Album Review: Machine Head - UNATØNED
Reviewed by Tim Finch
Machine Head are a strange beast. In the mid-90’s they were lauded as the future of our heavy genre and they had the strongest debut anyone could remember with ‘Burn My Eyes’. The follow up, ‘The More Things Change’, equally set the world afire and it seemed the world was Machine Head’s oyster. From there the bands albums have been hit and miss; ‘The Burning Red’ was heavily panned (although this author quite liked it) and it’s follow up ‘Supercharger’ had similar reviews. It’s been a roller coaster of a ride ever since, with opinions split on each and every album.
This brings us to 2025, we have a headline set at Bloodstock to look forward to, but also their latest offering on record ‘UNATØNED’ – retaining the bands love of capitalised titles that we’ve seen of late. But what does this release have to offer the Machine Head fan, and indeed the wider metal loving audience? We shall see…
It kicks off with the mysterious ‘LANDSCAPE ØF THØRNS’ with its swirling windswept sounds and footsteps on a gravel path. Thirty seconds in and we hit in the face with a shovel that is ‘ATØMIC REVELATIØNS’ a nasty, fast paced track that sets the tone. Robb’s vocals more gritty than previous releases and sounding altogether quite good. This is mixed with phases of “clean” vocals, which will talk about more later, however overall it’s a good start to this album.
‘UNBØUND’ kicks off with those clean vocals once more, and it’s a theme that will run throughout, the mixing of clean with Robb’s grit, and despite a number of listens I’m yet to be convinced they gel. Away from the vocals this track has a stomping riff and enough hooks to allow you to focus on the fast paced guitar assault on your ears.
One thing that really stands out on the album is the quality of the drums, Matt Alston has gone above and beyond to produce possibly the best drum track of any Machine Head record, with the highlight being the break neck speed he produces on ‘ØUTSIDER’.
There are softer moments to this album too, ‘NØT LØNG FØR THIS WØRLD’ could almost be classed as a ballad, whilst ‘DUSTMAKER’ is a two minute chill out track.
Later in the album we get hints of the bands past; ‘SHARDS ØF SHATTERED DREAMS’ particularly takes us back to the heady days of ‘Burn My Eyes’ and ‘The More Things Change’ with a hint of hardcore thrown in... before those clean vocals kick back in once more.
With the aforementioned ‘The Burning Red’ the band were accused of turning away from their roots and heading in a nu-metal direction. On the flip side ‘UNATØNED’ feels like Machine Head trying to embrace modern day metal, at times it feels like this album is imitating the likes of Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine. That’s not to criticise, just to note that even after all these years Machine Head are still looking to define what their sound really is.
Overall, this is a good modern metal album. Will it be for every Machine Head fan? Probably not, depending on their persuasion. Will it be for every metal fan? Almost certainly there will be those that love this and those that hate it. Where it sits in the pantheon of eleven studio albums from the band? Only time will tell. Love it or hate it, this is undeniably Machine Fucking Head!
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