Review Summary: There's no moral to the story, read the lines inbetween.
When expressing their contempt and ridicule of Machine Head's newest offering, Catharsis, listeners and critics alike are too easily fogetting the mighty Triad of albums which preceded it. Or, more accurately, they are falsely assuming that the band had the ability or even the desire to continue the thematic arc that they had set in motion with it.
Really, though, from a more general point of view at how Catharsis sits within the context of the band's grander discographic scheme, Machine Head are doing nothing different than what many other big metal names have done in the past and still continue to do to this day. Namely, what happens is that at a certain point during a band's journey, the thus-far enduring intensity, complexity and success of each subsequent album has become simply impossible to maintain, thus leading to a sudden simplification of style and form.
Metallica did it with their self-titled album. Maiden did it with Fear of the Dark. Megadeth did it with Countdown to Extinction. Slayer did it with Divine Intervention. Many other bands did it with some album at some point in their journey. And more often than not, profit
(i.e. "selling out", as it is casually called) was never even the objective, nor necessarily the result.
Now Machine Head has done the same with Catharsis, and it is evident, first from its unimpressive sales and chart figures
(both considerably lower than those of its predecessors), then from the absence of any palpable contrivance within the album's songwriting, that the band is simply making a very logical and unavoidable step away from the composition of intricate and majestic masterpieces as found on the previous Three, and into something that might best be called... well...
cutting LOOSE.
--
Delving into the album proper, it seems that the main culprits responsible for its downright hostile reception are the singles and songs which the band chose for its introductory promotion. That, AND the god-awful cover art.
I surely cannot be the only one noticing this very obvious recent trend of various reputable bands making all the wrong decisions when it comes to promoting their works, can I?
It's true that ultimately substance is more important than image, but damn, maybe bands should stop self-producing themselves so much and actually get some professional input and a second opinion on some matters? Just a thought.
But all this business talk aside, when it comes to the actual music Catharsis is actually a great album.
At its best, it is a throwback to the epic thrashtastic majesty, with some awesome melodic and harmonic lines thrown inbetween, akin to the band's best moments from their previous works, though admittedly not quite up to strength that could match them.
At its worst, it's a flabby exercise in aimless meandering, which has been Machine Head's biggest perpetual major sin ever since The More Things Change... .
And then there's this very special and interesting middle ground which makes Catharsis simultaneously the most unique AND the most
genuine in Machine Head's catalog.
I'm talking about songs such as Triple Beam, California Bleeding, Razorblade Smile, and, to a lesser extent, Bastards (which I personally quite like!) which reveal an entirely new facet of emotion to the band's messages and manifestos which it has presented thus far.
If one accepts that Machine Head's prevalent stance on most things throughout the years was always a big "I raise two middle fingers in the air and whoop a big FUСK YOU ALL! to all of you, motherfuсkers!", then this time they have expressed this stance in the most frenzied and hazardous way imaginable.
If Machine Head's rage and protest was previously always a controlled one, malevolently seething under the surface, ready to explode at any given moment, yet never actually doing so, at least not in its full glory, then this time it is let loose without any inhibition or regard for the safety of politically correct innocent bystanders.
I've never been to California, nor anywhere in the US for that matter, but what Robb Flynn (a proud Californian himself) expresses in the songs listed above fits what I have always imagined being the typical Californian's thoughts, feelings and just overall mindset and lifestyle emerging from the everyday madness that occasionally infects and overcomes humanity at its lowest.
So yeah, to echo Mr Flynn's impersonations: Sometimes humanity can just go fuсk itself right off. Fuсk the world!
Still, despite this predominantly crass and loose folk character of Catharsis, the band has not forgotten its softer, more melodic and theatrical aspect which it has frequently demonstrated in the past. Here such representatives are the tracks Behind a Mask and Heavy Lies the Crown, which definitely are up there among the album's best moments. Machine Head seem to be one of the few modern Heavy metal bands to actually remember that
silence itself can also be quite Heavy at times, much heavier than playing everything at 11 can be, utilizing it here-and-there in these tracks to great effect.
The only mystery to me in that regard is the melancholic and even tragic doom and gloom of the final track, Eulogy. Why does the album end so? It simply doesn't make sense given its very fun and unhinged track record up to that point. It is also not clear where or what exactly the "cathartic" moment in this entire affair is, but... oh well...
--
The album's great length was criticized heavily by some, but from my point of view it doesn't actually
feel that long. Albums like The Blackening and Bloodstone & Diamonds could sometimes tire you out, simply because they maintained an enduring intensity throughout their entire duration. However, Catharsis lightens up the sound and mood occasionally, thus flowing smoother and falling easier on the sensory neurons.
In the end, despite their huge shift from the sound and character on their previous Three, Machine Head haven't become someone else. This is still Machine (fuсkin') Head we're dealing with here, and if there's anything that they have conformed to at all, it is the crazy times and the crazy state of the world humanity has found itself in right now. I don't know if "Trump's in bed with North Korea" (and if that's gay), or if someone will "fuсk the borders" with a "barbed wire diсk", or if there's gonna be any "all-black Russian hacks" (just lol...) any time soon, but somehow none of these statements sound any wrong at all. They just
work and
fit, damn it!
Which is a scarier sign for the times that we live in, than it is for the quality of Machine Head's music and lyrics.
