It’s interesting to trace the journey and development of long-running bands, tracking the quality of their output over the years. In the case of the now-legendary Californian metallers Machine Head, they started with all guns blazing: their first two albums being all-time metal classics.
They then had a slight dip, before exploding back to form. That form continues with the release of their eighth album, Bloodstone & Diamonds.
It appears Robb Flynn and co. have truly decided what their signature sound and style is. Take the nuclear-strength groove and balls-out aggression of the first two records, infuse an epic vibe and a little more light and shade, and you have latter-day Machine Head. And after four albums pursuing that sound, they’re arguably doing it better than ever.
There’s a fabulous sense of ebb and flow and variation across the album’s almost 70-minute length. There’s plenty of mid-paced stomp and grind, thrashy moments, gothic elements, a quiet but dark ballad (‘Damage Inside’), an instrumental (‘Imaginal Cells’) and plenty more.
Bloodstone and Diamonds is probably Machine Head’s most complete and varied album. It’ll truly satiate existing fans, and could very well gain them a bunch of new ones.
4/5.
Bloodstone and Diamondsis out now through Nuclear Blast.
