As another awesome tour comes to an end in Europe, want to give a massive shout out to the hardest working crew in rock 'n' roll. All of these guys delivered night after night to give you all the best show possible, either onstage or online, through challenges, logistical Olympics, and many complicated scenarios that we faced on a day-to-day basis, they always calmly and professionally delivered us glory night after night.
Shout out to Zack Ohren (not pictured) for filling in on the two shows that Vogg couldn't make, as well as rolling with us for a week as back up in case Vogg missed any of the crazy flight scenarios with his Decapitated off dates
I wanna give a special shout out to Vogg for stepping back into the Machine Head and really helping us out in a time of need. His easy-going vibe, and absolutely devastating guitar skills leveled us way up. There was a a couple weeks where the guy didn't have a single day off, flying all over Europe doing decapitated shows and then MH shows, in fact he did two shows in one day at Wacken!
Vogg, you're an animal and road dog for life. Respect.
From the bottom of our hearts, thanks to all the Head Cases who came out and raged, circle painted, sang-along, screamed, crowd surfed, wall of death-ed, laughed, cried, dressed up in crazy costumes, raged sober, or drank beers with us on what was a fantastically stellar tour.
Australia, we are stoked to be returning to your country to perform at Good Things 2025, let's rage‼️🔥👊🏻🍻 Sign up now for early bird presale access → Sign up now for early bird presale access → https://goodthingsfest.com/machinehead
Presale begins Tuesday 19 August at 10am AEST General public tickets on sale Thursday 21 August at 10am AEST
DECEMBER 2025 🇦🇺 5th • Good Things - Australia 🇦🇺 6th • Good Things - Australia 🇦🇺 7th • Good Things - Australia
We found out that Ozzy had passed away from Sky News 20 minutes before we walked on stage to the opening night of our European tour. In a state of sadness and shock we made the decision to forgo our usual opening setlist. Following our intro of Ozzy's "Diary of a Madman" (that we've opened every Machine Head show with for the last 30+ years) we started the show with two Black Sabbath songs. "War Pigs" and "Children of the Grave", everyone sang, everyone knew tonight meant something, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
There's so much more to say about the power of the Ozzy's songs, but for now, we'll let his music do the talking
Our deepest condolences to Black Sabbath, Ozzy's band, and the Osbournes
DESTROYEROFHARMONYhas written a thoroughly in-depth review of our latest album "UNATØNED"
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Machine Head’s ‘Unatoned’ Is a 41-Minute Punch in the Soul – Brutally Honest Review (Track-by-Track)
Landscape of Thorns
A 31-second instrumental opener that is like walking into a post-apocalyptic cathedral made of rust and bad decisions. No lyrics, just vibe.
The vibe?
You’re screwed.
Atomic Revelations
You know that moment when you realize humanity might’ve peaked with sliced bread and everything since is just radioactive garbage?
Yeah, that’s this song.
“Atomic revelations / These cryptic devastations…”
In other words, the future’s here, and it’s wearing a hazmat suit. Think less “technological utopia” and more “Oops, all fallout.”
It’s a poetic bitch slap to our blind optimism. A warning, framing the future not as a bright evolution but as a terrifying construct built from our short-sighted and immoral decisions.
Unbound
This is the sonic equivalent of breaking out of a mental straitjacket while screaming into a hurricane.
Lead single for a reason, it’s the sound of someone clawing their way to freedom, with bloody nails and existential panic.
It’s not about being free. It’s about realizing you’ve been your own prison warden the whole damn time.
Outsider
A love letter to being done. Betrayal, bitterness, burn-it-to-the-ground energy.
"All the lying, all the cheating All you left me was defeated There could never be forgiveness in the end"
No redemption arc. Just someone standing over the wreckage of trust and lighting a cigarette off the flames.
It’s beautiful.
In the way that watching your ex trip over karma is beautiful.
Not Long for This World
Here’s your death anxiety, set to music. Haunting, lyrical, and bleakly gorgeous. The kind of track that makes you text your therapist and also maybe your mom.
"Through the struggles life hurls Behold the heavens unfurl Not long for this world"
You’re gonna die. Everyone you love will die. And this track whispers: “Yup. And?” It’s oddly comforting, like being hugged by a ghost.
These Scars Won’t Define Us
A motivational anthem for people who’ve seen some serious crap and didn’t get a cheesy Instagram quote tattoo about it.
"Head to the grindstone, power forward through the endless dark Focus, determination, on this world I’ll leave a mark It took so long for any confidence to get in here And now the question that I need to know, I cannot hear"
It’s not saying “you’re special.” It’s saying “you survived, now do something with it.” Less “self-love,” more “self-discipline.”
Dustmaker
“Dustmaker” is a little musical intermission.
A breather.
