[REVIEW] MACHINE HEAD - ‘UNATØNED’ LP.
Words: Brady Irwin
Artist: Machine Head
Origin: Oakland, CA (US)
Album: UNATØNED
Release Date: April 25th, 2025
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
For a band so musically and stylistically right in the bell-curve-centre of modern metals’ cornucopia of delights, I find both my personal listener-relationship to Machine Head to be a confusing mix of deep nostalgia and a very modular, drop-in/drop-out overall listening trajectory with time.
For real, though - if you have a chance to see MH ply their wares live? Do it. Trust me. They’re a band I will always, always go see live when they’re in town because they’re just so, so damn incredible in that capacity, but also one I’ve admittedly felt my finger less on the pulse with their latter-day studio material.
Specifically, Bloodstones and Diamonds I felt was an above-average follow-up to The Blackening, which is also an album so starkly iconic that it took concerted effort on my behalf not to keep bringing it back to that yardstick. It seems to be a later-era pinnacle and reference-point for both fans, reviewers and the bands themselves too - echoes of that stylistic shift certainly resound here in their 11th studio opus.
We will not speak of Catharsis, I’m just going to pretend that one doesn’t even exist. Nay, the reason for this little contextual detour and points of comparison via latest LP UNATØNED, is where it compares on an almost 1:1 line-graph association with its’ forebear, right down to the janky typeface. There is a lot here that could have slotted as easily in on the previous album, however as I’ll note further below, the band aren’t without their tricks and flourishes with each new iteration.
All that aside - I’m not here to run you through some Youtuber-style musicological talk-piece on discographies though, am I?
Without further ado, we jump straight into proceedings, beginning softly with the near-silent, echoed ambient whispers of intro-track ‘Landscape øf Thørns’. Oh and by the way, I’m usually a track-by-track kind of guy in my reviews. Thus for the sake of your eyes and brain not feeling as though assailed by a Boomer on a rant about, I don’t know…. The Dyed-Hairs and AirBnB taxes… I’ll be de-capitalising the LOUD TRACK TITLES as per default on release.
Plus, the introduction itself is anything but loud. A soft reproach before exactly what you know to be following. Its’ a “say the line, Bart!” level of statistical probability churning in your brain as to what is coming next. Neither you nor I are thrown any curveballs here, ‘least to start off with.
Without the power of mental telepathy, I’ll say you’re precisely on the money about how the next track starts. ‘Atømic Revelatiøns’ rifles off with Machine Head clearly doing a Machine Head/modern-metal, blasting away the quiescent preamble with a launch into trademark stomp, pomp and roll. Robb Flynn’s vocal performance feels somewhat subdued on this track particularly, more backgrounded by the guitars (care of recent entrant Reece Scuggs), Matt Alston’s nimble, creative and fluid drumming repertoire, and the titanic weight of Jared MacEarhern’s treble-heavy, adaptive bass playing. As a fellow slinger of the low-end, forever-joked-about bass guitar, Jared’s performance is a nice interplay between punctuated snarls and completely subsumed oomph, throughout.
Now, for the track in question. You’ve got exactly the riffs you’d expect here - of Machine Head’s more recent work at least. It’s that time-tested collage of Lamb of God-esque single-string hopping riffs, stompin’ power-chord chugs and also the virtuoso lead performance that’s been requisite for a good while now.
On that note: Reece’s addition to the band is palpable throughout, teaming with Flynn for a performance marked as much by speed as flair, but with an invigorating sense of melodic sensibility. If anything, it’s reminiscent of later-day Opeth, with Fredrik Akesson’s inception as a clearly-plotted shift in trad-metal creativity. It serves as a nice addition to the usual triplet-bounces, open-string chug grooves and those oh-so-’Head string-skipping harmonics wedged in throughout.
Lyrically, Flynn’s also as you’d expect throughout the album. Lamenting being “showered in radiation”, the track’s never subtle about the thermonuclear theme as an allegory to the general malaise of late-stage capitalism. And y’know what? Honestly, I’ve got to hand it to the band to keep things meat-and-taters around their lyrical themes, which for Machine Head historically gravitates towards truth-to-power, sombre emotional reflection, uniting the vulnerable, and whatnot. It’s predictable, particularly within the bands’ own rubric but… I don’t know, man.
