Unto the Locust

Unto the Locust is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Machine Head, released in Australia on September 23, in the UK on September 26 and worldwide on September 27, 2011.[2] The album was produced and mixed by Robb Flynn, and it was the band's highest charting album ever, charting at 22 on the Billboard 200, until their following release Bloodstone & Diamonds charted at 21. Unto the Locust was recorded in Green Day's Jingletown Studios.[3] On June 14, 2011, Machine Head released the advance mix of their album track Locust, which was included on the 2011 Mayhem Festival iTunes sampler. This would be Machine Head's last studio album with co-founder and bassist Adam Duce before he was fired due to "ongoing differences"[4] with the band on February 11, 2013. It has sold over 100,000 copies in the United States.[5] At just under 49 minutes long it is the band's shortest album released.

Unto the Locust
Studio album by
Machine Head
ReleasedSeptember 23, 2011
RecordedApril–July 2011
StudioJingletown Studios, Oakland, California
Genre
Length48:58
LabelRoadrunner
ProducerRobb Flynn
Machine Head chronology
The Black Procession
(2011)		 Unto the Locust
(2011)		 Machine Fucking Head Live
(2012)
Singles from Unto the Locust
  1. "Locust"
    Released: June 14, 2011[1]
  2. "Darkness Within"
    Released: July 31, 2012

Release

The first single from Unto the Locust, simply titled "Locust", was released on June 10, 2011. Side A begins with the song "Locust" and Side B contains the two live tracks "Beautiful Mourning" from The Blackening and "Bite the Bullet" from Through the Ashes of Empires.

Sloat stated about the "Locust" clip:[6]

"The video is all based on the artwork from the album as well as the vision of the artist, Paul Gerrard. Together we hashed out some concepts for attack scenes as well as the band's performance. We shot the band on green screen in Philadelphia on August 1st, 2011. It was on a 'off' date from the [Rockstar Energy Drink] Mayhem Festival. There's well over 600 shots in the video, all of which have varying levels of CG effects, and ended up taking over two months to complete. [It is] easily the BIGGEST music video I've ever done. With so many CG shots, we had to divide the work among several CG FX people and editors. Once the shots came back, I would edit them in and start the color effects and any last minute tweaks I wanted to add."

Special edition

The UK version of Metal Hammer magazine have announced that a special edition fan-pack would be released by the magazine with a 132-page special issue with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the making of the album, extensive interviews with every member, historic shots from the band's personal collections, a guide to their custom rigs, and a diary of their massive Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival tour.[7] Metal Hammer also gave away a special edition vinyl with their November 2011 issue containing the song Locust with alternate lyrics on the A-Side and Beautiful Mourning and Bite the Bullet (both live) on the B-Side.

Reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic91/100[8]
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com[9]
AllMusic[10]
Artistdirect[11]
BBC Musichighly favourable[12]
Blabbermouth.net9.0/10[13]
Blistering8/10[14]
CraveOnline8.5/10[15]
Decibel[16]
The Guardian[17]
Metal Hammer10/10[18]
Pitchfork Media7.7/10[19]
Revolver4.5/5[20]

Unto the Locust received critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns an aggregate rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 91, based on 6 reviews, which indicates "Universal acclaim".[8]

The songs "I Am Hell" and "This Is The End" received heavy rotation on college radio stations, most notably on WVYC's After-Hour Abomination. Unto The Locust sold over 17,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 22 on the Billboard 200 chart — putting Machine Head in the Top 25 for the first time in the band's 19-year history. This is also their third consecutive album to show at least a 20 percent increase in sales over its predecessor. This was accomplished in spite of the music market dropping by more than 45 percent[21] in the four and a half years since the release of the band's previous album, The Blackening.

In 2011, the album won a Metal Storm Award for Best Thrash Metal Album.[22]

Accolades

Year-end rankings

Publication Accolade Rank
Decibel 40 Best Metal of 2011
31[23]
Loudwire Top 10 Metal Albums of 2011
3[24]
Metal Rules The Top 20 Heavy Metal Albums of 2011
14[25]
Pitchfork Top 40 Metal Albums of 2011
36[26]
Pop Matters Best Metal of 2011
17[27]

Decade-end rankings

Publication Accolade Rank
Kerrang! The 75 Best Albums of the 2010s
60[28]
Louder Sound The 50 Best Metal Albums of the 2010s
28[29]

Tour

The band toured the album under the name of The Eighth Plague beginning November 1, 2011. Support came from the bands Bring Me the Horizon, DevilDriver and Darkest Hour. Robb Flynn made a statement saying that "This will no doubt be the heaviest show you're going to see this year. A lot of the greatest shows of our last touring cycle were in Europe and the U.K., so the prospect of this lineup combined with these crowds has us extremely stoked to get out there and tear it up! New material, great venues, killer fans... we absolutely cannot wait!"[30]

The band also played two warm up shows, at Club Vegas in Salt Lake City, Utah and The Knitting Factory, Reno on July 5 and 7 respectively.[31] These dates were first time the band had taken the stage since March 2010 after the touring cycle for their last album The Blackening ended. The band performed on the 2011 edition of Rockstar Mayhem Festival, marking their 2nd time on the tour, as they were on the inaugural tour in 2008. They spent the first 9 dates on the tour from July 9–20 playing the Main Stage, after which they headlined on the Revolver Stage spanning July 22 – August 14.

