Unto the Locust explained

Unto the Locust
Type:Album
Artist:Machine Head
Cover:Machine Head - Unto the Locust.jpg
Released:September 23, 2011
Recorded:April–July 2011
Studio:Jingletown Studios, Oakland, California
Length:48:58
Label:Roadrunner
Producer:Robb Flynn
Prev Title:The Black Procession
Prev Year:2011
Next Title:Machine Fucking Head Live
Next Year:2012

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.[1] It was produced and mixed by Robb Flynn, and was the band's highest charting album (22 on the Billboard 200) until their following release, Bloodstone & Diamonds, reached 21.

Unto the Locust was recorded in Green Day's Jingletown Studios.[2] On June 14, 2011, Machine Head released a mix of lead single "Locust" on the 2011 Mayhem Festival iTunes sampler. This was their last studio album with cofounder and bassist Adam Duce before ongoing differences got him fired in February 2013.[3] It sold over 100,000 copies in the United States.[4]

Lasting 48 minutes, Unto the Locust is Machine Head's shortest album.

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:[5]

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-pagespecial 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.[6] 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 as well as live recordings of Beautiful Mourning and Bite the Bullet on the B-Side.

Reception

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".

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[7] 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.[8]

Accolades

Year-end rankings

PublicationAccoladeRank
Decibel40 Best Metal of 2011
LoudwireTop 10 Metal Albums of 2011
Metal RulesThe Top 20 Heavy Metal Albums of 2011
PitchforkTop 40 Metal Albums of 2011
Pop MattersBest Metal of 2011

Decade-end rankings

PublicationAccoladeRank
Kerrang!The 75 Best Albums of the 2010s
Louder SoundThe 50 Best Metal Albums of the 2010s

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!"[9]

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.[10] 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.

Personnel

Machine Head

Additional musicians

Production

Chart positions

Chart (2011)Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart[11] 10
Austrian Albums Chart[12] 6
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[13] 19
Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)[14] 21
Canadian Albums Chart[15] 32
Danish Albums Chart[16] 10
Dutch Albums Chart[17] 20
Finnish Albums Chart[18] 8
French Albums Chart[19] 18
German Albums Chart[20] 5
Hungarian Albums Chart[21] 19
Japanese Albums Chart18
New Zealand Albums Chart[22] 19
Norwegian Albums Chart[23] 15
Spanish Albums Chart[24] 28
Swedish Albums Chart[25] 14
Swiss Albums Chart[26] 10
UK Albums Chart[27] 43
U.S. Billboard 20022

Notes and References

  1. http://www.machinehead1.com/news.html Machine Head News Release Date Unto The Locust.
  2. http://www.greenday.com/news/machine-head-record-at-jingletow Machine Head Record At Jingletown Unto The Locust.
  3. Web site: Machine Head - The General Journals: Diary Of A... . Facebook . May 19, 2014.
  4. Web site: MACHINE HEAD: 'Inside The Machine' Book Cover Unveiled. July 23, 2012. BlabberMouth. 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..
  5. Web site: Locust video. Blabbermouth.net. October 24, 2011.
  6. Web site: Machine Head's 'Unto The Locust' To Be Released In U.K. With Special-Edition Fan Pack. Blabbermouth.net. June 29, 2011.
  7. Web site: Machine Head cracks U.S. TOP25 . November 4, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111109030248/http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=164220 . November 9, 2011 . dead .
  8. Web site: Metal Storm Awards 2011.
  9. Web site: Machine Head Announce "The Eighth Plague" Tour!. machinehead1.com. June 22, 2011. May 30, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120529165618/http://machinehead1.com/board_posts/mh-announce-the-eighth-plague-tour. May 29, 2012. dead.
  10. http://machinehead1.com/news MH To Play Two Warm-Up Shows.
  11. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. australian-charts.com. October 2, 2011.
  12. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. austriancharts.at.
  13. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. ultratop.be.
  14. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. ultratop.be.
  15. Web site: Machine Head . May 4, 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120401231338/http://machinehead1.com/board_posts/unto-the-locust-hits-22-in-the-us . April 1, 2012 .
  16. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. danishcharts.dk.
  17. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. dutchcharts.nl.
  18. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. finnishcharts.com.
  19. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. lescharts.com.
  20. Web site: Offizielle Deutsche Charts. offiziellecharts.de. de. October 27, 2021.
  21. Web site: MAHASZ – Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége . mahasz.hu . October 5, 2011.
  22. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. charts.nz.
  23. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. norwegiancharts.com.
  24. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. spanishcharts.com.
  25. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. swedishcharts.com.
  26. Web site: Machine Head - Unto The Locust. hitparade.ch.
  27. Web site: Machine Head UK Chart History. Official Charts Company. July 30, 2013.