Not everyone has to make a modern metal album about Lovecraftian cosmic horror with keys held to said horror held by some intrapsychic entity. At times these days, lyrical themes can feel closely adjacent to the jargonistic ploys by Carcass, so having a band squarely centred in keepin’-it-real was more refreshing than I was ready for! You just know what you’re in for with a new Machine Head, and UNATØNED really bears neither apologies nor concessions for this fact. They arrive, rock out, leave. Done, simple.
This adherence to lyrical tradition borders on ho-hum for me through an otherwise rip-tearing track in single ‘Unbøund’. Little moments like the intricate thrash-metal riff runs and the near blastbeat clatter over the chorus are just some of many little interjections of flourish and creativity throughout, and MH have worked the modern-metal format long enough to have a good read on tasty inflections from the riffage spice-rack.
I couldn’t even really focus on writing/taking notes through parts of this track at one stage; the big, stinky, stompin’ breakdown riff. I’m glad Machine Head keep these big chonkers scattered throughout their catalogue, as it provides such a strong and pre-eminent space for visualising a pogo-bouncing crowd at a venue that it feels semi-hallucinatory.
The gang-chants, strings and bombastic chords provide that also-now-familiar sense of late-era grandiosity - but here’s a fun kicker. Robb injects, if only briefly, a near death-metal level of venom into his delivery, right on the cusp of the latter third or so of the track. I sat bolt upright, my crust-punk/extreme-metal ears upright like a pet being called.
Others have focussed on where and how Robb sounds more strained/subdued in his vocal delivery on this album, a statement I’ll both affirm and reject in equal measure. Within each track, the eponymous frontman shifts from sounding half-underwater to soaring, gliding effortlessly. My estimate is its’ also the ‘busy-ness’ of the production/songwriting, jam-packed with strings, choral effects and the like in places, also lends to a bit of subsuming where vocals are concerned.
Overall, the production is stellar, but it does at times feel like someone’s tried to pull a Hevy Devy 500-track wall-of-sound approach, and there’s only one probably-neurodivergent music wizard who pull millions of competing tracks within the sonic constraints offered by mainstream metal/rock. Album-wide, it’s not too detracting, though, and musical accroutement is largely added in a way that doesn’t overshadow the musicianship on offer.
Hmm.
I’m pratting on about this one sticking to the Machine Head formula, but where’s our metalhead-unity/stick-up-for-the-little-guy hardcore-adjacent tr- oh, there it is!
‘Outsider’ is one of Machine Head’s staples, to the point where I almost feel it could be an omission if I weren’t wanting to be thorough.
You know the drill, folks - a stand-up/truth-to-power for those always feeling othered, outsider-ed (funny that, eh?) and otherwise ostracised, excluded or downtrodden. Again, it’s bordering on self-imposed cliche, but you cannot deny the sheer fun of this track. Nor the album, really.
Beginning with a plodding fret-on/fret-off riff (who’s this guy, Music Journalism Mr. Miyagi?), the track takes a well-worn path from pseudo groove/nu-metal canter, through to the bands’ on-brand pastiche of those with decently flavourful thrash/classic metal. It’s the rhythm section that helps this one stand on its’ own more outright, I feel - gnarled, growling arpeggiations on the bass and some clever drumwork bring a push-pull dynamic that is fractionally discordant against the guitar riffing and (of course) blazing, shit-hot solos.
Something that made me smirk to myself in listening to the album, are some of the many moments like the above track and follow-up ‘'Nøt Løng før This Wørld’ as they relate to Robb. Specifically, there’s quite a few verses where you can hear him keenly leaning right into that Burning Red/Supercharger rap-metal adjacency, however here he dials that back a smidge. To good effect, I might add, but the desire to push that a little further into rapping-land is something I feel tangibly present. Robb, live your life dude, don’t worry about us online neckbeards throwing shade.
Speaking on this track further, it’s one of several on the album that bring a… hmmm, modern post-hardcore band that’d be on a UNFD bill, sound? For those outside the Australian musical clime, think recent Parkway Drive, Thornhill or any other number of younger acts. That electronica-infused, reserved chordal progression over the also-unsurprising soft croons by Flynn to introduce a faster riff-run later. I’ll be honest, these moments I could’ve done without in terms of musical taste preference, BUT - for the album itself, these actually act as nice breakaways, moments that help the twelve-track total along more easily.
