TIME really does fly. It has been a decade since Machine Head released this tour de force of an album. Bloodstone and Diamonds landed back then with an almighty thud of a paratropper’s boot and it still retains its vitaity after all these years.
Grand and ambitious in its scope, this eight studio album by the San Francisco outfit cemented their already stellar reputation within the genre, bolstered by previous exceptional releases. These included the incendiary debut Burn My Eyes in 1994 and The Blackening in 2007, both widely considered to be heavy metal classics.
Good albums generally stand the test of time. Great albums though can be genre defining.
Is this album worthy of the latter accolade? Similar to other genre-defining records such as Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast or Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut?
Probably not but it does make a very strong case, especially when it retains all of its raw vitality and visceral power in today’s ultra–competitive metal universe. Streaming services has made much extreme music, once the sole purview of the underground scene, much more accessible. The modern music consumer is much more exposed and dialled into fringe genres.
With this being the band’s highest charting album, reaching a lofty number 21 on the US Billboard 200 on its initial release, this will very likely pop up as a “random” recommendation on playlists of listeners who show an inclination of interest in the “noisier” selections.
