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Best Albums Of 2022 | 2. Machine Head - 'Of Kingdom And Crown'
50 Plays1 year ago
In anticipation for the Minds Of Metal ‘Album Of The Year’ for 2022, Laz counts down albums 5 to 2 for the year!
Album Number 2 is Machine Head's 'Of Kingdom And Crown'!
You can also watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7mfJVCp_TzbPNZNMMemJuw
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Transcript
Introduction & Absence of Daria
00:00:09
Speaker
Hi guys and welcome to Minds of Metal.
Upcoming New Year's Eve Video Announcement
00:00:12
Speaker
As usual for these kind of videos anyway, Daria's not with me on these ones but we're going to continue because don't forget New Year's Eve this year we're going to put out a video for you of Minds of Metal, so me and Daria's top album of 2022 and we're going to go deep in and tell you why we love this particular album so much.
Top Albums Discussion: Machine Head's 'Of Kingdom and Crown'
00:00:30
Speaker
But as you may have seen in recent weeks is that I've been doing a build-up of my favorite albums of 2022 to get to next week's point
00:00:37
Speaker
number five we had the great heathen army by aim on amarth number four we had darker still by parkway drive number three which was last week was the end so far by slipknot and number two which is what we're going to do now is of kingdom and crown by machine head i really really really enjoyed this album and i was hesitant at the start because anyone who's followed machine head's journey knows the
00:01:03
Speaker
the last two albums which were called catharsis and was it of bloodstone and diamonds i think they weren't very successful and they weren't really well received by fans i mean i'm i like aspects of the album i think there's a few good songs on each of them but i remember listening to the bloodstone and diamonds one and literally it was like really like this song next song didn't like it really like third song
00:01:26
Speaker
hated the fourth song really you know it was just so hit and miss in my opinion and i think catharsis had the same elements there but machine header back and they're back with a vengeance because of kingdom and crown i thought was a phenomenal release um i say phenomenal i don't want to be sort of overstating it you know i don't think it quite matched up to the blackening and unto the locust but it came close um so let's dig into it
In-depth Review of Key Tracks
00:01:52
Speaker
The first track, Slaughter the Martyr, you start off with a three minute intro, and this is what I love about Machine Head, is that they take their time because they know that the result
00:02:00
Speaker
The need to get their point across, they need that three minutes. They need that because that's the journey of the song and if you've got to wait three minutes for the song to kick in then you better bloody well wait because what they're going to hit you with after is awesome and what they do hit you with after is wicked. You've got this kind of clenching the fists of descent, this long 10-minute track. Very thrashy, got this awesome anthemic chorus with the harmonised vocals going throughout and fantastic solos and jewel guitars spread throughout.
00:02:25
Speaker
Now after that long epic start of Slaughter the Martyr, we're then hit with two very thrashy songs. You've got Choke on the Ashes of Your Hate and Become the Firestorm, which I found both had really kind of thrashy elements and we know Machine Head can sort of dabble in their thrash. I love Rob Flynn's voice in Ashes of Your Hate. He's got that kind of
00:02:45
Speaker
angry whispering growl where he's like you don't need no room and he just kind of builds up he does that a lot i think he's a very emotive singer and i think you can hear it all the way through this album i think it's really good performance in become the firestorm what was a cool here is that you've got the new element of the bass player um i can't remember his name um yeah anyway uh he sings the chorus of it and i think it's really cool because his voice sounds so different to rob yeah it really works you've got this kind of back and forth where he sings
00:03:14
Speaker
and then the sky and then Rob's like become a firestorm and this back and forth I think really works again heavy bridges that they have and the dual lead guitars that they just so consistently have put throughout their music just comes back really nicely very very much like the blackening the the dual lead melodies in this song you've got an interlude song called overdose which then takes you into my hands are empty
00:03:40
Speaker
which starts off with like a chanting intro that's again about a minute long, but it's necessary because the chanting, it's setting the scene, it's setting up the song ready for you for what's to come next. Then the chant comes back in the chorus with a beautiful guitar melody that complement each other so well. Again, great dual guitars and solos. They're nailing it in this album, which is one of my favorite aspects of it.
00:04:04
Speaker
Then you move on to Unhallowed and the main riff in this song is really cool and it could actually be from Unto the Locust. It had a really nice feel to it, using harmonics as well if I'm not mistaken. I suppose it's a softer song compared to the rest of the album and Rob's singing comes into its own more. His vocals are really nice and really pleasant, I think he does it well.
00:04:26
Speaker
You've got another kind of interlude song in Assimilate, which goes on to my favourite track of the album, which is Kill Thy... Actually, no, second favourite track of the album, which is Kill Thy Enemies. The intro and main riff is so heavy, but it's simple. It's not overdone. It's not over-complicated. It's...
00:04:50
Speaker
Not too much going on, but it's the power and it's the accent of where they play those notes that gets the riff going for me. It kind of has that grunge... Am I going to say grunge metal? I am. It has that grunge metal feeling of their earlier albums. And what I mean by grunge metal is, in essence, sort of simplicity. Not too much going on riff wise.
00:05:15
Speaker
If you listen to their earlier albums, you hear the production is quite raw and it's quite stripped back. There's not too much going on. And I suppose that is what I mean by grunge metal.
Track Highlights & Production Quality
00:05:24
Speaker
More fantastic solos and jewel lead melodies that lead into that lovely atmospheric soft section towards the end of the song. Then after that, we have track number nine.
00:05:35
Speaker
which is no gods, no masters. Another kind of singing song where Rob's voice comes to shine, the drop in the bridge is phenomenal, like really nice and heavy. After that comes Bloodshot, which isn't my favorite song. I find it a little messy in places if I'm being honest, but there are some really good riffs that sort of sprinkled throughout. Then you get into the song Rotten, which is really nice, solid and heavy. Got a really heavy middle break, which I thought was really cool.
