Unatoned
2025 studio album by Machine Head
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Unatoned (stylized as UNATØNED) is the eleventh studio album by American heavy metal band Machine Head, released on April 25, 2025, through Nuclear Blast and Imperium Recordings. It is the band's first album to feature Reece Scruggs on guitar.
- Robb's Jam Room, Oakland, California
- Sharkbite Studios, Oakland, California
| Unatoned | ||||
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| Released | April 25, 2025 | |||
| Recorded | 2024 | |||
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| Genre | Groove metal, alternative metal | |||
| Length | 41:38 | |||
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| Machine Head chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Unatoned | ||||
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At 41 minutes, Unatoned is Machine Head's shortest album.
Background and promotion
On February 17, 2024, Wacław Kiełtyka announced he had left Machine Head, explaining that Decapitated is his 'absolute No. 1 band' and that Decapitated and Machine Head are both active bands with overlapping tours, creating important scheduling conflicts.[1][2] In November 2024, the band announced a North American tour for 2025 with In Flames, Lacuna Coil and Unearth as support acts, and released a single, "These Scars Won't Define Us", which featured vocals from all of those bands in what Machine Head described as a "Wu Tang Clan-level thrash collaboration" (the album version does not include vocals from those bands); in doing so, the band announced its eleventh studio album.[3] The album's title, Unatoned, and release date of April 25 were announced in February, along with a second single, "Unbound", and an accompanying music video; the album will be the band's first to feature Scruggs,[4] who was being treated as a full member of the band by December.[5]
Reception
Unatoned received generally positive reviews from music critics upon release. Dan McHugh of Distorted Sound gave it a score of 7/10, writing "UNATØNED may not be Machine Head‘s finest hour but it is certainly loaded with plenty of exciting moments that will grab your attention and encourage repeat listens."[10] Angry Metal Guy were more negative, giving it a score of 2.0/5 and stating "With solid cuts in the front and lazy ones in the back, UnatØned is an unbalanced mish-mash of singles and filler pieces."[11]
Track listing
All track titles are stylized in all caps, and every letter "o" is written as "ø"; for example, "Unbound" is stylized as "UNBØUND".
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Landscape of Thorns" | Robb Flynn | 0:31 |
| 2. | "Atomic Revelations" |
| 3:41 |
| 3. | "Unbound" | Flynn | 3:56 |
| 4. | "Outsider" | Flynn | 3:56 |
| 5. | "Not Long for This World" |
| 3:30 |
| 6. | "These Scars Won't Define Us" | Flynn | 3:32 |
| 7. | "Dustmaker" | Flynn | 2:10 |
| 8. | "Bonescraper" | Flynn | 3:34 |
| 9. | "Addicted to Pain" |
| 3:10 |
| 10. | "Bleeding Me Dry" |
| 5:36 |
| 11. | "Shards of Shattered Dreams" |
| 3:28 |
| 12. | "Scorn" |
| 4:16 |
| Total length: | 41:38 | ||
Personnel
Machine Head
- Robb Flynn – lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar
- Reese Scruggs – lead guitar
- Jared MacEachern – bass, backing vocals
- Matt Alston – drums, percussion
Production
- Robb Flynn – production
- Zack Ohren – production, engineering
- Colin Richardson – mixing
- Chris Clancy – mixing, engineering
- Ted Jensen – mastering
- Jordan Fish – post-production
- Joel Wanasek – post-production
- Olav Tabatabai – additional engineering
- Seth Siro Anton – artwork
Charts
| Chart (2025) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[12] | 3 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[13] | 42 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[14] | 29 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[15] | 44 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[16] | 43 |
| French Rock & Metal Albums (SNEP)[17] | 4 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[18] | 5 |
| Portuguese Albums (AFP)[19] | 99 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[20] | 13 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[21] | 7 |
| Spanish Albums (Promusicae)[22] | 93 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[23] | 71 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC)[24] | 6 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[25] | 2 |