6. Machine Head - Halo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BsRTIH_zic Remember when I said Bullet for my Valentine had surrounding them the aura of 'The Next Big Thing'? Well, Machine Head ostensibly do now, or did at least until Avenged Sevenfold took the slightly easier route of releasing an album of songs where passages sound remarkably like other artists, in last years' Hail To The King. It got them the Download headline slot, whilst Machine Head took Bloodstock's crowning spot, yet both bands (hopefully with Trivium in tow) will combine to conquer soon enough. Over to this composition though, and Halo is a showcase for both lead vocalist and twin-lead man Robb Flynn, and trade-off partner Phil Demmel. The real beauty of this piece is in juxtaposition to Flynn's harsh-sounding verse vocals, as with the chorus that takes on a lighter tone, so to does the solo end on a quite frankly glorious combination of harmonised guitars, both synching up perfectly on one of the most sonically satisfying runs ever to grace metal's back catalogue. There's many a reason critics tout The Blackening as the metal album of a generation, and it's songs and solos like this that prove it.