With a reverb-heavy, arpeggiated verse and that Venn-Diagram-overlapping 90’s alternative-rock/grunge/modern-metal semi-croon, there’s an overall sense of relaxing and taking things a little more nostalgic in the musical sense. Again, it’s all classically Machine Head, and one of many moments on the LP that feel like a compendium/compilation, but not in a way that’s hamfisted or forced. Very competently serviceable, in other words.
That last sentence could be employed as a full analysis of follower ‘These Scars Wøn't Define Us’. Wearing its’ own influences and structure alike firmly on the sleeve, grafted to it even, we’re essentially treated to this albums’ ‘Aesthetics of Hate’. Shorter, sharper and tighter than preceding or following tracks, with a concerted effort to deliver a strong empowerment-based lyrical statement, ‘Scars’ nevertheless shows off flavourful and tasty cumulative creative additions to the bands’ decades of riff-practice.
Specifically, the soloing here is something I had to give pause and reflect on. Machine Head have always been known for shred, but even if you’re a grump who loves to hate mainstream-metal or whatever, there is no denying the uptick in both proficiency and harmonic flair we’re seeing over time with this band. Thus, we get a lot crammed into relatively short time - interesting and frantic passes between harmonics, muting, Petrucci-level note speedruns and Ihsahn-approved lead arpeggios, often within a short passage.
Whilst it’s not badly performed nor even written, really, with an overall riff-framework that will feel lockstep with expectations, Unatoned overall is jam-packed with a lot of subtle embellishments across individual members. But sometimes, like the end of said track and others, a big, hearty bowl of breakdown-soup after some shred-tastic lead work is just what the mosh doctor ordered.
‘Dustmaker’ is an interesting one - at a runtime of one minute and fifty seconds, the largely sparse interlude featuring female spoken word, ambling power chords and plenty of electronic wash is briefer than those we’re used to. It’s honestly not much to write on, but I think also key to note in the bands’ more recent craft. That is, eschewing longer, prog-styled songs with a significant warm-up period.
That comparative lack of pre-gaming compared to say, ‘The Locust’ does help book-end the transition into ‘Bønescraper’ (“Woah, woah, woah! Easy with the ø’s!”). Unfortunately, I… was not a fan of the track, not at all. Sigh, look, as with my abject refusal to talk about the past monstrosity that was Catharsis, all I’ll really say is the majority of the track gave me… big Catharsis vibes.
Seriously though, MH are known for grafting elements of the modern scene into their work as time goes by and, whilst the electronica-heavy, wistful emotive pondering that characterises the track may do it for some, I found it ultimately wore on as the bulk of the track. As with every other track here, though, I’m envisioning it (and me, really) going off in a collective sense to some catchy and prideful, heart-string pulling vocal refrains.
I might spend far too much time listening to metal’s esoteric, pseudo-intellectual and/or thuggish periphery, but I’m man enough to own my love for the band overall. The aforementioned track, though. Hmm. Ironically as someone younger than the band themselves, the track in question truly feels like a Seymour Skinner ‘no, it’s the children who are wrong!’ moment for my mid-thirties millenial ears.
‘Addicted To Pain’, then, brings it back to the general rubric I’m by this stage getting slightly worn-out repeating. What I actually do appreciate about this number, though, is the homage paid. Bringing things in with yet another run through the expertly-proficient but subtlety-free thrash/modern metal fast-riff barn-burner for the first half, it’s actually when things start to go full, and I mean full, late-90’s/early-00’s Slipknot in the riff department that my interest is piqued. Ironically, as a thrash-maniac and a metalhead whom had to grow out of pretending to not like bands, it’s that jagged-arpeggio/big-old string-stomp that garners my focus more readily, particularly over the tasty drum-fills scattered throughout like toys of wood, skin and metal. (That last sentence could be horrible without context, right?).
And if ‘Bonescraper’ was lifting notes/themes from recent modern-metal lectures, ‘Bleeding Me Dry’ is probably the most polarised cliff-notes take on the entire album. I really was not too immersed in the even thicker, heavier use of electronica, string-crescendos and wall-of-production tone here. Even for a band as massive and omnipresent as Machine Head, I’ve found some moments on recent albums just go beyond arena-rock-ready in their delivery, petering out in places to provide something… catchy? Atmospheric? Both, I guess?
