Review Summary: Catharsis overall just seems a bit disjointed?
The easiest way to sum up Machine Head’s latest album Catharsis is that it’s a mash-up of every album they have released since The More Things Change whereas the last three albums saw Machine Head really finding their unique blend of thrash and groove metal. This album however has proved to be a bit of a curve ball in the Machine Head repertoire. It has suffered a few negative reviews which I believe is partly due to the fact that the first few tracks to be released were not particularly strong and secondly people do expect a lot from this band. After all they are the pioneers of groove metal along with Pantera & Soulfly and they did raise the bar with the masterpiece that is The Blackening.
It’s almost ironic that the first words Rob Flynn screams with the opening song to this album is ‘*** the world!’.
Volatile is a perfect example of early Machine Head and immediately takes you back to The More Things Change and the Through the Ashes of Empires days. It’s a strong opener with great tempo changes, signature Machine Head heavy guitar tones and great lead guitar work. Rob’s lyrics here do outline racism and social inequality which did leave me pondering; Was this inspired by Phil Anselmo’s ‘white supremacy’ comments and Nazi salute during January 2016’s Dimebash as Rob Flynn did launch an attack on Phil shortly afterwards on social media.
To start with some positives. The really strong songs on the album are without question Psychotic and Hope Begets Hope which could belong on the album Bloodstone & Diamonds and Beyond the Pale along with Kaleidoscope which is probably the most melodic of all 15 songs. These all have typical Machine Head elements that we have come to expect from the band of late and all very welcome here.
Triple Beam was one of the first songs to be released from Catharsis which deals with drug abuse and its consequences. This song highlights my point from earlier and is part of the album’s problem as it just seems so dated now, this would have been acceptable in the mid to late 90's or on The Burning Red album but its not really for the modern metallers palette nowadays.
Catharsis is easily the strongest track on the album with menacing vocals accompanied by heavy multi layered guitar work, frantic riffing and a beautiful chorus that all fits together perfectly. I remember the mosh pit during the UK leg of the world tour erupting during the bridge of this song which put me to the floor. Brilliant stuff!
Rob also has this almost out of control screaming rasp as he spits the words ‘You’ll remember me’ during the first verse of Catharsis which was something I loved on the chorus to the song Bloodstones & Diamonds, it’s controlled vocal chaos and it’s one of the reasons Rob Flynn is one of my favourite metal vocalists and has been for the last few years.
Heavy Lies the Crown is an upbeat number that mid way in moves to a groovier, thrashier metal song with frantic riffing and double-bass drum work but similar to most songs on this album is a bit too long. We had some long tracks on Unto the Locust and Blackening it’s just they were executed better and not at any point felt a chore.
Razorblade Smile would be a song you could easily have plucked from the Supercharger album almost 20 years ago which is a vocal style I thought was well and truly behind Rob Flynn. It has an early 00’s nu-metal vibe to it but nevertheless this one isn’t too bad.
Bastards is where the album takes on a slower pace and stands out as the weakest song on the album. It’s not necessarily a bad song it just has an irritating lead guitar riff that grates me almost as much as Metallica’s Low Man’s Lyric did back in 1997 when they used a hurdy-gurdy. This song would have worked better as a straight acoustic number and Rob’s vocal range could have really shone through here as I still don’t think we have heard the best of Robs clean vocal style yet.
I sit on the fence with California Bleeding as overall it’s not a bad song it just suffers from some out of place vocal harmonies that should never have made the mix, it’s does have a killer bridge where it’s just the bass line thundering away under some guitar harmonies before the solo takes you to the outro.
The album ends with Eulogy which has a slow, pensive, hazy, haunting sound to it which just seems to fade out and not really go anywhere. And this is probably how you will remember this album.
Catharsis is a little overcooked with a total run time of 1 hour and 14 minutes. It is long and with the weakest songs cut from the final edit could have been a great, memorable album.
Catharsis overall just seems a bit disjointed and feels like a collection of B-Sides derived from the last few album releases. Even the album art leaves me baffled? With that being said it’s still an enjoyable ride if not a confusing one and if I was recommending one of my all time favourite bands to someone I would still steer them in the direction of The Blackening or Unto the Locust.
