The Blackening by Machine Head

The Blackening, Machine Head's sixth album, hit on Roadrunner on March 27, 2007, and it's the Oakland band going back to thrash with longer songs and heavier ambition. Robb Flynn produced it and leads on guitar and vocals, with Phil Demmel on the other guitar, Adam Duce on bass and Dave McClain on drums, and the riffs pile up like storm clouds over tracks that sprawl but never sag.

First single "Aesthetics of Hate" is pure fury with a target: Flynn wrote it to hit back at a writer, William Grim, whose online article had cheered the murder of Dimebag Darrell, and as a tribute to the guitarist. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. "Halo" is the one that kept turning up on the countdowns. The album sold 16,000 copies in its first week, reached number 54 on the Billboard 200 and went gold in the UK, and it drew wide critical acclaim.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.