Due to not being able to write two reviews for one product I have taken the Liberty of Reviewing the standard Edition of Through The Ashes of Empires, The Limited Ed. Has my full review of Tracks 1-9 and this review is meant for track 10 alone and further musings. However given that this may be the only reivew you see I will breifly describe what I think.

1. Imperium: Phenomenal.
2.Bite The Bullit : Great song
3. Left Unfinished: Good, Emotional Affair, Brutal attack on Flynns abused childhood
4. Elegies: One of the only down turns in this otherwise unrelenting assault
5. In the Prescence Of My enemies: Superb Song, great Breakdowns and a riff so good Bullit For My Valentine Stole it
6. Days Turn Blue To Grey: Not great, Not bad, but less than good enough to warrant a high position on this album.
7. VIM: Oh So Cool song, with nice drumming, odd times and a good Guitar Piece in the breakdown.
8. All Falls Down: Good Song, Great Chorus.
9.… more »

Due to not being able to write two reviews for one product I have taken the Liberty of Reviewing the standard Edition of Through The Ashes of Empires, The Limited Ed. Has my full review of Tracks 1-9 and this review is meant for track 10 alone and further musings. However given that this may be the only reivew you see I will breifly describe what I think.

1. Imperium: Phenomenal.
2.Bite The Bullit : Great song
3. Left Unfinished: Good, Emotional Affair, Brutal attack on Flynns abused childhood
4. Elegies: One of the only down turns in this otherwise unrelenting assault
5. In the Prescence Of My enemies: Superb Song, great Breakdowns and a riff so good Bullit For My Valentine Stole it
6. Days Turn Blue To Grey: Not great, Not bad, but less than good enough to warrant a high position on this album.
7. VIM: Oh So Cool song, with nice drumming, odd times and a good Guitar Piece in the breakdown.
8. All Falls Down: Good Song, Great Chorus.
9. Wipe Away the Tears: aggressive and memorably sung end verse.

But then we come to 'descend the Shades of Night'
Not an Obvious choice for a MachineHead song, it is no less an astonishing finishing piece. Starting with a slow acoustic chord progression and lightly tapped snare drums with have the bands great ballad in place. Around 7-8 Minutes long it weaves from saddened singing in the verses to an emotional crescendo where Flynn and Duce on Backing Vocals cry out 'Descend...Descend the Shades of Night, Death shines her Golden Light' You cannot help but feel enthralled at their intensity before the song weaves itself into a truly gorgeous solo piece led by Demmel and then Harmonised by Flynn to produce the albums finest moment, That Harmony on Guitars Not only shows that MachineHead For all their aggression can produce a ballad of truly monstrous proportions, but shows a touching display of emotion that is executed not with technically advanced guitar fret work but with the simplest of solo moments that still manages to evoke a pure feeling and intensity rarely felt these days. When Flynn roars 'Free ME...FREE ME' before crying out a very well sung note entering into the last chorus it is clear that Machine Head have found, truly found their place In the Metal sound surpassing anything they have previously done by having greater production technology this album sounds incredible and live sounds even better. There has been some scrutiny of this album and when Kerrang UK (Who have let themselves slip immensely) reviewed this they gave it a poor 2/5 K's and called the Album Patchy. Listen for yourself then never read Kerrang again: this is a fine piece of work and shows a band finding once again the greatness they have always been capable of. With Machine Heads 2 Best tracks ever opening and closing this CD this album is so welcome a return from the Bay Metal Titans that the impact is nothing short of collosal, like a second birth, a second chance at a debut Machine Head Have set the bar, defacated on it, then set it higher. In a time where Emo is strong and pop- Punk still holds sway over radio and music TV, what a wonderful sound to have appeared when no one thought possible.

Album of the Year, Best Machine Head offering ever and far far better than most other bands on the market.

With the Blackening out this year Machine Head have set their Place as one of the land mark bands of this decade, however none should forget this superb offering, a true metal classic and given the context of the band at the time and then this release, I would argue heavily that this is their most important album without which we would have no 'Blackening' No Big Tours anymore and just a memory of what was once a great band.

Buy This album NOW..