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)"
  • I: Sangre Sani (Blood Saint)
  • II: I Am Hell
  • III: Ashes to the Sky"
Robb Flynn, Phil DemmelFlynn8:25
2."Be Still and Know"Flynn, DemmelFlynn, Demmel5:43
3."Locust"Flynn, DemmelFlynn, Demmel7:36
4."This Is the End"FlynnFlynn6:11
5."Darkness Within"FlynnFlynn, Demmel, Dave McClain6:28
6."Pearls Before the Swine"Flynn, DemmelFlynn, Demmel, McClain7:19
7."Who We Are"FlynnFlynn7:07
Deluxe collector's edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
8."The Sentinel" (Judas Priest cover)Glenn Tipton, Rob Halford, K.K. DowningGlenn Tipton, Rob Halford, K.K. Downing5:08
9."Witch Hunt" (Rush cover)Neil PeartGeddy Lee, Alex Lifeson4:46
10."Darkness Within" (Acoustic)FlynnFlynn, Demmel, McClain5:05
Japanese bonus track
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
11."Halo" (Live)FlynnFlynn, McClain, Adam Duce, Demmel9:09
Metal Hammer special fan pack bonus track
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
8."Locust" (Live)Flynn, DemmelFlynn, Demmel7:42
Bonus DVD
No.TitleLength
1."Making of "Unto the Locust""22:43

Personnel

Chart positions
Chart (2011) Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart[32] 10
Austrian Albums Chart[33] 6
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[34] 19
Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)[35] 21
Canadian Albums Chart[36] 32
Danish Albums Chart[37] 10
Dutch Albums Chart[38] 20
Finnish Albums Chart[39] 8
French Albums Chart[40] 18
German Albums Chart[41] 5
Hungarian Albums Chart[42] 19
Japanese Albums Chart 18
New Zealand Albums Chart[43] 19
Norwegian Albums Chart[44] 15
Spanish Albums Chart[45] 28
Swedish Albums Chart[46] 14
Swiss Albums Chart[47] 10
UK Albums Chart[48] 43
U.S. Billboard 200[36] 22

References
  1. "iTunes - Music - Locust (Advance Mix) - Single by Machine Head". iTunes. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  2. Machine Head News Release Date Unto The Locust. Archived January 31, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Machine Head Record At Jingletown Unto The Locust.
  4. "Machine Head - The General Journals: Diary Of A..." Facebook. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  5. "MACHINE HEAD: 'Inside The Machine' Book Cover Unveiled". BlabberMouth. July 23, 2012. MACHINE HEAD has consistently averaged more than 100,000 copies sold in the U.S. for each of its seven albums and has shifted double that overseas (accruing several silver records in the U.K.), resulting in cumulative worldwide sales of more than 2.4 million.
  6. "Locust video". Blabbermouth.net. October 24, 2011.
  7. "Machine Head's 'Unto The Locust' To Be Released In U.K. With Special-Edition Fan Pack". Blabbermouth.net. June 29, 2011.
  8. "Unto the Locust Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
  9. "Review: Unto the Locust - Machine Head". About.com. Archived from the original on May 13, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
  10. "Unto the Locust - Machine Head". AllMusic.
  11. Florino, Rick (June 20, 2011). "Unto the Locust-Machine Head". Artistdirect. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
  12. "Unto the Locust - Machine Head". BBC Music.
  13. "CD Reviews". Blabbermouth.net. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
  14. "Review: Machine Head - Unto the Locust". Blistering. Archived from the original on April 17, 2014. Retrieved September 29, 2011.
  15. "Machine Head: Unto The Locust". CraveOnline. Archived from the original on September 29, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
  16. Decibel. November 2011 edition.
  17. Lawson, Dom (October 20, 2011). "CD Review: Unto the Locust - Machine Head". The Guardian. London.
  18. "Machine Head World Exclusive: 'Unto The Locust' - The First Review". Metal Hammer. Archived from the original on July 23, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
  19. "Machine Head: Unto the Locust | Album Reviews". Pitchfork. October 26, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  20. "Review: Machine Head – Unto the Locust - Heavy Metal News | Music Videos |Golden Gods Awards". revolvermag.com. September 27, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  21. "Machine Head cracks U.S. TOP25". Archived from the original on November 9, 2011. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
  22. "Metal Storm Awards 2011".
  23. Breihan, Tom (November 30, 2011). "Decibel's 40 Best Metal of 2011". Stereogum. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  24. "Top 10 Metal Albums of 2011". Loudwire. November 28, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  25. "The Top 20 Heavy Metal Albums of 2011". Metal Rules. January 8, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  26. Stosuy, Brandon (November 28, 2011). "Top 40 Metal Albums of 2011". Pitfchfork. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  27. "Best Metal of 2011". PopMatters. December 25, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  28. "The 75 Best Albums Of The 2010s". Kerrang!. December 31, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  29. "The 50 best metal albums of the 2010s". Louder Sound. December 18, 2019. p. 4. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
  30. "Machine Head Announce "The Eighth Plague" Tour!". machinehead1.com. June 22, 2011. Archived from the original on May 29, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  31. MH To Play Two Warm-Up Shows.
  32. "Machine Head - Unto The Locust". australian-charts.com. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
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