud the band for experimenting with a different style, it just doesn’t fit the vibe of the rest of the album.
However, album closer Scorn brings things to a slower and calm conclusion. Acoustic guitars and softer, clean vocals are prevalent here, before bringing in the heavier crescendo. This is the experimentation and different vibes I enjoy from Machine Head. I also feel its placement at the end of the album works well. Certainly a highlight.
The more immediate approach to the songs is a breath of fresh air though. Most of the songs being shorter and more to the point than in recent years. Some of the songs remind me of the more recent output from Bullet For My Valentine – amusing as their last release (self titled) reminded me of Machine Head!
Unatoned’s musical DNA still feels very much Machine Head. Robb Flynn’s signature vocals being front and centre, if you’ve listened to the band before you get very much the usual experience – a mix of clean vocals and thrash influenced harsher vocals. The lyrics I find straightforward but also get the message across, for example in These Scars Won’t Define Us: very much a call to arms that we need to stick together and keep going through adversity. Filling out the rest of the sound we have the groovy and chunky guitar riffs, the dualling guitar solos – very trademark and business as usual.
Overall this feels like a solid albeit slightly flawed release. If you haven’t checked out the band before this probably isn’t the best starting place – I’d recommend checking out The Blackening or Unto the Locust. But if you typically enjoy the bands output it certainly isn’t the weakest album in the catalogue.
I have still been having a lot of fun listening to the album, especially if I have it on loud while driving – my head will be banging, I’ll be shouting along and trying not to break speed limits!
Top tracks: These Scars Won’t Define Us, Atomic Revelations, Scorn
