Jeez! What a fucking great album! It must have been years ago since I listened to an album where demand, realization and impact lead to such a perfect result. Ergo, The Blackening turns out to be one of the best albums ever with great ambitions for the first ranks of my all-time faves.

Don’t get me wrong, already previous release Through The Ashes Of Empires was everything than bad. No, it was the first album that splendidly tied up to the blessed MACHINE HEAD debut. This time the surprise effect was not that drastic but regarding the quality I would like… no… I have to rate The Blackening even higher. The lads around singer/axe-man Rob Flynn purposefully made it to unite and supplement all their trademarks, to permanently play out existing strength and that in all of those 8 songs without any flaw.
Compositions are downright peppered with amazing, sometimes harsh, sometimes melodic riffwork and brainy arrangements. There are brilliant solos to find, lead duels, plenty of two-voiced harmonies (fantastic interaction with Phil Demmel), a bunch of passages to bang your head off but also stuff to listen to with open mouth and marveling. Just take Aesthetics Of Hate. This song alone contains more of great ideas as some other bands have on their entire album…

Exceedingly impressing MACHINE HEAD are on their long running tracks (not less than 9 minutes), of which they have put even four on The Blackening. But neither the opening track Clenching The Fists Of Dissent (what brutal introduction), nor on Halo (great refrain) and A Farewell To Arms (emotional roller coaster) any second of boredom shows up. Far from it! Wolves for example comes with such grandiose middle-part that I always again want to kneel down deeply stirred. That is pure metal!
Moreover all songs almost keep a wonderful balance between pure power and complexity, by what everybody can discover something new with every new run, while other parts in the same song get stuck in your ears as true catchy tunes. Production is optimal, the visual realization suiting, and in addition there are interesting lyrics to find on them Rob Flynn establishes himself as an improving singer. What more you want?

If there is a need one has to search for long to find a fly in the ointment. I do not think that the cover version Battery (Metallica) leads to any devaluation just because it is repeated without any change when it just kicks so heavily ass!
Maybe the bonus DVD might take a little exception. There are in fact interesting details about the new album to learn but that is nothing one will watch twice. Nevertheless, this great material on The Blackening can only sum up in the highest rating. Those who do not buy this album will definitely miss the musical reference of the heavier metal genre for the next years…