Machine Head – Unto The Locust (Special Edition)
Release Date: 9/27/2011
Best tracks: I Am Hell (Sonata in C#), Be Still And Know, Locust, Darkness Within/Darkness Within (Acoustic), The Sentinel, Witch Hunt
Reviewed by Spoob
Leave it to the Spoob Man to ignore yet another band who has been putting out albums since 1994. I’ve always felt most great bands have great names- like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Pantera. A great band name is just the beginning, and further augmented when a talented graphic artist gets a hold of it and incorporates an apocalyptic album cover to go along with it. This, in a nutshell, is a crash course in heavy metal imagery. This, in a nutshell, describes Machine Head’s seventh release: Unto The Locust.
I have not felt this connected to and inspired by an album since Vulgar Display of Power. I recommend listening to this one first in headphones and after with windows down, fully blasted in your car as you pull up next to old ladies, women, and children.
It sounds as if the band may have employed the same chorus of children that sang on “Youth of the Nation” (P.O.D.) for the track “Who We Are,” which seems to capture the essence of smartphone society: “Di-vi-ded we will stand!” Then again, maybe not- those children are older now and probably hanging out with the “naked baby” kid that graced the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind.
I actually ignored this band in part because of its name. I was never much of a Deep Purple fan and you know what you can do with that Bush song of the same name. Unto The Locust has everything a metal fan needs in an album: throat-slicing riffs, “gin-gin” palm-muted rhythms, a vocalist/guitarist (Robb Flynn) who “growl-yells” but can also be understood without much help from the liner notes, and bloody Biblical themes that contain a bit o’ the ol’ ultraviolence. Let us turn to Psalm 46:10, Matthew 7:6, and the entire book of Revelations. As The Bible ended with perhaps its most interesting book, this album ends with two well executed covers.
I Am Hell (Sonata In C#): This song instantly yanked my ear and subliminally told me to listen to the rest of the album. The eerie chant could have been a small crumb leftover from Glenn Danzig’s Black Aria album. Is he saying “blood bath” in a foreign language? This song is spattered with classic metal words like “immolation” and conjures up a similar (but separate) image as was previously illustrated by Metallica’s “Blackened.” I see why this band has been compared to Slayer, except this band is tighter, more powerful, and easier to digest. Classical guitar interludes surface on this as well as a few other tracks on the album.
Be Still And Know: This title gets its name from Psalm 46:10. I listen to a CD by Dr. Wayne Dyer every morning before I join the rest of my friends in the rat race. If you know what Dr. Dyer looks like, you’re probably laughing your ass off right now and wondering what a metal fan would be doing drawing inspiration from that guy. In the past I’ve spent too many hours focusing on the past and too much time worrying about what the future holds. The take home point here is if we are able to chill out just for a moment- everything will work out for us. It probably wasn’t the lyricist’s intention to plug Dyer, but that is the beauty of lyrics: they are whatever they mean to you. Musically, this song contains what I might call “melodic scat” singing during the verses and has a fist-pumping chorus I can already see people singing along to during live shows.
Locust: This track is the central theme of the album. The intro is slightly reminiscent of “Aerials” (System Of A Down) and commands us to “Suffer unto the locust!” It is most refreshing to hear Robb Flynn give his vocal chords a break just long enough to quietly sing “Hark, the angels sing.”
Darkness Within/Darkness Within (Acoustic): A great song sounds great acoustically as well as electrically and on steroids. I could see this song bringing the band commercial success much like Stone Sour’s “Through Glass.” Lyrical and vocal synergy is achieved at two points within this opus: “We build cathedrals to our pain, establish monuments to attain freedom from all of the scars and the sins lest we drown in the darkness within,” and “Music, my savior (save me).” The electric version is a six minute and 30 second musical adventure.
The Sentinel: I was about to say how this song reminded me of “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” and sounded like Rob Halford lent guest vocals to the song. Thanks to google I can tell you that this, of course, is a Priest cover. True metalheads are scratching their heads- “He had to google that?”
Witch Hunt: I thought I’d heard this song before as well. I wondered why Dave McClain’s drum fills sounded identical to and inspired by Neil Peart. This is a great cover of a song off of Rush’s 1984 album Grace Under Pressure. Put this up there with Disturbed’s cover of “Land of Confusion” from Genesis.
I’m off to give Machine Head’s cover of “Hallowed Be Thy Name” (Iron Maiden) a listen. Fartheads, enjoy.
(4/5 Brainfart horns up!)
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