The More Things Change... - Machine Head (1997)
By 1997, the metal genre was in a million pieces. There was a (imo, very 90s) movement to merge metal with more mainstream genres of hip hop and alt rock that ended up with the unfortunate label of “nu-metal”. Stoner metal and metalcore looked to expand on the melodic template of old-school metal. There was an explosion of bands who gave up on songcraft and melody almost entirely to drive several new styles of ultra-aggressive, anti-commercial sounds. Grindcore, black metal, and several new flavors of death metal all followed this trajectory.
One of the big new things of the 90s was “groove metal,” which intended to be danceable in its own heavy metal sort of way. It could be just as noisy as a lot of death metal, but always with a verse and a chorus and even the occasional bass and guitar solos.
Machine Head added to this more melodic sensibility than a lot of the other groove-heavy bands. They had definite influences from the blend of stoner rock and alt rock that gave us Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, but had plenty hard hard thrashy energy as well.
This was their second album. They’d grow into their own sound, with more intricate guitar lines and complex rhythms. Their 2010s albums are my favorites, fitting perfectly into that decade’s brand of groovy but head-bangable metal scene. But while this is an early entry in their catalog, they were clearly a capable band early on.