What’s interesting for me is their little about-face on both their personal and community-branded ‘growl in the verse, sing loudly in the chorus’ metal-factory-line dynamic. Robb’s switch to some truly (and I say that as an ardent death metal fan with some self-consciousness re: even writing a bloody MH review (but also screw elitists)) nasty, even guttural growls, and the bee’s-dick-shy length from full blastbeat territory, complemented by a churning, grating, rust-inflected bassline? Dude, nice! I actually appreciated that stylistic reversal quite a lot and, whilst the entire track isn’t to my fancy, it’s demonstrative of MH wanting to muck around with their own playbook even more. Something I, based on the album so far, both heartily encourage and am slightly wary of. ‘Bonescraper’ is for me, equally a misstep and a success.
‘Shards of Shattered Dreams’ funnily enough feels iconic in its’ simplicity. The very punk-rock, no-frills power-chord progression opening proceedings into [Machine Head riffs as discussed above] is another interesting little cutaway, Family Guy style, from the otherwise classic/trad/groove-heavy surroundings. The ‘Head always have to have a string-skipping/ top-string bouncing number to get our aging elder-millenials pogoing in the pit next to their much more sprightly Gen Z/Alpha accompaniment, and this one’s no different. No muss, no fuss, no progressive rock epics. Just a classically fun, tight Machine Head song. I’ll throw in that containing the more salient string-section moments for briefer time intervals than say, half the song, was also an interesting little lemon-slice in a track as knowingly Machine Head as cold water with ice. Refreshing, familiar and sates a core need.
Phew.
‘Kay.
You guys know me and my incessant, thought-disordered cognitive/writing style by now. You’re also well aware by now that, like other recent additions to their canon, there’s arguably just too many damn songs overall on this record. Had they closed off with a typical ''farken SEND IT, mate!’’ bruiser, or some 12-minute leviathan, it honestly could’ve jeopardised my whole experience. The recency effect in action, and all that.
But, as a closer and very, very clearly this albums’ analogue to ‘A Therapy for Pain’ from Fear Factory’s Demanufacture/’Wretched World’ from Converge’s Axe To Fall, etc, it’s the brevity and simplicity that funnily enough makes the boldest statement. Having wrestled with frets in a blaze of histrionics for quite a long listening period, the sombre and very spacious, 90’s-coded melodic finisher doesn’t outstay its’ welcome, isn’t a Dream Theater experience in painful for the most severely ADHD among us (sometimes I can hyperfocus, but man..) - it just is.
And, as we cop the completely-expected routine within of chest-beating midsection, bombastic breakdown and final solo vocal refrains by Robb over dwindling piano keys, Unatoned ends. And, with it, an album that occupies an interesting overlap between completely-predictable-Machine Head, next-level-technical-proficiency-Machine Head and new-tricks Machine Head.
This one will be unlikely to set your fandom world on fire, but it’s a solid addition to a decades-long catalogue. Twelve tracks might sound like a lot, and perhaps there’s some just too familiar and/or fatigued with 30+ years of the Machine Head brand to appreciate the clever dynamics interjected here. And that’s fine. Honestly? It’s a fine album. Not terrible, above-average, not a magnum opus. Which is sometimes also exactly what your ears are after.
I’ll sign this one out with a legally-requisite phrasing.
As Always,
Peace, Love and Machine Fuckin’ Head , xoxo - Brady.
ARTIST/ALBUM INFO:
UNATØNED Tracklisting:
1. LANDSCAPE ØF THØRNS
2. ATØMIC REVELATIØNS
3. UNBØUND
4. ØUTSIDER
5. NØT LØNG FØR THIS WØRLD
6. THESE SCARS WØN'T DEFINE US
7. DUSTMAKER
8. BØNESCRAPER
9. ADDICTED TØ PAIN
10. BLEEDING ME DRY
11. SHARDS ØF SHATTERED DREAMS
12. SCØRN
MACHINE HEAD is:
Robb Flynn | Vocals & Guitars
Jared MacEachern | Bass & Vocals
Reece Scruggs | Guitar
Matt Alston | Drums
More Information:
https://www.machinehead1.com/
https://twitter.com/MfnH
https://www.instagram.com/machine_head/
https://www.youtube.com/c/machinehead/featured
https://www.facebook.com/MachineHead
https://www.tiktok.com/@machineheadofficial
