After the large and arguably rather unexpected success of 'Burn My Eyes,' Machine Head has tried repeatedly to recapture that form. With 'The Blackening' they finally succeed where they had previously failed. They do so by borrowing old-school thrash tendencies (decent guitar solos, time signature/riff changes and song length) and just being very, very angry.
While almost all of the songs smoke, there's unfortunately still an unmistakable feeling of a band trying too hard and it just doesn't 'gel' as well as the legendary thrash bands (though granted, perhaps that's nostalgia talking). The music can be sensational, but other times it's dull, and occasionally even within the same song ("Wolves"). Over-long tracks with dull sections can make the whole thing fall down as otherwise reasonable songs become eminently skipable (check Maiden's and Metallica's recent albums for more evidence). However, when the band gets it right they do it with style. "Halo" has a classic Machine Head riff very reminiscent of "Burn My Eyes". Also it's entirely obvious that both guitarists have learned a great deal from the bands they've toured with recently and therefore fantastic solos are spread all over this disc; the otherwise poor "Slanderous" is saved by this fact. Other excellent songs include the double-pedal heavy opener "Clenching The Fists Of Descent" with its fantastic solo, and the two singles "Aesthetics Of Hate" and "Now I Lay Thee Down".
All in all not quite as good as some of the mainstream critics believe, though it is MH's heaviest yet, and compares well to modern thrash such as Trivium and the occasional Killswitch Engage song.

TRACK LIST:
1.Clenching The Fists Of Descent
2.Beautiful Mourning
3.Aesthetics Of Hate
4.Now I Lay Thee Down
5.Slanderous
6.Halo
7.Wolves
8.A Farewell To Arms

Review by Rob Brown