Catharsis

Speaking with Pete Bailey of the Binge Thinking podcast on Primordial Radio, Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn explained why the band titled their ninth album after this song: "I think when we started looking at the record and what was on the record, it was… it's an eclectic record. It's a pretty diverse, weird record. And it had so many different, varying emotions. On the one hand, you've got songs like 'Volatile' or 'Bastards', which are very social, political commentary. On the other hand, you've got a song like 'California Bleeding' or 'Razorblade Smile', which is just, like, 'Let get f---ed up' — it's just a get-hammered song. Songs like 'Eulogy' about depression, songs like 'Hope Begets Hope', which is just about [having] faith. About halfway through the writing sessions, when the song 'Catharsis' came to be, and there's that line in there, 'The only thing keeping me sane, the music in my veins, and if these words are my fists, this is my catharsis.' And it just summed up everything we were trying to say."