Catharsis is the ninth studio album by American heavy metal band Machine Head, released on January 26, 2018.

Catharsis saw the band stylistically returning to the nu metal-inspired sound that was featured on their third and fourth album respectively, The Burning Red (1999) and Supercharger (2001).

[4][5][6] In November 2017, frontman Robb Flynn explained that the album's sound would be less heavy than previous efforts, with emphasis on being "very grooving and very melodic".

As a result, the songs are more structurally simplistic as well as being shorter, an approach that Flynn also tried to incorporate into the lyrics, finding hip-hop and hardcore punk as influences: I don't listen to a whole lot of metal — I'm being straight with you.

"'s chorus was "ripped off" from the song "City of Love" by Yes; Flynn also joked that "The 'riff police' pulled me over", and that while admitting to the similarities, he claimed it was "just a happy accident".

[8] In February 2019, former guitarist Phil Demmel said that he hated the direction of Catharsis in an interview with the "Talk Toomey" podcast, explaining: There's moments of what I wrote that I like.

"[19] Writing for Loudwire, Chad Bowar wrote, "There's a regular album length's worth of excellent songs, but the quality of Catharsis is diluted by that other 30 minutes or so and hampered by a lack of cohesiveness.