Bloodstones and Diamonds - Machine Head (2014)
Such a good fucking album ! The first seconds of this masterpiece with a damn violin followed by an amazing riff was like an awakening for my ignorant ass. Missed them at Hellfest 2024 and I was almost never so dissapointed about something. Plus, the whole thing tackles various themes such as inner, heartbreaking struggles punctuated with relatable words. Some songs are telling about the unexplainable pain felt when struggling with, for exemple, fear of abandonment, toxic relationships, what we feel when we know someone or something is bad for us but we still crawl back to it even if it harms us badly. And then there's songs about politics and society. Those guys are around since the 90's and when we see them we may be afraid that they're narrow-minded, or think in the old-fashioned way, even more since they're americans. But if a band really understand what's going on in this fucked up world it's them. And trust me, I often study the english-speaking world, I never seen anyone denouncing the pervasiveness of obsolete views and religion better than them. Well, they're golden as a band, the soundtrack of this album is fucking amazing, first 3 songs are heartfelt bangers and even though I was less enthusiastic in the middle of this album, "Sail into the Black" and "Eyes of the dead" were hitting hard as well. But the end... what to say. I've never felt more broken and vulnerable than while listening "Damage inside" and "Game over", and I was about to shot both Trump and Putin dead after I heard "Imaginal Cells". Few songs give me such a raise of awareness about my status as a human, and how humans are only more powerful than others because they're in a group of humans. A well-needed revolutionary reality check. "Take me through the fire" was also an amazing ending. This was their first album released on a great label such as Nuclear Blast, and this was a fucking success. I think it did quite approach the top of the chart and was overall acknowledged as a great album by our dear metalheads. One of my theories about Machine Head is that whoever's writing must have been cut FUCKING DEEP. Not much to say apart from personal impressions, and the fact that it was the first album where their current bassist was featured.
I swear if you didn't listen to this bizarre kind of metal, you have to at least once x))