I posted here about this album before I even heard it, passing on the news that Machine Head had finally found a label to distribute it in the US. Now that I've had a chance to listen to it, I might as well review it, right?
Reviewer's bias disclosure: Unlike many MH fans, Burn My Eyes was not my favorite MH album up until this point, it's second on my list to The More Things Change. I did actually like The Burning Red despite a couple of clunkers, but haven't listened to Supercharger more than twice (it wasn't awful, it just didn't do much for me).
Now that we're past that, let me say that I am almost as happy with this CD as I hoped I would be. With my only exposure to the album being the video of "Imperium" up at their web site I was expecting big things, although I was worried that I was hoping for too much.
I might have been, but I'm still very pleased. "Imperium" is a hell of a metal song, with lots of classic MH goodness: slow buildup from a quiet intro, a bunch of great riffs including an excellent main riff, tempo/time changes, Robb--er, Robert--Flynn both singing and screaming, a great bridge section, and percussion that makes a lazy schmuck like myself tired just listening to it. Not to mention that it all hangs together as music, which doesn't always happen when a song has this much going on. It's a great song, but if it was the only good one on the album I was going to be very disappointed, especially after this long of a wait.
Most of my favorite albums weren't my favorites right away; I had to listen to them a few times to really appreciate them, because they are usually challenging in some way or another (not necessarily St. Anger "challenging," but that's another topic). I wasn't exactly expecting that with this album, because MH isn't really known for their subtlety. But it did take a few listens for me to realize how good this CD really is. I won't go through all the songs, but "Bite the Bullet" is one that comes to mind as an example; on first listen it was a fairly simple "yelling song" taking advantage of the title, but after a few more times, I picked up some of the, err, non-subtle subtleties, such as the swirling guitars in the background, the dramatic bridge section that builds up to the pre-chorus-sounding chorus, etc. And now, while it's not the best song on the CD, it's one of the ones I look forward to when I listen.
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