Catharsis
| Catharsis | ||||
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| Machine Head studio album | ||||
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Publication |
January 26, 2018 |
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| Label (s) | Nuclear Blast | |||
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Title (number) |
15th |
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running time |
74 min 26 s |
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Zach ears |
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Studio (s) |
Sharkbite Studios, Oakland |
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Catharsis is the ninth studio album of American thrash metal - band Machine Head . It was released on January 26, 2018 via Nuclear Blast and was the final album with Phil Demmel and Dave McClain .
Emergence
After the release of the previous album Bloodstone & Diamonds , Machine Head played 283 concerts within 20 months. Afterwards, the musicians took a break to spend more time with their families. Only after this break did the band start working on their new album. In advance, singer Robb Flynn informed the fans that they should lower their expectations in terms of hardness and speed. If The Blackening was the most thrashy and aggressive album in the band's history, Catharsis would be the most melodic and groovy album. The songs themselves would be shorter than before. In an interview with the online magazine Loudwire , Flynn took the view that metal could really infiltrate the mainstream with this album . A lot of thought went into making the songs more identifiable for a larger audience, simplifying ideas and hooks . But none of this was planned that way.
The first two songs written for the new album, Screaming at the Sun and Beyond the Pale, were each shorter than four minutes and indicated the direction of the march. Melodic parts were added later, which Flynn says are poppy and which he compared to the Beatles . According to Flynn, the song Kaleidoscope was written in the studio after a jam session between him and drummer Dave McClain. The band only needed two days for Triple Beam . With Behind the Mask , Machine Head released a song for the first time in their career without an electric guitar and with clear vocals. The song Beyond the Pale , on the other hand, was the complete opposite. According to Flynn, the music was written quickly, but he needed seven different texts on different subjects. The text was only available on the last attempt.
The album was recorded at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland with producer Zach ears, who previously worked with bands like Fallujah and All Shall Parish . In contrast to the past, Machine Head did not go into the studio with the finished album, but recorded each song individually immediately after completion. That way, according to Flynn, the songs "still felt fresh". The band debated for a long time whether Volatile or Catharsis should be the first song on the album. Machine Head opted for the former because the musicians didn't want another one and a half minute intro, but instead wanted to "start with a bang", according to Flynn.
Phil Demmel, who left the band in late 2018, stated in an interview that he would hate the album and that it would be more of a solo album by Robb Flynn than an album by Machine Head. Demmel would have been only minimally involved in the creation process of the album. In addition, Demmel and Dave McClain, who dropped out at the same time, were against releasing the song Bastards on the album. Demmel was also annoyed by Flynn's lyrics to the song California Bleeding , the music of which was written by Demmel.
publication
The album was released in the regular version on CD . The digipak version comes with a DVD as a bonus , which contains a recording of a 2015 concert in San Francisco . In addition, the album was released in various LP formats. In addition to the classic black vinyl, the album is also available on red, dark blue, two-tone and splatter vinyl and as a picture disc . A version of the album was released on cassette and as a limited box set exclusively through the Nuclear Blast online shop . The box set contains the album as digipak with DVD as well as the LP version on transparent vinyl. For the album cover , the band used a picture by photographer Seanan Middleton. Robb Flynn originally asked him if he could take a new, similar photo. However, Middleton felt that the band should take exactly this existing image.
Some employees of the record label Nuclear Blast initially expressed concerns about releasing an album with 15 songs, which led to discussions within the band as to whether one or the other song should not be left out. Eventually the band prevailed, believing that parts of the story told on the album would be missing if some tracks were left out. On November 17, 2017, the band made the song Beyond the Pale available as a stream . After a short time, numerous listeners realized that the opening riff of the song would be strikingly similar to the song Love by Strapping Young Lad . Their singer Devin Townsend commented on these allegations of plagiarism on Twitter and stated that he “doesn't really care” about this similarity. Music videos were shot for the theme song Catharsis and Kaleidoscope .
background
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The album title refers to the psychological catharsis . According to Robb Flynn, catharsis stands for "purification, purification, complete emotional surrender to feel whole again". Flynn believed the world was in dire need of catharsis. According to Robb Flynn, Catharsis' texts contain “explicit and timely comments on political and social developments”. Volatile deals with the right-wing extremist demonstrations in Charlottesville in August 2017. After the official end of the event, a participant deliberately drove his car into a group of counter-demonstrators and killed a woman in the process. Flynn wrote the text within 20 minutes that same day. Another 20 minutes later he recorded the singing. According to Flynn, the listener would hear quite a burst of anger, frustration, and venom.
Triple Beam is an autobiographical song. Robb Flynn refers in the text to the two years of his life in which he dealt with the drug speed . The Triple Beam is a scale that can be used to weigh drugs very precisely. In California Bleeding , Flynn sings about his love-hate relationship with his home state of California . But it's also about partying, getting drunk and having fun, which would also be a form of catharsis. California Bleeding is a reference to the song California Dreaming by The Mamas and the Papas . The song Bastards is about a man who tries to explain to his children why sometimes bad people win elections. Robb Flynn speaks from his own experience and refers to the election of Donald Trump as President of the USA . Heavy Lies the Crown deals with the life of the French King Louis XI. who was also known as the "Spider King".
