Bloodstone & Diamonds

Bloodstone & Diamonds is a work on which MACHINE HEAD bound overwhelming weight and long-form constructive power. The riffs ring low and heavy, but the songs do not stay in the same place. A quiet introduction, an explosive chorus and expansive guitar layers continue like a drama. It is a record on which the band’s matured expressiveness is fully displayed. On “Now We Die,” “Killers & Kings” and “Sail Into The Black,” while being aggressive metal, great attention is also directed to the use of melody and space. Songs like “Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones” and “Take Me Through The Fire” breathe the band’s full playing too. They draw heaviness not as simple sonic pressure but as the scale of the whole song. It is a full record showing the ability of the band in its mature period.