About a year ago Rob Flynn stood in front of the media with the promise that the new Machine Head album would become a "Master of Puppets" for this generation. The year passed by, the album came out ... and it seems that Rob was far from just waffling. "The Blackening" is so powerful, strong, heavy, fast and aggressive, so well played and produced, that there is no way not to attract the attention of anyone interested in the future of metal music. It seems like the album is built on contrasts. It is modern, yet it synthesizes inside almost everything played in the metal scene during the last 30 years. Heavy yet musical. Aggressive yet technical. And the compositions are long (most of them are over 6 minutes), but highly varied. And here is the main benefit of the CD. I have never listened to an album in which every song has a typical progress, riffs jump over solos and lyrical passages without being ornate. And I really haven't heard of so many solos without any of them being redundant. Each of the tracks' elements flows into each other smoothly, like a sharpened scalpel in an open wound. A riff gradually boils up to a constantly speeding rhythm, unnoticeably undertaken by the drums which in a moment take the leadership. This is when the two guitars catch up with them, completing them in a determined synchronization and mutual understanding, the first one and right then the other, and both simultaneously, just before passing the torch back to the bass and the drums in the next stage of the song... Like a real sports competition. This variety is the main binding element between the songs. They shine rich in all means of expression of metal music. The band uses the speed and the pure sound of modern bands, the technique of classic thrash albums; here are also the classic guitar dialogues, all combined under the authentic signature of Machine Head. Everything in "The Blackening" is so well composed and synchronized, as if the guys have spent the past year in the studio playing every day to the limit. There is not a single unnecessary tone in the otherwise long compositions; there is no need anywhere of the adze because there just aren't any rough edges left. Composition-wise, the album is a total peak and an absolute masterpiece in the modern extreme music scene. Its only problem is that among the eight strong songs, not a single bears the load of a hymn to remain in the mind after hearing the album. However, instead there is one hour of uncompromising metal from Machine Head's strongest album.