In Behind the Mask and Eulogy it comes to depression . Flynn himself admitted that he has been in psychotherapy for 20 years. The suicide of Chris Cornell had affected him deeply, although both have met only a few times. Razorblade Smile is an autobiographical song about Robb Flynn's childhood in a trailer park in San Lorenzo.In addition, according to Flynn, the song is an ode to the ironic lyrics that the band Motörhead wrote for the song Back at the Funny Farm .
reception
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Reviews
For Sebastian Kessler from the German magazine Metal Hammer , Catharsis combines “the strengths of all band phases with new tones”. The band accepts "to offend fans by experimenting and polarizing". The band has succeeded in writing both “compact pieces that are not lacking in brilliant moments” and “also more expansive numbers that make sense from start to finish”. The song Bastards with its folk touch would be “daring”. Even if the album "gave the feeling of being a sampler rather than an album in the first few runs , it would be a damn successful one". Kessler awarded six out of seven points. Conny Schiffbauer from the German magazine Rock Hard described Catharsis as an "entertaining interplay of solid, modernly performed Thrash with a partly mangy face, ultra-fat grooves , catchy melodies and gorgeous musicality". "Thrash purists wouldn't have it easy with Catharsis , but fans of the typical machine-head groove should love this record," for which Schiffbauer awarded 8.5 out of ten points.
Tobias Kreutzer from the online magazine Metal.de was more critical. It is true that Catharsis is "as a total work of art, a challenge to everything that is backward-looking". At the same time, the album seems “in many places like an unfinished search for meaning that lacks orientation”. With a "clearer vision and a little more courage to cut it, a more convincing version of the album could have emerged in the end". Jay H. Gorania from the online magazine Blabbermouth.net, on the other hand, said on Catharsis the "high quality of the performance and the impressive musical abilities of the band are undisputed". However, the album would be "a collection of fundamentally different songs that unfortunately lacks direction and would be a creative disappointment". Catharsis would be "a marathon that offers only a few sips of drinkable water". Gorania awarded 5.5 out of ten points. Dennis Drögemüller from the German magazine Visions described Catharsis as "the first machine-head album without hit potential". The band would “master the song templates so vituos that the partial relapse into metal puberty would not be a major problem ”. Drögemüller rated the album with six out of twelve points.
Chart placements
Catharsis rose to number three in the German and Austrian, number four in the Swiss and number twelve in the British album charts. In the four countries there were new highs. In contrast, the album reached number 65 in the US album charts after its predecessor Bloodstone & Diamonds reached the top with number 21. At 8,761 units, less than half of Bloodstone & Diamonds units were sold in the first week after release . Robb Flynn blamed online hatred for lower sales through bad reviews.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b MACHINE HEAD's ROBB FLYNN Talks 'Catharsis' Album, Says Band Will Continue To Play 'Evening With' Shows. Blabbermouth.net , accessed November 5, 2017 .
- ↑ Joe DiVita: Machine Head Go 'Beyond the Pale' With Tectonic New Song, detail 'Catharsis' album. Loudwire , accessed November 18, 2017 .
- ↑ wookubus: Machine Head's Robb Flynn On New Album: "Lower Your Expectations For The heaviness". The PRP, accessed October 1, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Christof Leim : An outbreak of anger and harmony . In: Rocks , edition 01/2018, page 16
- ↑ a b c d e Andreas Schulz: Worse is always possible . In: Deaf Forever , No. 21, p. 14
- ↑ a b c Matthias Weckmann: Kings of the gutter . In: Metal Hammer , February 2018, page 18
- ↑ PHIL DEMMEL Says MACHINE HEAD 'Became A ROBB FLYNN Solo Project'. Blabbermouth.net, accessed February 12, 2019 .
- ↑ Matthias Weckmann: I don't like Catharsis! . In: Metal Hammer, March 2019, page 130
- ↑ a b Ronny Bittner: Confrontation in the rabbit hole . In: Rock Hard , February 2018, page 28
- ↑ Alexandra Michels: Machine Head: Devin Townsend comments on allegations of plagiarism. Rock Hard, accessed December 20, 2017 .
- ^ Graham Hartmann: Machine Head's Robb Flynn: How Trump + Charlottesville Influenced 'Catharsis'. Loudwire, accessed December 14, 2018 .
- ^ Machine Head. Official Charts Company, accessed November 20, 2014 .
- ↑ Machine Head in the German charts. GfK Entertainment , accessed on February 2, 2018 .
- ↑ Machine Head in the Austrian charts. Austriancharts.at, accessed on November 20, 2014 .
- ↑ Machine Head in the Swiss charts. Hitparade.ch, accessed on November 20, 2014 .
- ^ Machine Head. Billboard , accessed November 20, 2014 .
- ↑ Sebastian Kessler: Machine Head - Catharsis . In: Metal Hammer, February 2018, page 94
- ^ Conny Schiffbauer: Machine Head - Catharsis . In: Rock Hard, February 2018, page 97
- ↑ Tobias Kreutzer: Machine Head - Catharsis. Metal.de, accessed January 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Jay H. Gorania: Machine Head - Catharsis. Blabbermouth.net, accessed January 24, 2018 .
- ^ Dennis Drögemüller: Machine Head - Catharsis . In: Visions , issue 299, page 106
- ^ Graham Hartmann: Machine Head's Robb Flynn Equates Low 'Catharsis' Album Sales to 'Staggering' Online Negativity. Loudwire, accessed February 8, 2018 .