Top Five

2007 is halfway over, and with that in mind (as well as the fact that I've been slacking on this blog) it's due time for the five best records I've heard this year so far. Pick these up as soon as you get a chance--you won't be sorry, but your neighbors may be...

In alphabetical order:

1. Big Business--Here Come the Waterworks



The heaviest duo of all time sounds like an unstoppable army, kicking out some serious jams and proving that King Buzzo and Dale Crover weren't the only great minds behind The Melvins' utterly fantastic A Senile Animal. Heavier than any grunge and faster than any punk you're likely to hear today.

2. Grinderman--Grinderman



Nick Cave's new band rocks louder, harder, and dirtier than anything else he's done in years. Most great artists in their 50s would sound like self-parodies making such a raucous, id-fueled record (see the Stooges' reunion album), but Cave manages to be funny, terrifying, and genuinely out of control.

3. Megadeth--United Abominations



Megadeth are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore--lucky us! Mustaine and the gang's ferocious new outing takes on the world and comes out on top. If UA causes Bush, Cheney, Rice, Gonzales, or any UN Ambassador to go into hiding, no one can blame them.

4. Nine Inch Nails--Year Zero



Trent Reznor makes his most mature, focused album to date, and still shows no signs of slowing down or compromising. If the near future isn't too much like Reznor imagines it, people will be interpreting and deciphering this album for years to come.

5. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum--In Glorious Times



Sleepytime's third straight movie for your ears shows the force (can you really call them a band?) serving their eclectic arrangements with first rate compositions. Their music makes the case that full-fledged monsters can be captured on tape, and those beasts will emerge at whatever venue SGM bring their magic to.

Also well worth rocking out to:

Bjork—Volta
Dimmu Borgir—In Sorte Diaboli
Jesu—The Conqueror
Machine Head—The Blackening
Queens of the Stone Age—Era Vulgaris

The rest of the year looks very promising, with pending new releases from High on Fire, Metallica, Andrew W.K., Dillinger Escape Plan, The Giraffes, Radiohead, King's X, Arch Enemy, and (for maybe the 10th year in a row)--Guns N' Roses.

Next month'll be more productive, I promise--in the meantime, enjoy the great music!

Machine Head: Better than the rest?

Not quite, but very close.

Machine Head are in a great place right now, riding on one of the year’s fastest, loudest, angriest records to opening slots on two of the year’s best metal tours, where they held their own with Lamb of God and Gojira and are reportedly doing the same with the Dio-led Black Sabbath and Megadeth. Metal fans and publications have doused their latest record, The Blackening, with lavish praise which may be a little extreme, but is certainly is welcome for a band that was unfairly derided for experimenting on albums like The Burning Red and Supercharger. Sure, the Police cover wasn’t a great idea, but I’d rather hear them take artistic risks than make Reburn My Eyes, Burn My Eyes Again, and Son of Burn My Eyes.

Machine Head’s most obvious blueprint on The Blackening is Metallica, as seen the song’s lengths (eight songs over sixty minutes) and the album’s title, which echoes both Metallica’s best-selling album and one of the best known songs off …And Justice For All. If that weren’t enough, some editions of The Blackening come with a cover of ‘Battery,’ and bandleader Robb Flynn has openly acknowledged the album’s Master of Puppets comparisons in interviews. But The Blackening is great because it builds on Metallica’s legacy rather than tread on it. Like Nirvana, Metallica is a difficult band to emulate without sounding like a watered down rip-off, and Machine Head succeed by adding their own twists to some of Metallica’s finest ideas, mainly even longer songs, Zakk Wylde-esque pinch harmonics, screamed vocals with sung interludes, and more employment of the double bass pedal.

The Blackening starts off with a well-used Metallica trick, a discomfortingly quiet intro unlike the music one usually affiliates with Machine Head. Right when it seems safe to turn it up, the band explodes into ‘Clenching the Fists of Dissent,’ a positively fierce epic on the ongoing Iraq war.



Flynn is no lyricist, and his thoughts on the war are neither insightful (saying “Freedom Isn’t Free” was a cliché even before Team America) nor poetic (“Do you hear revolution’s call,” “Lambs misled to a slaughter,” etc.). But it’s hard to care too much when the music rocks this hard, and the lyrics are almost given validity by never seeming overworked; rather, they seem to be coming from someone spewing his most spiteful thoughts, unrestrained by a need to be articulate. Whether he’s screaming about the state of the union (‘Clenching the Fists of Dissent,’ ‘Halo’,) conservative numbskulls (‘Aesthetics of Hate’) or his own inner demons (‘Slanderous,’) Flynn is a compelling voice of rage. He’s not about to give Kerry King or Dave Mustaine a run for their money, but Machine Head’s riffy, belligerent music holds up against the best metal being released today. The Blackening enhances the thrash metal legacy far better than the newest albums by Metallica or the remaining members of Pantera and Sepultura. Of course, it also trumps the mallcore antics of Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold.

In all, The Blackening is a focused, hard-hitting masterpiece from a band that’s clearly on the right track. Ending on a high note with ‘A Farewell to Arms,’ the second best metal song ever to take its name from Hemingway (after ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls,' of course), Machine Head pulls of a ten-minute, half-sung half-screamed ant-war rant without sounding boring or pretentious, capping one of their very best albums. It’s one of the most extreme, exciting, genuinely pissed-off records to be released recently, and that alone warrants repeated listening. Plus, it’s got some of the best metal artwork I’ve ever seen.

Some stuff to get off my chest...

The Dillinger Escape Plan and High on Fire now have me rabid with anticipation.

Corey Taylor joining up with Anthrax could work—Taylor is a great vocalist, after all, and Anthrax is too powerful to end up sounding like Stone Sour. But it’s hard not to pine for John Bush’s return, especially after We've Come for You All, Anthrax's very best album and a modern classic, IMO (in my observation). Why did you guys try the Joey Belladonna reunion to begin with?

Besides having a name and concept that would be more appropriate for a Lita Ford/Bret Michaels package, does anyone care that none of the bands on the ‘Hottest Chicks in Metal Tour’ are any good? Women in metal are definitely an underrated force—see Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey for some good discourse on that—but this isn’t the way to go about changing that issue. Also, screw Revolver Magazine for celebrating the whole thing with a foldout and Q&A worthy of Maxim or FHM, but no self-respecting rock rag.

Sounds of the Underground would be worth checking out if GWAR, Suicidal Tendencies, Lamb of God, and Testament were all playing more than just select dates, but as it is I’m saving my money.

Free Ozzfest sounds pretty sketchy, but I'm intrigued.

New Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Queens of the Stone Age are sounding great! More to come on both of those...

Slayer and Marilyn Manson’s team-up is the kind of thing that sounds ideal to someone who gets their music news from Billboard Magazine, and leaves fans of both bands scratching their heads. I can't imagine the fans getting along too well, but both acts are dynamite live. Still, my loyalty is definitely with Slayer. SLAYER!!!!

Metalocalypse is just about the funniest thing I can think of. All hail Dr. Rockso, the rock n’ roll clown.