San Francisco Bay Area metal titans MACHINE HEAD will release their tenth studio album, Of Kingdom And Crown, on August 26 via Nuclear Blast/Imperium Recordings. The follow-up to 2018’s Catharsis includes the three songs that were featured on last year’s “Arrows In Words From The Sky” single: “Become The Firestorm”, “Rotten” and “Arrows In Words From The Sky.” Much of the new MACHINE HEAD album was recorded at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California with producer Zack Ohren.
The debut of the first video from the album, the ferocious “Choke On The Ashes Of Your Hate” can be viewed below.
Of Kingdom And Crown is a 13 track concept album set in a decimated futuristic wasteland where the sky is stained crimson red. The crux of the story is based on 2 main characters:
Character #1 Ares, who loses the love of his life (Amethyst) and goes on a murderous rampage against the vile sect responsible for her murder.
Character #2 Eros, the perpetrator, who loses his mother to a drug overdose and becomes radicalized in the aftermath. Eros goes off the deep end manifesting his own killing spree.
The lyrics detail how their lives intertwine.
MACHINE HEAD founder Robb Flynn comments: “Thanks to my two teenage boys, my family has become obsessed with this awesome Japanese anime series called Attack On Titan. The album’s concept was loosely inspired by the series in the sense that in the storyline there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ guy; both characters believe they’re doing the right thing as it applies to their being, but make no mistake, both are committing acts of pure atrocity and evil. The opening track ‘Slaughter The Martyr’ is basically our character No. 1’s origin story.”
The colossal concept comes with a list of equally colossal packaging for various physical formats including 16 different worldwide vinyl formats, deluxe vinyl box set (with bonus tracks), CDs (both old-school longbox and jewel box options), multi-color cassettes, and a limited-edition digipak with bonus tracks. CDs, digipak, cassettes, and all digital formats will be available on August 26, with all vinyl formats arriving on November 25.
“Of Kingdom And Crown” track listing:
01. Slaughter The Martyr
02. Choke On The Ashes Of Your Hate
03. Become The Firestorm
04. Overdose
05. My Hands Are Empty
06. Unhallowed
07. Assimilate
08. Kill Thy Enemies
09. No Gods, No Masters
10. Bloodshot
11. Rotten
12. Terminus
13. Arrows In Words From The Sky
Digipak CD bonus tracks:
14. Exteroception *
15. Arrows In Words From The Sky (acoustic)*