Kind of. It’s the metal equivalent of a weird dream sequence in a war movie. You’re not dying yet, but your brain’s doing weird crap.
Sip some water. You’ll need it.
Bonescraper
It’s a head banger with themes of self-destruction and a side of guilt.
"We scrape our bones to numb the pain"
If you’ve ever tried to drink your problems away, punch your trauma into silence, or sleep with someone just to feel something, this one’s your anthem. Congrats, you’re the problem and the solution.
Addicted to Pain
This one goes out to everyone who keeps dancing with the same demons and calling it “growth.” Spoiler: it’s not.
"We’ll never know what could’ve been Cravings pulled you deep within Thrown into the hit machine Feed the beast, start the routine You gave it all just to chase this flame The dotted line, a puppet in the game now Twisted and cheating The fame we chase is bleating Turned against brother for acclaim that is fleeting"
The fame-chasing, dopamine-looping, clout-sucking treadmill of modern life, and how it turns people into hollowed-out achievement junkies.
No wonder you’re tired.
Bleeding Me Dry
This one’s a gut-punch, a slow-motion collapse of a relationship that started with dreams and ended with pill bottles and silence.
"There’s no pain without living life This liquor helps cope with the strife We talked of you being my wife Picket fences, some kids, and two bikes But all that was a fantasy lost in our haze Through all of the weed smoke and piles of cocaine A pharmacy of Vicodin, Percs, refillers You and I were worst friend’s best painkillers"
Jesus.
That line alone deserves a Pulitzer in “Emotional Damage”.
It’s not a love song, it’s a eulogy for what could’ve been. And it hurts because it’s true.
They’re not lovers, not saviors, just each other’s favorite painkillers in a life too painful to face sober.
Shards of Shattered Dreams
More heartbreak. More poetic destruction. Think of it like picking glitter out of a crime scene.
"It’s raining Shards of shattered dreams This love divine Ruins everything Left to pick up the pieces Of my dejected heart I’m breaking and I’m ripping at the seams These shards of shattered dreams"
When hope becomes a weapon. When dreams cut deeper than knives. This one will haunt you at 3 a.m., probably while scrolling through old texts you should’ve deleted.
Scorn
Dom Lawson, in Metal Hammer, called it “ostensibly a dark, crestfallen ballad” that builds through synth-drenched haze and emotional swells before erupting in a syncopated, spine-tingling finale.
He’s not wrong.
In fact, “Scorn” might be the most hauntingly beautiful track Robb Flynn has ever penned.
Machine Head is no stranger to monumental album closers, think “The Burning Red,” “Descend the Shades of Night,” “A Farewell to Arms,” “Who We Are,” or “Arrows in Words from the Sky.”
Now, add “Scorn” to that list, lifted from their new record “Unatoned” a fitting name for what feels like both an indictment and a lament.
The opening verse says it all:
“I’m putting you under my spell / ‘Cause I’ve got a Bible to sell Let go your convictions, restrictions will cost you / Your fiction and all that is well Distrust all the fable they sell…”
This isn’t subtle. It’s manipulation disguised as salvation. The “Bible to sell” is a loaded metaphor, suggesting the commodification of belief, the weaponization of faith. Convictions and moral boundaries are liabilities here, illusions sold to the weak, while the puppeteers profit.
“I look to the sky / As it won’t be the first / And it won’t be the worst ‘Cause there’s still yet to come / With a nation undone by their Scorn”
Hope?
Maybe.
But not without cynicism. The sky becomes a metaphorical void, once a symbol of transcendence, now indifferent or complicit. The “nation undone” is a clear nod to societal collapse, a warning about the corrosion eating away at public trust, autonomy, and truth.
The chorus drives the point home with venom:
“Scorn / Paranoia seeps through every pore Scorn / Envenomated eyes emit their scorn”
Yes, “envenomated.”
A rare, brutal word choice. It means poisoned. But more than that, it implies a kind of psychological venom, gazes that don’t just judge but infect. Surveillance becomes psychotropic. The “eyes” don’t just watch; they erode.
“The eye in the sky never rests Watching to form our arrest They’re chasing us out of our nests Keeping tabs as they play us like masters of chess…”
There’s Orwell here, but also something more, this is modern paranoia woven through algorithmic control, deep-state tactics, and manufactured chaos. The image of being driven from nests evokes exile from comfort, from truth, from home.
“I look to the sky / As they give us new rifles / To stifle our words With a Bible and bulletproof vests / As we suffer their Scorn…”
Weaponized religion. Militarized faith. Truth gets smothered in the name of protection. Resistance becomes treason. Free thought becomes a target.
– Rage Against the Machine’s political fire – Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and its suffocating institutional critique – Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”, where biblical imagery twists through cultural critique – Metallica’s “…And Justice for All”, where justice is just another rigged game
But “Scorn” isn’t derivative, it’s a culmination. It distills our present-day fears: media manipulation, mass surveillance, the erosion of belief systems, and a creeping spiritual void. It’s a bitter elegy dressed as an anthem.
