Track Listing
1. Bien venidos 2. Get to the gone 3. Permanence 4. Black and white 5. This is not 6. Otsego undead 7. Cold 8. Strucural defect 9. ...In a bag 10. Burn to burn 11. Machine 12. A dios alma perdida Year: 2001 Label: Warner Brothers - Official Site |
Static-X - 'Machine' - By B. McCann
All I can say is, what an album! I was very pleased when I bought this and at the price of �14.99 ( Virgin Megastore! ) I was taking a bit of a risk after only hearing �Black and White� on Kerrang!. With a name like �Machine� I was expecting something hardkore, and hardkore was what I got. This was a new breed of metal which I class as �techno metal�, how so? Because it mixes keyboard riffs and hardkore metal at the same time. Static-X have already made a name for themselves with their new breed of rock, the frontmans vertical, gravity-defying hairstyle and their exceptionally well put together music videos. Last year �machine� was Virgin�s album of the year. Enough with the details lets get to the actual disk. The album starts out with an intro called �Bien venidos� I have no idea why they put it in there. For twenty three seconds you have to listen to some Mexican yokel playing Spanish guitar, then in comes �Get to the gone� which starts off very strangely with some weird screaming and then introduces a catchy guitar riff, and Wayne�s self-styled form of singing, well singing � come � screaming. After this exasperating series of madly strung out verses �Permanence� comes trotting along. I love this song, the chorus seems powerful to me, for reasons I cannot explain. The rest of the song is pretty usual static standard, however the song still remains remarkable due to the fantastic chorus. �Black and White� is next on the agenda. If you want a song to play air guitar to then this is the one, a repetitive song like no other! It�s a blend of great lyrics and the guitar riff is really ear catching, the drum part sounds very hard aswell. Also check out the video, they are in a room with pillars and gradually through the song they end up turning into the metal, skeleton-like Terminators from the film, apparently this is the theme to the Terminator 3 film but this still has to be confirmed. �This Is Not� is another of my favourite songs along with �Black and White� this song is only played with two guitar riffs, very rare in the world of rock, in which most of the songs depend on guitar harmonies that allow them to be classed as rock, the song keeps going by the random screaming of the phrase �I HATE THIS� which makes the whole song complete, all the while a techno rhythm beating through the song like an over worked heart, �Otsego Undead� is extremely strange, with the repeating words of �Otsego Undead� all the way though the song. Of all the songs I think this one is the worst. The only flaw being the intro being unnecessarily long and it taking a while to get into the song itself. �Cold� is also a brilliant song, like �Permanence� it has an immense chorus which you cant help but love, and the repetition of �Cold we�re so cold, We are, Cold we�re so cold� in the chorus. �Structural Defect� is also a great song, with the intro making you nod your head, then the second riff coming in making you nod even more. The chorus is catchy aswell, with Wayne yelling �Structural Defect� when everything�s gone quiet for a split second. �Shit in a bag� also takes a while to get into the swing of things, although not as long as �Otsego Undead�, the verse is catchy with the Waynemiester repeating �I FEEL IT!� then the chorus coming in with some beautiful pitch singing from Wayne, not being heard hardly at all in the earlier parts of the album, going �Tie me up, tie me down, Tie me up, tie me down�, I would say this song is quite addictive, not as much to me as �Black and White� or �This is Not� but this comes a close third. Here comes the bad one, �Burn to Burn� is also quite an addictive song with the intro, verses and the chorus more so, however the middle section I found wasn�t necessary as it just spoilt the whole layout of the song. This next song I cant really describe without referring or repeating some of the things I said in the previous songs, �Machine� has catchy riffs and a great chorus, the quiet whisper of the verses then incomes the singing/screaming from the Wayne man himself. The last song �A Dios Alma Perdida� is a long guitar instrumental which, if you like that kind of thing is quite soothing�sort of, I found it a rather nice finish to an exceptional album. I would recommend this to any collection, but I would see if you like this new kind of metal first, its�different. I found this a brilliant piece of artwork, carefully put together, essentially faultless apart from a few minor glitches. Perfect from start to end. Metal Obsessive Grade: 99.9% |