Machine Head: The More Things Change... (2LP) [ROADRUNNER]

Why you'll love it

A gatefold 2LP set with an insert and a fourth side of bonus tracks: "The Possibility of Life's Destruction" plus "My Misery" and a take on Ice-T's "Colors." Metal Hammer named the album one of the 20 best metal records of 1997.

This edition

• 2LP set in a gatefold jacket
• Insert
• Side D adds "The Possibility of Life's Destruction," "My Misery" and "Colors"

About the album

The Oakland band's 1994 debut Burn My Eyes had made Machine Head one of the great hopes of American metal, and they followed it in March 1997 with The More Things Change... on Roadrunner. It was the last record with original guitarist Logan Mader and the first with drummer Dave McClain, and the title borrows the old saying, finished in the chorus of "Struck a Nerve": the more they stay the same.

And they did, gloriously. The band dig into groove-heavy, down-tuned thrash on "Ten Ton Hammer" and "Take My Scars," then stretch out on the brooding "Blood of the Zodiac." It sold 400,000 copies worldwide within about a year. Twenty-odd years on it remains a record best enjoyed at a volume that alarms the neighbours, which we're told is the point.

Tracklist

Listen

Out July 31, 2026 on Roadrunner (cat# R1729156), a reissue of the 1997 album.