Unatoned


Unatoned 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.
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. 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" ; in doing so, the band announced its eleventh studio album. 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, who was being treated as a full member of the band by December.

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." 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."

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".

Personnel

Machine Head
Production