Band:	Machine Head
Album:	Bloodstone & Diamonds
Style:	Groove thrash metal, Progressive thrash metal
Release date:	November 07, 2014
A review by:	Ilham

01. Now We Die
02. Killers & Kings
03. Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones
04. Night Of Long Knives
05. Sail Into The Black
06. Eyes Of The Dead
07. Beneath The Silt
08. In Comes The Flood
09. Damage Inside
10. Game Over
11. Imaginal Cells
12. Take Me Through The Fire

Metal fans can be hypocritical sometimes.

Change the name on this cover to Stone Sour*, and everybody boos and heckles. Release it under the Machine Head name, and everybody bows down in curtsy. I have absolutely nothing against metalcore or radio-friendly alternative metal - I even sincerely love both - but there are ways of incorporating elements pertaining to said genres in ways that don't make an album look like the equivalent of a Christmas patchwork sweater with irregular seams. I can already hear the "u dont like change your close-minded" comments. But the truth is, I never cared enough to be butt-hurt about their changing. I'd have loved Bloodtsone & Diamonds as much as Burn My Eyes if it didn't display flaws I wouldn't want a band of this calibre to get away with.

To start with the obvious, the first major bother is the vocal work and how it overpowers the rest of the instruments. A little bit of the crooner act is okay, but there's almost as much of that as the tired and forced snarls which don't even begin to sound menacing. I swear I looked all over the internet for information on the guest appearance of Corey Taylor on "Sail Into The Black". I was ready to do the same for "Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones", a track that sounds as if it were loaned from Garm's side project Head Control System* - which might be the reason I consider it to be the highlight of the album. As a consequence, I found myself going to and fro, from surprise, to legit embarrassment, to various degrees of irritation.

That brings me to my second main complaint: you can't just play this album and expect the same level of quality as it progresses. It's great to see a group go all-in with their ideas, but bloating the album thinking it will make room to cram all those bits in is a definite non-non. Seventy minutes, seriously? In fact, a couple of the twelve songs could work as individual singles some other bands could have released on behalf of Machine Head, instead of letting them stretch the length.

Indeed, the first half of Bloodtsone & Diamonds works much better when it comes to flow, and if it had been released as EP, I'd have been much happier. Even if the public can hear that some moments sound similar to those in The Blackening, it is with so-so vocals as said earlier and without the punch. That shows how little there is left from the original MH-DNA, and how hard it is to see a new DNA emerge from all this mess. A mess, whence two pieces stand out in almost a parodic way:
- the verses of "Beneath The Silt" sound like Deftones* tried to downtune their guitars like Korn*;
- and the catchy "Game Over" is nothing more than a Slipknot*-meets-Blink-182 radio hit from 2003.

Now, now, calm down. You're getting all worked up, I can see it. I don't hate this collection of singles that reminds me of my teenage years. On the contrary, I understand why the addition of cool guitar solos and okay-ish riffs to catchy and cute chorus-heavy songs can please so much. But If this band wants to operate a change in direction - again - towards more commercial and less abrasive, they should stop half-assing it. I am almost chuckling at the mere through of writing the next sentence I would like to conclude with, which sounds like something Bizarro-Ilham would say on opposite day in another parallel universe. Here it is:


*The names marked with an asterisk are bands I love and/or have respected at least at some point, I never meant the mention of those names as an insult.