I have accumulated many personal reviews while listening to albums. My reviewing style is non-conventional and was only intended for myself. Sometimes I will only use one sentence to describe an album if I feel that is all that's required. Other times I will review an album while I'm still listening to it, leading to a song-by-song review of the album (bringing the size of the review to nearly dissertation-level). There are times when I will even come back to a review to add information that I didn't know when originally writing the review. The point is that I won't edit my reviews to make them more readable or conventional. My reviews are always a direct result of what I was feeling when I wrote them and I want to let that feeling come through.



Sunday, August 7, 2011

Machine Head - The Blackening [2007]

"Clenching the Fists of Dissent" is an epic length. It has quite a lot to like... amorphous, energetic, and even beautiful at some parts. The song only drags, briefly, once or twice. "Beautiful Mourning" starts off really energetic, but drags like a fat-ass in the middle of the song. "Aesthetics of Hate" is a bit like the previous track, but with more hate and catchiness. "Now I Lay Thee Down" has a more mellow first half to it with a middle section made of barbed wire. "Slanderous" has the 6/8 energetic groove thing going on and it's pretty catchy until the chorus. "Halo" starts its epic-length off with a groovy and heavy riff. Light and catchy chorus, too. I hate the boring-ass cheap ending. "Wolves" takes a while before the good stuff kicks in, but after a little while, it becomes more bland, weak, and boring. "A Farewell to Arms" has a beautiful recurring theme to it, but a majority of the middle section is let down by filler riffs that only delay the awesome middle-ending riff. I must say that I'm impressed with the variation found within each song on the album. It keeps things interesting. Sure, not all of the riffs are good, but there are certainly more good than bad. I've never been a fan of Flynn's vocals, though. They always sound slurred to the point of being annoying... like he's drunk or something. It's a pretty damn good album. However, the good is mixed with bad riffs and it really lets the album down a bit.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.machinehead1.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

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