13th June 2021

Review: “Arrows In Words From The Sky” by Machine Head

Recorded in sessions with producer Zach Othren that once again saw Navene Koperweiss (Entheos, Whitechapel, Animals As Leaders) gracing the drum stool having previously appeared on the pair of Machine Head singles that appeared six months ago in “Circle The Drain” and “My Hands Are Empty” comes a new three track offering from Oakland Californian bruisers Machine Head. Their decision to release a string of singles since 2018’s “Catharsis” seems to be something of a rebuilding process as the Rob Flynn and Jared MacEachern continue to be the only official members of the band while unable to tour. When that does happen, whether we’ll see a pair of hired guns once again or an official line up remains to be seen…

The opening cut of the three track single is certainly an eye opener as “Becoming The Firestorm” echoes “Unto The Locust” era material with some wonderful vocal change ups both in effeminate fashion and brutal barks with Flynn clearly fired up. Riffs flow a plenty with a tasteful drawn out breakdown breaking into the kind of virtuoso solo we haven’t heard from the band outside of the live arena. “Rotten” slows things down a couple of notches with some signature Machine Head Groove Metal riffs, the re-appearance of the vocal change ups and another face melter of a solo once again a breath of fresh air that raises its middle finger to the naysayers who said the band were done. There doesn’t seem to be any other way to put it but for every wrong turn Machine Head take, for any adversary they face, they return stronger. The rich melodies of “Arrows In Words From The Sky” are impressive but dropping down to a real dark heavy moment of pre-Deathcore riffs and a vicious harsh spoken word before a climbing, soaring solo is a whole new breed of beast. It seems that these shorter releases are allowing for new things to be tried without the weight of expectation on an album and here they really work [8.5/10]

Track listing