Pros: A nu-metal new millennium new release that's actually good (or one I like anyway).
Cons: More of the same but that's not necessarily a bad thing in this case.
The Bottom Line: Nu-metal fans already own this or will very soon. If you have their 1999 debut, then you've heard this record but so what? It rocks and I like it.
If the death troopers that invaded Poland just over a sixty years ago had a theme song I imagine it'd sound something like the intro to Structural Defect. The marching downtuned guitar builds with intensity every four measures adding another guitar to the layer of doom and destruction until finally the drums weigh in and lay waste to everything in sight. It's scary. It's intimidating. And it's woefully heavy.
This escalating and continually fearsome powerdrilling of repeated heavy metal chops is the hallmark of Static X and if you weren't cognizant of that after spinning their debut opus Wisconsin Death Trip, surely you will be quite aware if you survive a listen of their latest effort, Machine.
With Machine, Wayne Static and the boys have pulled off a feat I rarely see bands achieve these days; creating the exact same record as the one that came before it. All right, so I'm being facetious. But I'm not kidding when I say that Machine is Wisconsin Death Trip Part 2; there's nothing remotely original or different from what the band did two years prior on their debut. Besides the general style and sound of Machine, even the lyrics are just as ambiguous or sometimes nonsensical in places.
But does this make it bad?
Not necessarily. Static X is of the new breed of modern American heavy metal, nü-metal if you will. And if you know anything about me then you know I'm not down with that scene and those bands that barely brush mediocrity. Frankly it's just boring and uninteresting to me. But at least they've given rise to the term "metal" bringing it back into the forefront after those murky years during the early 90's. Plus the kids love it. Hey, it's all good, right?
Although I'm not diggin' the nu-metal scene there are a handful of groups I have endeared myself to and placed in the A-Squad. Static X is one of them. I accept that they aren't providing the industry with anything remarkable nor are they pioneering a new avenue for the genre as a whole. I reckon my fondness for the band has more to do with their lack of pretension doing what they do best; knocking the crap out of the listener with such vitriol and adrenaline by way of repetitive, ultra-fierce heavy metal. If ya didn't catch on the first time, you'll be bludgeoned over and over until you do. That'll learn ya.
That brings us to Machine, the record that is everything you expect it to be, nothing less and nothing more. To some this may come as a big disappointment. To me, I'm content with this industrial strength modern metal release high on necksnapping riffage and low on the Mensa-meter. Static X has never been about high IQ, sipping tea over scones type of rock, rather they are the sandpaper on skin, tear your teeth out with pliers while hammering you in the head blacktop brawl; a tight, fine-tuned fists and cuffs for your ears. And instead of limping around stained and muddied talkin' smack about it... they just do it.
Ghosts in the Machine
The opening segue between the Cinco de Mayo sound bite of Bien Venidos interrupted by the shrieking rage of Get To The Gone is a page lifted straight from Accept's Fast as a Shark track where the German folk festival is abruptly cut short by a screeching turntable needle and Udo Dirkschneider's air raid shrill. Even if it wasn't, it's that kind of twisted humor that made Wisconsin Death Trip a lighthearted yet pumpin' jackboot in the jaw. The effect is the same here.
Between the subtle electronica nuances and drop-tuned grind, there's something undeniably tribal about the Static X brand of metal not unlike that of Sepultura or White Zombie, yet somehow Wayne Static finds a way to take his rampant growling chants and redundant riffing to the next level. Permanence might be the best example on the disc but looking across the board, there's a case to be made for almost every song on here. Talk about a lesson in repetition, here's Burn To Burn with this passage:
"Burn to burn/the seed we sow
Burn to flow/into the sorrow
Burn to burn/the seed we sow
Burn to grow/into the sorrow"
Black And White might have been specifically written for the ADD fans as Wayne starts the tune by shouting "Lost in my (own world)" six times and each verse follows the same pattern. Absurd as this may sound in print, it works in the track. This style of spitting short breaths of words is trademark Static X; any other way just wouldn't be the same. This Is Not is the tour de force employing this method as each phrase bursts like a nailgun around the looping guitar attack, "this is not my life/this is not my home/this is not me/I hate this."
However, in Cold, the band takes a polar approach creating an dirge-like groove over eerie synths while Wayne turns in his slowest vocals yet. The title track closely resembles this design written as a dark relationship song wrapped around the machine metaphor. But I'm liking the word bits of Cold a whole hella lot. Check it:
"We kiss... The stars... We writhe.... We are... Your name... Desire... Your flesh... We are... Cold."
Yeah, okay, Wayne isn't Frost or Cummings but it's his gruff fragmented delivery over the the rifle of wrecked power chords and explosive beats that makes his simple diatribes profound. And maybe that's the appeal here; the record reaches deep inside and prods those primal urges. It owns up to the aggressive tendencies in all of us and allows the music to do the talking, offering the perfect outlet to just let it all out. And releasing your pent up frustration with this album is a much better alternative than going postal on a playground. Yes, white upper-middle class suburbanite kids, I'm talking to you.
[Sorry. Watched a disturbing piece on PBS tonight about the lost children of Rockdale County that really irked me. More here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/georgia/]
Back to the record... hmmm, what else should I say to encourage one to run out and pick it up? Really, unless you were already planning to buy this one -cuz you're all about the nu-metal and dig those brooding wannabe no-name pseudo-stars- then the Machine probably isn't your bag. And I'm not saying Wayne & crew are like the rest of the bunch; from what I've seen they aren't. But if you've heard their debut then you've heard this record; it will make you bounce. Like I said, it's just more of the same and even ends with the same kind of weird, spacy soundtrack kind of instrumental A Dios Alma Perdida similar to WDT's December.
Is Machine better than Wisconsin Death Trip? Hard to say really since they are so much alike. On one hand Machine replaces the programmed feeling with a stronger natural sound but still misses some of the punch from tracks like Push It and Sweat of the Bud or my fave Bled for Days. Yet there's a brand new slate of high-octane tracks here to fill the void that in time may turn out to be as equally good if not better. Just don't expect much and you'll be just fine.
And I like it. That's what I'm saying.
Cheers!
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. Structural Defect
9. ...In A Bag
10. Burn To Burn
11. Machine
12. A Dios Alma Perdida
Great Music to Play While: Heading to a Static X concert
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