# Bloodstone & Diamonds

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 96/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Blabbermouth.net | 9/10 |
| Rock Sound | 8/10 |
| The Guardian | |
| Exclaim! | 7/10 |
Bloodstone & Diamonds is the eighth studio album by American heavy metal band Machine Head, released via Nuclear Blast on November 7, 2014. It is the first album to feature Jared MacEachern who replaced founding bassist Adam Duce in 2013. Although the album does not have a title track, the album gets its name from a lyric from "Now We Die".

## Background

The album was once again mixed by Colin Richardson with additional tracking, editing, and mixing by Andy Sneap and Steve Lagudi. All album art was done by Travis Shinn. It is the band's first album not to be released on Roadrunner Records.

## Lyrics and themes

Like with previous Machine Head releases, the album's lyrics detail political and social themes, particularly civil unrest, dissatisfaction and injustice, often with violent conclusions. The song "Night of Long Knives" is not about the Röhm-Putsch, but instead the Manson Family murders in Hollywood in 1969.
"Imaginal Cells" is an instrumental featuring samples from the audiobook Spontaneous Evolution by Dr. Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman.

## Reception

The album was met with universal acclaim by music critics, with Dom Lawson of The Guardian writing "Striking an exquisite balance between brute force, insistent melody and bold experimentation, this is the finest mainstream metal album of 2014 by a huge margin." In the first week of release, the album debuted at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the band's highest charting album ever.

## Personnel
### Machine Head

* Robb Flynn – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards (tracks 1, 3, 5, 8), string arrangement (1, 5, 8), percussion (5)
* Phil Demmel – lead guitar
* Jared MacEachern – bass, backing vocals
* Dave McClain – drums, guitars (track 9)

### Additional personnel

* Rhys Fulber – keyboards & string arrangement (tracks 1, 5), percussion (5)
* Jordan Fish (of Bring Me the Horizon) – keyboards (tracks 3, 8, 9), string arrangement (8)
* Kathryn Marshall, Eugenia Wie, Chad Kaltinger and Vanessa Ruotolo – strings (track 1)
* Phillip Brezina, Charles Akert and Ivo Bukolic – strings (track 8)

### Production

* Andy Sneap – tracking, editing
* Colin Richardson – mixing
* Juan Urteaga – production, engineering
* Lee Bothwick – engineering
* Steve Lagudi – engineering
* Ted Jensen – mastering
* Strephon Taylor – design, layout

## Charts

| Chart (2014) | Peak position |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 10 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) | 6 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 33 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 35 |
| Canadian Albums (Billboard) | 25 |
| Danish Albums (Hitlisten) | 39 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 38 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) | 18 |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 35 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 9 |
| Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ) | 27 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA) | 32 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI) | 81 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon) | 67 |
| South Korean Albums (Circle) | 99 |
| South Korean International Albums (Circle) | 22 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 38 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) | 31 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) | 18 |
| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) | 63 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) | 31 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 7 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 18 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) | 1 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC) | 3 |
| US Billboard 200 | 21 |
| US Digital Albums (Billboard) | 19 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard) | 2 |
| US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard) | 2 |
| US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) | 4 |
| US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard) | 10 |