On March 27th, 2007, groove-metal titans Machine Head released The Blackening, their acclaimed sixth album. The self-produced LP marked one of Robb Flynn and Co.'s most successful efforts to date, peaking at 54 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also spawned their first (and so far, only) Grammy-nominated ripper, the revered "Aesthetics of Hate."
Flynn wrote the 6-and-a-half-minute epic after reading an incendiary 2004 article mocking his friend and colleague, ex-Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, from beyond the grave. (The story's author, William Grim, called Darrell "part of a generation that has confused sputum with art" and "a semi-human barbarian," among other insults.)
Over a decade after its initial release, "Aesthetics of Hate" is still standing strong — not just as Dimebag's musical monument, but as Machine Head's latter-day opus and a perennial concert favorite. One the finest live renditions of all remains Machine Head's run-through of the track alongside Metallica main man, James Hetfield, who performed the track with the band in Germany amid the bands' 2009 European tour.
