Here we are again. Another Machine Head album, another handful of tracks to unpick, another round of discerning if Robb has settled on any direction this time around. By now notorious for injecting virulent amounts of nu-metal, alt metal and even rap metal into their music, any new record from MH certainly gets greeted with the guard somewhat up. My absolute horror at the shitshow that was Catharsis from seven years ago was probably the peak of my derision with Flynn’s continued dilution of their core groove metal sound. Sitting here in 2025, I felt kind of desensitised to anything that Unatoned could throw at me, and so listening to the usual plethora of styles being blended across a lengthy twelve tracks did have me once again rolling my eyes in frustration that the skip button was out of reach.
The main frustration I have had with latter day output from MH is that when they stick to straight forward groove metal, MH are simply one of the best groove metal acts around. Tracks like ‘Atomic Revelations’ and ‘Unbound’ more than prove this. These tracks are clear examples of MH at the pinnacle of their powers. Think of recent releases by Exhorder and you are in the right ballpark for these two tracks. Unfortunately, there is very little of any comparable quality beyond these on the rest of the album. Heavily front loaded, Unatoned fades badly from around the mid-point of the record. Whilst it may not actually tank altogether, it clearly suffers from filler after the passable ballad ‘Not Long for This World’.
I can stomach the strive to write catchy tunes (‘Outsiders’) and I can even tolerate the chiming electronics that accompany some tracks (even though I have heard Bad Omens, Sleep Token and Architects do them much better). However, there is still the problem of the album lacking much in the way of identity, or much in the way of direction. Even though it has started to sound more cohesive with repeated listens, Unatoned lacks any assured purpose overall. There are some great riffs and leads present across the record, however they are too disparate in distribution and for me should have had far more consistent focus across the album. I will say though that this record is probably the best record MH have done since Unto the Locust and it proves there is more than enough life in the old dog yet. They just need to settle on a pathway.
Review by Vinny for Machine Head - Unatøned (2025)
