The Blackening

The Blackening
Studio album by Machine Head
Released	March 27, 2007
Recorded	August–November 2006
Studio	Sharkbite Studios, Oakland, California
Genre	Thrash metal groove metal progressive metal
Length	61:04
Label	Roadrunner
Producer	Robb Flynn
Machine Head chronology
Elegies (2005) The Blackening (2007) The Black Procession (2011)
Singles from The Blackening
"Aesthetics of Hate" Released: April 3, 2007 "Now I Lay Thee Down" Released: October 2, 2007 "Halo" Released: May 13, 2008

The Blackening is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Machine Head. Released on March 27, 2007, in the United States, The Blackening sold 16,000 units in its first week, and became Machine Head's third highest charting release at number 54 on the Billboard 200, and charted in the Top 20 throughout many countries in the rest of the world. The Blackening has been certified silver by the BPI for sales in the UK in excess of 60,000 copies.^[1]

The album's first single "Aesthetics of Hate", is a retaliation to an article written by William Grim for the website Iconoclast. Titled "Aesthetics of Hate: R.I.P. Dimebag Abbott, & Good Riddance", the article praised the murder of guitarist Dimebag Darrell. Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn said the song was written as a "fuck you" to Grim and tribute to Dimebag. The song received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Metal Performance" at the 50th Grammy Awards. The text in the mirror on the album's cover reads, "the mirror which flatters not." The song "Beautiful Mourning" has been featured as a playable song in the video game Guitar Hero: Metallica. The song "Aesthetics of Hate" is featured as a DLC song in the video game Rock Band.