Most sludge metal from New Orleans sounds like this:laughing:

I feel like if Dopesick had been the Eyehategod album in this match-up, it would have been closer. But since it isn't, I'm giving Acid Bath the sweep.

Acid Bath - 6
Eyehategod - 0

God damn! I figured Eyehategod had enough cred to at least get ONE vote! I wasn't expecting this sweep.

Well you can always go back and change your vote:)

Nah. I like Eyehategod, but they lost fair and square.

With no comeback in sight for Eyehategod, Acid Bath win 6-0. Next up thanks to Metal Connoisseur is the first battle of its kind and that is a 3-way-battle featuring just one band and that band is Machine Head.

First of all, I was actually gonna suggest a one band battle. I guess now I'm chopped liver, but oh well. Second, Machine Head have a new album?! ****! This battle was gonna be hard enough. Now I have to listen to another album? **** you all!

I`m surprised nobody came up with a one band battle before as its quite obvious, as most people spend most of their time discussing which is a bands best album. But hell I love Robb Flynn and Machine Head.....I just need to listen to The Blackening again and the new album.

I wanted to do an Acid Bath vs since they have 2, but I didn't know we could.

I'm gonna sit this out. I don't like Machine Head. Vio-lence are 1000× better imo.

I think this is basically gonna be a battle between The Blackening and the new album for me. Burn My Eyes starts off better, and would be be better in general except that half way through I'm kinda bored with it. It just gets kinda monotonous, but The Blackening is much more diverse.

Part of me wants to say that Burn My Eyes' just sounds "more metal" and kicks more ass than The Blackening, but since it's really just Pantera worship, I don't think it should get any credit for that. Of course, The Blackening followed the current trends as much as Burn My Eyes did too, so... But Machine Head in general (hell, Vio-lence weren't exactly original either) has been chasing whatever trends happened to be popular, so it is what it is. They still kick ass, even if I don't respect them as a band.

I'm listening to the new album now, and it's of the same general quality as The Blackening at least.

Burn My Eyes has always been my fav Machine Head album, from the moment the opening song "Davidian" kicks into gear I was hooked on that group and Robb Flynn, I mean "Davidian" must be one of the greatest opening songs on any metal album. The album was one of the loudest and most agressive for its time and still sounds great today. I even quite liked some of their dabblings with Nu-metal as well and another one of my favourite albums is Through the Ashes of Empire which probably should have been in this battle and Hellalive is one of the best live metal albums of the 00s. I`ve been lukewarm with The Blackening but everywhere I seem to look now, this album gets mentioned and on another listen I may fall in love with it.

Any group that does a Pantera worship and does it well like Machine Head always gets the thumbs up from me

Totally. "Davidian" is just one of the greatest songs of all time.

I used to be the same way. I just thought it was good, but not great. It grew on me though, cause it sort of has the same "epicness" that Metallic achieved when they were firing on all cylinders with MoP and AJfA.. It just has a replay value that gets better with every listen. Stick with it, I'm sure that eventually, it'll grow on you too.

I`ve got the cd so I`ll listen to it again tomorrow.

Alright, after careful consideration, I've got to give it to The Blackening. Like I said earlier, I start getting tired of Burn My Eyes after about halfway through the album, while The Blackening works much better as an actual album when listened to the whole way through. It may not quite have a "Davidian", but overall it is superior. Not to mention more diverse.

It was a bit harder choosing between Unto the Locust and The Blackening, because they're both similar and there isn't a dip in quality with Unto the Locust. Since I haven't had weeks to compare the two, I'm gonna have to go with my initial impression, which is that UtL is a bit less abrasive and thrashy than The Blackening. It reminds me a bit more of FFDP, but not actually in a bad way. Unto the Locust is more like FFDP's more talented big brother. But, it's still just a bit more generic than The Blackening, so...

The Blackening - 1
Burn My Eyes - 0
Unto the Locust - 0

good to see Acid Bath sweep. Brilliant album. "Scream of the Butterfly" and "The Bones of Baby Dolls" alone win it for me.

Would have voted, but my internet was cut off. Leeching off my roommates wireless now though.

Just had to remind you that is why I was not here the last few days, don't worry I didn't get a life or anything.

I will have to listen to The Blackening and the new one... I do not know, not the biggest MH fan.

pass

never have been interested in MH at all

i would have gone to a Slayer concert in Wales, then i heard MH were opening, so um..........

so just get there late and skip the opening act. Why miss out on a great band cause the opener sucks? easy fix.

^^i would feel shortchanged

okay, go and heckle.

^^too loud for them for hear me

if Fear Factory had opened for them (this was in the early 90s), i'd gone there in a heartbeat

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

I can understand the hate. Like I've said, I have no respect for Machine Head or Robb Flynn. He's a genre chaser who plays to whatever audience happens to be in vogue at the moment. From his days in Forbidden (good, but very generic thrash) and Vio-Lence (amazing, but very generic thrash) he has been on the band wagon, and Machine Head's entire career has followed the same trend. The last three albums are no exception. They sound tailor made to appeal to people who listen to Killswitch Engage and Lamb of God.

That being said, I still love their music. They're just too good to deny myself just because of some misguided notion of elitism. But I don't blame others for finding them to be ****.

If they hadn`t put out a nu-metal sound on their third and fourth albums, I doubt they would`ve got accused of being a what`s in vogue chasing metal band.

Thanks for your insight.

Now fuck off

You know, when calling other people stupid, you should probably use correct grammar and capitalization. It keeps my irony meter from blowing up.

Perhaps not as much, but Burn My Eyes was obvious Pantera worship, then we have the nu-metal days, now their whole new direction just screams scene band. I mean, come on, Now I Lay Thee Down? If that song wasn't so good, it'd make me want to vomit. When haven't they been scene chasers?

When a group copies another band but does it so well, they stop being simple scene chasers as they`ve basically become as good as the bands they were copying or were heavily inspired by and I`ve always felt Machine Head fell into this category.

Burn My Eyes-Pantera
The Blackening- Metallica MOP and AJFA era

The above are two obvious copying/reference points and I`d say Machine Head are as good as both these bands.

I'd say that Machine Head's copying is much more cynical though. They're going for the $$. They just have enough brains and talent that they can get away with it without sounding like a million other scene chasers that have no sense of identity.

I`d agree with all that.

Batlord, change the typo in your status, lol.

Scalrett. haha.

:laughing: Done.

After listening to Unto the Locust I actually will give it my vote. It is more groovy than The Blackening and I enjoy the vocals much better. Some parts even remind me a bit of Lamb of God. I also think the songs are more distinctive from one another.

Unto the Locust 1
The Blackening 4
Burn My Eyes 0