Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Machine Head - Catharsis (2018)
When I did my review for the Machine Head album The Blackening, I found it only as decent as other metalheads would think of their more averagely successful albums like the album prior, Through the Ashes of Empires, and their debut, Burn My Eyes. Their best effort for me is Bloodstone & Diamonds, which although I'm still not fully committed to listening to this band, I can see how thankful I should be for them developing metal. Yet they do a 180 and make a new album that can suck a rat's a****le...
Catharsis is probably the most eclectically shallow metal album, and while it's not as atrocious as that Exterminator album, it's still a F***ING STINK BOMB!! This is pretty much a return to the nu metal sound of The Burning Red and Supercharger, but thankfully there's still a few small stylistic throwbacks to their true sound.
While I won't mention a lot of the songs, one of a few that I would point is the title track. It actually sounds OK for the first minute and a half, with an epic string intro and a quick soft clean verse. But when the heavy part begins, that's when it starts going downhill! Death-growling?!? More like death-RAPPING!!! What the f*** is that sh*t?! You guys know that rapping is a b***h for me when used unsuitably!! This whole rap-powered nu metal rats*it continues on, especially in the horrid "Triple Beam". Attila does much better rapping in their metal. There's another song that's structured by a bunch of lazy "B****rds", that song being the most controversial song of the album. Right smack in the middle, it comes out as a folk-core anthem ripping off Dropkick Murphys. Is that what a call-to-arms anthem is NOT supposed to sound like??
The 15-song offering of nu metal misery continues, but eventually a couple songs go on a more pleasant note such as the melodic "Behind a Mask". What really marks a great comeback to their thrashy groove-metalcore era is "Heavy Lies the Crown" which, after a two and a half minute intro, has tons of heavy riffing within this 9-minute epic. A much better epic than the ones in the other Machine Head albums I've reviewed, stranded in an ocean of much worse songs. OK, there's one more sh*tter to note and that song is "Psychotic" where the death-rapping goes f***ing psycho! Then after a couple more mediocre songs, "Eulogy" brings the album to a nice melodic end.
I sh*t you not, Catharsis is a Machine Head album like Donald Trump is the current U.S. President. This album exposes the wretched nu metal hell of everything wrong with this band and possibly metal throughout a long 75 minutes, except for a few excellent highlights that bring the rating up a bit. Their "supercharged" nu metal is worsened by poor delivery, but it feels like they haven't forsaken their groove grace. It's fine if you wanna try this album to see for yourself, but look out, the b****rds will grind you down....
Favorites (the only highlights): "Behind a Mask", "Heavy Lies the Crown", "Eulogy"