I wasn't a fan at the time just yet, but looking back at the setlist it really was amazing, they opened with Fists of Dissent here aswell, followed by mostly a mix of Burn My Eyes, Blackening and Through the Ashes of Empires songs.
The Blackening is an amazing album, and I realize I'm in the minority, but closely followed by Burn My Eyes and The Blackening, Unto The Locust marks my favorite MH album, I can never get sick of it, it even has what I consider the strongest run of 4 songs on an album ever in Locust up until Pearls Before the Swine.
It was an incredible experience.
Unto the Locust is a REALLY good album. It had a tough job on it's hands to follow The Blackening and actually did remarkably well but I still couldn't help being a bit disappointed by it at first. I have the special edition version but feel the album works better without the bonus tracks tacked on the end.
Just wondering, did you hear Unto the Locust before The Blackening? It may possibly have ended up being my favourite if I'd heard it first. The song 'Locust' is killer!!!
Actually, yea I think it was.
I had heard songs off Burn My Eyes and Ashes of Empires before a lot because we happened to have those CD's at home though I never knew Machine Head as a band.
After the concert I started checking out songs off The Blackening, but never got the album. Then one day I scanned through some Roadrunner Records youtube videos because I was subscribed to them and I found 'Locust', killer tune that had been on constant play for months after, and then I got the album. So hearing Unto The Locust before any of the other albums in full probably played a big part in it.
Also I agree on the bonus songs, I have the standard version, but on Spotify there's the bonus tracks aswell. I love the Sentinel cover of Judas Priest, like the Witch Hunt cover of Rush (though I could do without that one), but they don't work in the album setting at all. And the Darkness Within acoustic version is just... I don't know, it's not a good song to do acoustically, ruins the whole soft/heavy contrast and the song overall loses that melancholic vibe.