You can get around the volume. I usually stand by the side of the stage and when they look at me, i start doing the jerking off motion at them. Fun to do during wankery solos.

I wouldn't. Besides, bands almost always sound better live anyway. I'm sure they would have at least been listenable.

C'mon people, let's be a little more open minded here. I recognize that Machine Head has the stigma of dabbling in nu-metal and having a few poor records but the impact of The Blackening on modern metal is undeniable. Look at any metal website and/or forum and people are still talking about it. I took a step outside of my comfort zone and listened through all the swedish death metal records from battles past and found that I really enjoyed them, so I encourage the rest of the participants to do the same. Now down to the battle.

Burn My Eyes is a decent album, but as others have stated it is in essence generic power groove that begins to meander at around the halfway point. I myself don't really like any of Machine Head's stuff prior to The Blackening so this battle is mainly between their last two albums for me. Unto the Locust has its moments with tracks like "I Am Hell" and "This Is the End" but there are the occasional filler moments. However, the musicianship is top notch and there are some epic thrash moments as well that deserve recognition.

That's all well and good but The Blackening is all-in-all a better Unto the Locust. It really marked a change in the bands sound as they moved more toward traditional trash than groove. The album is one of those albums that commands a listen through and not just song skipping. Rob Flynn's vocal dynamics and his employment of clean vocals at the perfect moments mesh well with the full on thrash attack that also follows a loud/quiet dynamic.

To me Blackening is a breath of fresh air in an age of metal where hardcore influenced metal reigns king and for that I thank Machine Head.

Burn My Eyes - 0
Unto The Locust - 0
The Blackening - 2

I have listened to them, and I don't like them.

I suppose I'll fork out a vote for The Blackening. It sucked the least for me.

The Blackening - 3
Burn my Eyes - 0
Unto the Locust - 0

I still need to listen to Unto the Locust, so I'll have to vote later. I know I definitely like The Blackening better than Burn My Eyes though. I used to hate Flynn's vocals but after seeing a great live performance in person by MH I was able to sort of appreciate them.

any band that takes its name from one of Deep Purple's best albums, and tries to latch on to that without improving on DP's legacy is already causing enough reasons for me to avoid them

lol?.........

maybe they took their name from a machine head on a guitar. But they say it just sounded cool, not taken from the DP album.

Either way, your arguement there confuses me...

they just bring up Deep Purple to my mind

and from the few tracks I've heard from them, they're nowhere near DP's greatness

Good post as the point of the thread is for people to listen to metal out of their normal comfort zone and even listen to stuff they previously didn`t like.....quite often people get into a band this way.

Their name doesn`t come from the Deep Purple album at all and there is no indication the group ever liked or listened to DP, the name comes from the guitar part, either way the name is one of the coolest sounding I know. Hell I need to buy a Machine Head t-shirt.

As for the battle, well I listened to The Blackening again (bought the cd a couple of years ago and gave it a couple of listen then and none since)and Unto the Locust for the first time. Well what can I say about The Blackening!!! This time everything on it clicked with their move to a more thrashy based sound, longer songs that the band do far better than Metallica ever did on AJFA, Robb Flynn`s booming voice-easily one of the best vocalists in metal, the quieter reflective moments that Machine Head always seem to include on their albums in certain parts of their songs, great musicanship etc. I`ve now got to concede, that this is now their best album and without doubt one of the best metal releases of the 00s!!! The album reminds me a girl I once looked at and didn`t fancy, I`ve now looked at her again and fell in love with her (not the greatest analogy I know, but you get the idea) As much as I love Burn My Eyes this album is better and every song is outstanding. Unto the Locust I need to give that more listens but its a very good album but The Blackening has more stand out material.

I mean when Robb Flynn booms out "Power and Prejudice" on the opening song on The Blackening I was in fucking love with the album

The Blackening 4
Burn My Eyes 0
Unto the Locust 0