I can't think of an album that confuses me more than Machine Head's new one, "Through the Ashes of Empires". I mean, it is blatantly better than the last two offerings, the nu-metal edge has gone, and the songs still make me want bang my head until my nose bleeds. But something about it irks me, and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it was the people saying this was the band have gone back to Burn My Eyes era thrash metal; make no mistake, this album is no Burn My Eyes. It's heavier, definetely, and there are some elements of that awesome debut album, but the scars of the past few years still show.

That being said, there are some brilliant songs. Opener Imperium packs so many ideas into its six minutes, you think that they'd be nothing left the rest of the album, and thankfully, you'd be wrong. On that song, the riffs come hard and fast, but there is plenty more like it in new guitarist Phil Demmel's arsenal. Days Turn Blue To Gray is another fantastic, more melodic song, and shows the band at their best, heavy and fast in parts, but knowing when to take a breath.

Then there's songs like Left Unfinished. I can't really say I'm a fan. While the chorus is memorable, the verses sound disjointed, and the general sound is one of the band trying to hard. That being said, it does feature the greatest pissed off at your parents lyric of all time in "Fuck you, you cocksucker, fuck you, you whore". Jebus...

And still I'm short of a reason to not put it in my CD player regularly. Maybe it all boils down to the fact that if I want to listen to Machine Head, Burn My Eyes and, to a lesser extent, The More Things Change are so good, that this new material doesn't excite me enough. But its still good. See, I'm just confused.