[3] Flynn and drummer Dave McClain spent August 18 and 19 jamming together, fine tuning songs chosen for the album and performing pre-production.

Machine Head entered Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California on August 21 to begin recording The Blackening, with Flynn assuming production duties for the second time.

"Now I Lay Thee Down" has a chorus Flynn describes as "poppy" and added "fucked up lyrics" about one person killing another, and then committing suicide.

[9] Lyrical themes explored in The Blackening include love, war, organized religion, anger towards society, and Machine Head's "winner take all" spirit.

The album's first single, "Aesthetics of Hate", is a retaliation that captures the band's anger towards an article written by William Grim for the conservative website Iconoclast.com.

Grim wrote Darrell was "an ignorant, barbaric, untalented possessor of a guitar" who looks "more simian than human" and is "part of a generation that has confused sputum with art and involuntary reflex actions with emotion".

[10] After reading the article, Flynn was furious and wrote the song to send a message to Grim implying "fuck you", and pay tribute to Dimebag.

All that you know is teaching prejudice, and your heart is as black as the 'ignorant, filthy, and hideously ugly, heavy metal fans' you try and paint in your twisted, fictitious ramblings.

Machine Head's debut album, Burn My Eyes, featured a similar song titled "A Thousand Lies" which dealt with the Gulf War.

"Slanderous" deals with hate that still exists throughout society and "Wolves" addresses the band's competitive "winner takes all" spirit.

Blabbermouth.net reviewer Don Kaye awarded the album an almost perfect score of 9.5 out of 10, saying: "one of the purest, finest, most powerful expressions of modern heavy metal released".

[13] Kaye praised the guitar work of Flynn and Demmel on the tracks "Beautiful Mourning" and "Aesthetics of Hate", and thought the band members surpassed their musical ability in an "intense and dynamic way".

[13] Thom Jurek of Allmusic described the album as "an over the top rage and pummelfest with all the qualities that earned the group its enormous fan base by touring and recording" and that the thrash metal element "rivals Slayer at their best".

[12] Rock Sound magazine reviewer Eleanor Goodman awarded the album 9 out of 10, praising the first two minutes of the opening song, "Clenching the Fists of Dissent", as "a full-on old-skool thrash attack".

[20] In a rare negative review, James Jam from NME stated that "The Blackening is no return to form, yet the longer songs on the record (many clock in at over 10 minutes and sound like the bit in '80s horror films when somebody gets stabbed through the head) are intriguing works of progressive metal that suggest they've become aware of the genius of Mastodon.

Though heavily favored, they controversially lost to eventual winners Slayer who had won the previous year for the same album (other nominees in the category were King Diamond, Shadows Fall, and As I Lay Dying).

[27] Three years after the release of The Blackening, Machine Head wrapped their touring cycle for the album, finishing in Sydney, Australia on March 28.

[30] The Blackening became Machine Head's highest charting release in the United States, where it entered the Top Rock albums at No.

[32] The artwork for The Blackening was designed by Robb Flynn, longtime Machine Head collaborator Paul Brown, and Deanna Alcorn.

[citation needed] The third version, released in 2008, was a 3-disc set which came with the original album, a CD featuring various covers the band had recorded in the past, demos and other unreleased material and a DVD which featured various live performances of the band at festivals, the Burn My Eyes 10th anniversary show and music videos from The Blackening accompanied by their "making's of".