00:06:04
Speaker
You've got the final kind of interlude of the album, which is called Terminus, and then you get on to my favourite song of the album, and maybe one of my top five Machine Head songs of all time now, Arrows in Words from the Sky. I remember hearing this when they released, though, that they released Become the Firestorm, Rotten, and Arrows in Words from the Sky together.
00:06:27
Speaker
And I remember hearing this one first and just thought, my goodness, what a fantastic track. I love the journey it takes you on. You start from the really soft intro and then it comes in with that. And really just adds that layer.
00:06:46
Speaker
Yeah, it takes you on the journey as I already said. The chorus vocal melody and the harmonies work so nicely and as I've said plenty of times the guitar work throughout the song is fantastic but mainly during the verses listen to intricately what they do during the verses behind the bass and the drums and that works so well.
00:07:04
Speaker
The heavy bridge is nice and darker as well. The solo is so beautiful and tasteful. The notes chosen are just sublime. There's a part at the end of it where he goes like... And I just think those choices are so simple. That's just... I'm not a guitarist. I think that's just like
00:07:27
Speaker
I think it's just arpeggios going from one to arpeggios of one chord, then going to another. It's so simple. An arpeggio for anyone that doesn't know is a broken chord. So if you play a chord, it's playing all of those notes in that chord individually. So it's just so simple. There's nothing crazy, no sweep picking, no shredding, just arpeggios, broken chords, played one after the other, and it just leads so well into that lovely final soft chorus.
00:07:52
Speaker
One thing I wanted to mention about that final soft chorus is the vocal effect on it. Now it's not crazily obvious but there is a vocal effect on it and that just leads me to talk about the production on this album because I think the production is phenomenal and the reason I think that is because it's so understated. You mentioned, you remember in the previous videos with Slipknot we said sometimes there was a bit too much and it might have taken away from Corey Taylor's voice.
Band Dynamics and Concept Album Benefits
00:08:16
Speaker
The Parkway Drive video I said there was a lot on it, a lot of effects, a lot of
00:08:20
Speaker
added instruments, which kind of created an atmosphere, but yeah, no, it did create an atmosphere. But here, it's used very sparsely, sparingly. You've got the effect on his vocals. Just every now and then throughout the album, listen, and you'll hear that it's not his raw voice. There's some kind of radio effect or a filter on it. And even at the beginning of Kill Thy Enemies, the guitar, before the drums come in and it does that riff, it's like, and it goes,
00:08:49
Speaker
and it's like cutting very precise production because these little elements of
00:08:56
Speaker
fantastic production that they've bought in that just makes the album crisp and solid and incredibly well produced. So yeah, those are my thoughts on the album. If you'd like me and Daria to do like a full review on any of these albums, please let us know in the comments. We'd love to do that. But again, just these videos, just in the lead up to our number one album of 2022, I'm just telling you my favorite aspects of some of these songs and albums.
00:09:21
Speaker
So yeah, I think Machine Head have found themselves again. I think that after the success of the Blackening and Unto the Locust, I don't really know what happened within the band dynamic. I know Adam Deuce, the bass player, left. So I left Rob Flynn, the new bass player.
00:09:38
Speaker
Jared, that's his name, is Jared, I just remembered, with it nine minutes later and I remembered. So you've got Rob Flynn, Jared, then you have Dave McLean and Phil Demel and something obviously didn't go right because it's after the
00:09:53
Speaker
So the album before this, Phil Demel, and so after the album before of Kingdom and Crown, Phil Demel and Dave McLean left the band, which must have obviously shaken things up. But I think there was probably things there before that weren't working, which is why maybe Catharsis and Bloodstone and Diamonds didn't resonate so much with the fan. Maybe there was some internal stuff going on with the band that sort of halted the songwriting.
00:10:19
Speaker
But I think that having a new band has focused them and focused him, Rob Flynn, and made this music better. And another thing I think to add to that, again, if we ever do a full album review of this, we can talk about this. This is a concept album, which means that it's an album where every song is telling a different part of a story, essentially. And I think
00:10:42
Speaker
writing a concept album must make the songwriter or songwriters focus more because the songs have to link, the songs have to gel, be it lyrically, musically, thematically, they gotta work together. And I think maybe that's where things like Catharsis and Bloodstone and Diamond, maybe that's where they didn't work so well. But here, maybe the new band plus the idea of needing to focus, because it's a concept album, maybe that made Rob Flynn and or Machine Head together, come together,
00:11:10
Speaker
pull together and make this cracking album the songs align beautifully and they all work well with each other you've got both ends of the spectrum with some really heavy stuff and some lighter stuff the solos and your guitars throughout as i keep mentioning just stunning and they utilize that so well in the blackening and onto the locus and i think they really found it again here
00:11:32
Speaker
The songwriting is phenomenal and I think for me personally this album slots just behind the blackening Unto the Locust of Kingdom and Crown. I think it's a really really good album and one that I think it will stand the test of time because you know just like the blackening and Unto the Locust have done I think
00:11:51
Speaker
this will be another landmark for Machine Head because you've got first concept album, new band, but the album that has come out and has been executed perfectly.
Album Impact & Future Expectations
00:12:00
Speaker
The only reason this isn't my number one is because you'll find out next week actually on New Year's Eve, I'll explain why the other album is my number one and not this one but it was so close and yeah this has been an excellent release from Machine Head and one that I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to and I've listened to it multiple times and really can't get enough of it.
00:12:20
Speaker
Please do all the usual stuff, hit like, subscribe, share this with machine head fans, share it with metal fans.
Closing Remarks & Call to Action
00:12:25
Speaker
And thank you for joining the minds of metal. Have a metal day.