Machine Head - Unto The Locust [Indie Exclusive]

By 2011 Machine Head had already engineered one of metal's least likely second acts. The Blackening in 2007 rebuilt them as a band capable of eight-minute progressive epics, and Unto the Locust was the follow-up that had to prove it wasn't a fluke. It did, and it remains the most ambitious record in their catalog.

Robb Flynn opens the album with a choral arrangement before "I Am Hell" detonates, and that gesture sets the tone for everything after: thrash played with the structural patience of art rock. "Locust" and "This Is the End" stretch out without sagging, Phil Demmel's harmonized leads do the heavy lifting, and Dave McClain's drumming holds intricate arrangements together at speed. Flynn produced it himself, and the album is deliberately shorter and denser than its predecessor, seven tracks with nothing wasted.

Fifteen years on it sits alongside The Blackening as the peak of the band's late run, and as one of the more genuinely ambitious American metal records of its decade.

This indie exclusive anniversary edition is pressed on green vinyl across two LPs in a gatefold jacket, out September 25, 2026 through Nuclear Blast. Limited to independent retail.