Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Machine Head - Of Kingdom and Crown (2022)
My recent feature nomination of Machine Head's comeback album The Blackening, alerted me to the fact that Rob Flynn and friends had a new release out. Following the terrible Catharsis was always going to go one of two ways, with Flynn either again raising his middle finger to the metal world and doing another nu-metal soaked release or instead choosing to drop some more familiar sounding MH material from their more groove metal days. Hearing that Of Kingdom and Crown was a concept album immediately peaked some intrigue with me as (Burn My Eyes aside) the releases that I enjoy more from the band over the last twenty years or so have been the ones with the longer, better structured tracks (Imperium, Locust, Halo etc), so the prospect of a concept album should increase the opportunity of such structures, right?
Nope, it does not. Aside from album opener Slaughter the Martyr which clocks in at over ten minutes and is bloated to say the least, the majority of OKaC lacks anything in the way of expansion. What it does do - in order to answer the question above of which way has Flynn gone this time - is pick up right where The Blackening left off, adding requisite amounts of Unto the Locust and Bloodstone & Diamonds into the mix along the way. I do not know whether the phrase "a return to form" is valid though. A more accurate description feels to be that Machine Head have not failed twice in a row and whether you deem the album to be a success or not depends largely on if you agree that avoiding failure is a success.
Sound wise this is like the old MH line-up is back in place, which considering this is just Rob Flynn and some new members seems a little odd. Ex-Decpaitated and Vader (live) shredder, Vogg does not strike me as being given much in the way of room to stretch his legs and it might just as well be Demmel there alongside Flynn on guitar. Similarly, Alston behind the kit might as well be McClain, such is the familiarity of the sound here. This is not to say that all nu-metal influence has been dropped altogether from OKaC. Still bits seep through the core, stylistic groove metal that now dominates proceedings again, however there are a few surprises along the way. The blackened, melodic death metal riff of Become the Firestorm for example caught me off guard, unfortunately so did the awful clean singing that briefly punctuates an otherwise perfectly acceptable song with some unnecessary elements of cringe before we get a decidedly nu-metal sounding melodic section to set up the ferocious lead work.
The album also has three interludes which do nothing for me. If you are balls deep in the storyline (which it will surprise nobody to hear that I am not) then I guess they add value for you, otherwise they are just distractions and detractions from the flow of the record. There is also too much of a reflective element to the record also. Chanting intros and clean singing are a skill to place in any metal record and here they just do not work. I would be far happier to just enjoy the intensity of the tempo and get my fill of groove metal riffs as opposed to hearing Flynn explore his vocal range. In short more of the riffs on Unhallowed as opposed to the hazy singing please.
And so to the scores on the doors. In all honesty I struggle to give OKaC a low score. Based on the step up from Catharsis and the odd nostalgic pillow I always seem to rest my head on when I revisit any of the bands past releases, OKaC hits enough references from the groove metal days to satisfy me. The obvious cries out for mainstream accessibility (such as the aforementioned Unhallowed) still annoy the hell out of me though and nostalgia is not usually something that I allow to excuse mediocrity. Three stars seems reasonable under the circumstance as whilst I acknowledge the improvements made from the previous release there is still some way to go.