Metal Reviews

If any of you saw my Zero Hour thread you know how much I love that band, well Death Machine are basically a heavier more death-like version of Zero Hour, though much more straight forward than their progressive alter egos. Not surprising considering that the musical core of Zero Hour is Death Machine. Jasun and Troy Tiptun (known as Thrak and Devin respectively in Death Machine) are the masterminds behind both bands.

Death Machine are not death metal, though the name suggest as much. They are, however, something like what Obituary would sound like if they were a progressive death metal band. Not traditional death metal, but not too far removed from it to be considered much else. They have released two full length albums and an EP to date, all simply titled Death Machine, which can make them a bit difficult to track down.

In 2002 they released a 5-song demo, Travis Smith did the artwork, which is how I first heard of the band. Again in 2002 they released a full-length and then in 2003 it was re-released with a re-arranged tracklisting, and remastered, but essentially the full-lengths are identical. The 2003 version is very easy to find and the 5 tracks from their first demo are on here as well, so if you find this album you have everything. Give them a listen, you should like what you hear:

DEATH MACHINE - SEPARATE
DEATH MACHINE - UNTITLED (DEMO) *

* This song is an untitled demo from their upcoming album and features Elle (*drool*), a female vocalist that appeared on their full-lenght on the track "Not To Be." She is apparently a full-time member of the band now.

They remind me of Meshuggah but with a tiny bit of melody and a singer who gets annoying in a few places on the album. They're pretty good although I prefer Zero Hour more.

Meshuggah? They don't remind me of that horrible band at all. The singer is not great, this is true, he's very reminscient of Johan Liiva (ex-Arch Enemy) on the Furbowl albums. I think it fits the music and atmosphere well, and considering that their album is essentially a demo, I can overlook minor flaw. The new demo track sounds much more solid.

I think they sound more like Obituary in a Furbowl if I were to have to compare.

It's mostly the drummer that reminds me of Meshuggah's drummer.

Then since both bands tend to play along with their drummers it kinda goes from there. And things like the opening riff from "Last Breath" definitely sounds like something Fredrik Thordendal would use. And Meshuggah aren't bad =[, their I EP is like 20 minutes of my favourite music ever... I guess their utter and total lack of melody + emotion might scare some people off.


I think their vocalist suits the mood they're trying to get, but there are a few points where it's kinda annoying (there's like a breakdown thing at the end of one of the songs on the album where he yells the same thing for like a minute and a half... it's probably shorter than that but it seemed like a really long time). I hope that girl sings as good as she looks.

I haven't heard Obituary so yea...

:shock: You've never heard Obituary? Wow. Get you some, sucka!

And yeah, I find Meshugga to be a lesson in extreme boredom. I find nothing the do appealing. Nothing at all.

is Catch33 the album of theirs you've heard by chance? ^^

I've not heard an entire album of theirs, but I have heard many, many songs over the years and every single one of them has left me utterly confoozled as to how anyone likes them.

oh lol

i think I liked death machine's old costumes more

Ha! They look like drunken frat boys! Maybe a little TOO drunk!

True.

Just heard the demo for their new album, not sure I like the singer. I always thought of Death Machine as an angry version of Zero Hour but now they have ambient sections and keyboards too but are just worse. And I've never been a big fan of the soft female vocals/angry male vocals combo thing (I usually like contrast too, which is kinda weird)

=\

Hmmm...I don't know, I guess Death Machine isn't your thing because I think the demo sounds very promising, and possibly pointing to something better than their demo material. The comparison to Zero Hour is valid, they do sound like Zero Hour to an extent, but maybe they'd like to get away from that and branch out a bit? Who knows.

I liked their first album but I'm not really sure if more keyboards and a female vocalist suits Death Machine

I'll wait until I can hear the whole album before actually deciding though.