You don’t just listen to “Scorn”. You endure it, absorb it, and then see the world a little more clearly and perhaps a little more grimly.
The Wrap Up
It’s short, sharp, and swinging a sledgehammer. Less an album, more a therapy session set to blast beats. It’s a bleak, beautiful middle finger to false hope and a mosh pit for your emotional baggage. If you’re looking for easy answers, you’re in the wrong pit, buddy.
Joining Robb Flynn and Jared MacEachern is drummer Matt Alston and guitarist Reece Scruggs, injecting fresh energy into their sound, making “Unatoned” a noteworthy entry in their discography.
Final Score: 5 existential crises out of 5🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅
Now go scream into the void or your pillow, whichever’s closer.
It is amusing to recall how many people were willing to write Machine Head off only a few years ago. After the release of the supposedly polarising (but, in reality, perfectly successful) Catharsis in 2018, and the unexpected departure of half the band later that year, Robb Flynn’s relentless forward march at least seemed to be experiencing a hiccup or two, and critical vultures were circling.
Satisfyingly, the near-immediate turnaround was enough to give us all whiplash. Since returning with a revitalised line-up in 2019, Machine Head have been on fucking fire. 2022’s Of Kingdom And Crown was a blistering return to top form. The band’s first concept piece, it was tighter, heavier and more ferocious than anything they’d released since Burn My Eyes in 1994, but with some of the catchiest melodies and most irresistible choruses that Robb had ever penned.
In many respects, Machine Head’s 11th studio album continues where its predecessor left off, but there are no artful concepts or overarching narratives this time around. Instead, Unatoned is stripped down, fat-free and mercilessly to-the-point, with 10 lean, mean and ruthlessly succinct songs (and one eerie, instrumental interlude) that are frequently as brutal as Machine Head have ever been.
Two pre-release singles have given Head Cases a flavor of what is in store here. These Scars Won’t Define Us is an explosive, modern thrash beat ’em up, while Unbound is built around a fabulously knuckleheaded riff and a roar- along refrain clearly designed to have a deleterious effect on our neck muscles. Both are executed with precision and swagger, and will have circle- pits swirling this summer.
Every one of these songs has the potential to become a live favorite. Atomic Revelations is a punishing opener proper, with several life-threatening riffs and an elegantly lethal chorus; Outsider is a wildly accessible, groove metal masterclass; Bonescraper is part thuggish, 90s throwback, part euphoric, hands-in-the-air singalong; and the grandiose, doom-laden Bleeding Me Dry creeps in on spaced-out trip hop beats, before unleashing one of the ugliest riffs in Machine Head history.
Conversely, the closing Scorn could be the most beautiful song that Robb Flynn has ever written. Ostensibly a dark, crestfallen ballad, it drifts through hazy, synth-shrouded verses and angst-ridden chorus crescendos, before a scintillating, syncopated riff shatters the calm, and Machine Head surge towards a spine-tingling finale.
Unatoned is Machine Head’s shortest album: 42 minutes, non-stop action, and absolutely no fucking around. There is an urgency to it that harks back to the feral days of Burn My Eyes, and an imperious sophistication that comes from more than 30 years of experience. It has so many crushing riffs that it should come with a health and safety certificate.
New guitarist Reece Scruggs is the perfect fit, and drummer Matt Alston finally makes his album debut, and wallops it out of the park. Meanwhile, Robb Flynn has never sung with more authority, and his vocal partnership with Jared MacEachern continues to dazzle.
In 2025, Machine Head are in peak condition: the bulldozer that crushes all, ferociously fit for the future.
MACHINE HEAD'S MONUMENTAL 11TH ALBUM "UNATØNED" IS OUT EVERYWHERE
🎥 We've also unleashed a RAGER of a music video for the track "ØUTSIDER" which was filmed at the historical landmark The Aztec Theatre in San Antonio, TX on our current headlining North American tour with In Flames, Lacuna Coil and Unearth.
"ØUTSIDER is an anthem that has kinship with anyone who’s had to cut toxic people loose. These last few years, I’ve had to let go of a lot of relationships, and I know I’m not alone in that. This track is for anyone who’s been there."
Celebrate with us by blasting the new album UNATØNED 🔊 and watching the video below.
Head to our socials and give us your first impressions Head Cases!!
UNATØNED is a testament to momentum, an album honed to its sharpest edge, forged on creative discipline and the hunger to push forward. It drips with melancholy melodies, and yet hammers with bludgeoning riffs, soars with anthemic sing-a-longs of love-lost and sadness, to bellowing power and undeniable confidence. Eleven albums deep, Machine Head remain as fierce, relevant, and unstoppable as ever.
