Metal Reviews

You heard about Machine Head on MTV, thats pretty supprising. I remember hearding about Fear Factory being on MTV once, but not Machine Head. Perhaps MTV US blows more than MTV Europe.

just because they rap a little or wear different style (heck I don't wear same style clothing I did 10 years ago) does not mean they are bad by default.

The first I heard of Machine Head was 1998 while listening to metal radio station which plays all time of metal music including hardcore/punk.

It wasn't on MTV by the way, but a similar thing here in Holland called TMF.

The first time I heard of Machine Head was when I saw them in concert, they opened for Slayer (1994?). I liked em, seen them 7 times by 1996.

I actually went out and purchases 'the burning red' (which is rather amazing in itself). I didn't just look at the pick inside and assume The Burning Red was bad. I was quite excited about a new machine head album, it was after listening to it serveral times, then the dissappointment hit set in. They moved away from what I thought was good about the band.

As for rap.

Heck I listened to Anthrax 'I'm the man'. I thought it was funny. But in general, I dislike rap, and don't like it in my metal. Just my opinion.


Legion

I prefer metal to have vocals in the background. I don't care about the lyrics or if they are in some arcane language. Vocals should just provide extra atmosphere.

A lot of their riffs are more hardcore than metal, I feel.

Anyone familiar with their song, "Bulldozer"? It's nothing exceptional, but I can't help but like it because of its silly GWAR style lyrics.

I wasn't criticizing HIM personally. I'm just saying those are the types of metal heads he reminds me of sometimes. And anybody who's been into metal for even short while knows there's an awful lot of those types in the metal scene.

I have to be honest, though, and admit that Rob Flynn did that rap-metal segment in From This Day fairly well, actually. Granted, the only song off The Burning Red that I absolutely LOVE is I Defy, but I'll admit From This Day is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I do like a couple mainstream bands. Namely 90s Weezer, Queens Of The Stone Age, 90s Metallica and Alice In Chains. Of course, two of these bands totally lost it for me come turn of the century, one of them split up before that century even started, which leaves me with Queens Of The Stone Age - probably the only mainstream band still putting out music I really like. A Perfect Circle's okay too (don't like Tool, though). Quite frankly, I couldn't care less if the music has rapping or glossy production. As long as the enjoyment factor's there.

What did you think of The More Things Change?

They aren't. Another sort of quirk with the metal community is that they basically think whenever a band decides to implement some mainstream influences in their music, it's automatically because they're "selling out." I wonder if it's ever occured to some metal fans that may be these bands simply LIKE bands like Slipknot and that's why they use them as an influence (rather than to "sell out"). In Flames bashing bothers me, because, well I'll give you an antidote: I go to a college with no less than 10,000 students and I doubt even 2% of the student body even knows who In Flames is. Here in the states, they probably haven't even sold 100,000 records yet (contrary to what I think Danny said in his review for Soundtrack To Your Escape - which is actually a pretty good record IMO). I don't know what the metal market's like over in Europe, but here they certainly wouldn't appear to have "sold out."

I thought that The More Things Change was kind of mediocre, 10 ton hammer was an alright tune. All in all definately a step down from their debut album. The direction they took after that album I didn't care for.

I hear good things about their lastest album, I have yet to properly digest it, so the jury is still out for me.

I don't consider Machine Head mainstream, I do think they changed their musical direction. They have every right to do that. I just didn't like what they changed it to.



Legion

Agreed. It's strange to notice that when a band softens (which is quite logical while you're getting older) or brings new influences into his music (which again is logical unless you wanna get bored) they're told to be "sell-outs"... IMO, bands like Paradise Lost, In Flames, Arch Enemy, Samael, The Kovenant, Theatre of Tragedy (etc...) are not those traitors you think they are but just musicians trying new things because, first they like it & think it can imporve their "formula"... their flaw, for metalheads, is adding sort of "hype" ingredients (which doesn't mean they're gonna sell bigger anyway, look the Paradise Lost's Host album exemple)... on the contrary, I've never head a band criticized because he was putting more extreme elements into his music... must metal obligatorily become more extreme in order to satisfy hardcore metalheads ? I guess so... :roll:

Well, obviously just because they aren't popular doesn't mean they didn't try to become popular by changing their music to appeal to a mass audience. Perhaps they just failed at becoming mainstream and therefore they suck even more for being failures.

have you ever considered they might like what they're doing now ? does that still make sell-outs of them ? :?

PS : I like new In Flames better, now kill me ! :twisted:

Once again... No. Just no.

I am listening to samples of Soundtrack to your Escape and it does sound more interesting than Reroute to Remain which had good music, but extremely annoying vocals. On this new album vocals seem to be much more varied, almost unpredictable and that is great.

once again... my bad taste is worth yours... :evil: old In Flames is nice but Soundtrack just pleases me and I don't care whose snobbery it might hurt... In Flames rock !

In a way I agree, but I would be really pissed if all of a sudden some of my favorite bands decided to totally change their style of music. You do usually expect the band to stay within a certain limited range of their original formula, that is why you liked them in the first place. If you want a certain other sound then you can always listen to bands that do that type of music. Nobody really cares if the band actually likes certain music and now wants to do it too, it is in a way a betrayal of sorts. Not that I am saying that Machine Head are really guilty of that, I think Burning Red was very good, but then again I was never a huge fan of Machine Head so it didn't bother me much that they changed their style, but if say Falconer changed their amazing unique style I would be in bed crying for weeks. The smart way for a band to do it without pissing off many fans is to either change gradually with each CD or to have a couple of experimental tracks on each CD.

When I was young, I could be disappointed when my favourite band released a shitty album, but through the years I lost my emotional involvement with my so-called favourite bands (Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, etc), not because they changed their style, but because I changed: If a band wants to play something different, I'll give them my blessing.
It's really quite simple: If their new album sounds like shit, I'm just not gonna buy it.

That's the power of the Internet: a almost limitless source of reviews from many different people and the opportunity to prelisten a CD by MP3-samples.