Static-X - Machine (2001)

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


Machine Metal – 7,3/10

As industrial metal gained popularity in the late 90s, most bands of the new industrial released their first album in that decade and so made a footprint. The follow-ups to those records, however, are almost notably worse. Why? Mostly the bands seemed to be one-trick ponies or they did try something new but failed horribly. Machine is definitely no competition for Static-X’s debut record Wisconsin Death Trip, which is a very powerful milestone in the industrial metal genre. Yet Static-X was no one-trick pony and Machine doesn’t completely fail. Then what does the album do?

They basically saw the path they walked on with Wisconsin Death Trip and walked a lot further down the same road. Machine clearly builds on the grounds made by the debut album, but yet takes it to newer areas as well. The album’s title perhaps best describes what it contains. The band sounds way tighter and the electro samples have become more dominant. The riffs are all very… angular… very choppy and above all aggressively heavy. At times it sounds more like a machine making music in a factory than in a band, which at itself is quite a nice concept and its fairly well executed as well. After the goofy intro “Bien Venidos” the extremely heavy “Get to the Gone” literally kicks in with machine-like riffs and the equally machine-like monotone voice of Wayne Static, which only adds to the concept and also to the listening experience. Tracks like “This Is Not”, “Black and White”, “Structural Defect” or the danceable title track really expand upon the machine concept and are downright Static-X classics. “Permanence” features hard industrial at its best.

While the entire record basically consists of killer industrial tunes and rhythms there is an overall vibe to the album that doesn’t make me want to rate this higher. The concept is a machine and they mimic machinery very well and combine it with music perfectly, but a machine-vibe to your album makes it sound a little artificial. This is great music to kick ass to on some action video game or something, but to regularly listen to this adrenaline-filled hyper-angular type of industrial… it mostly gives me headaches… I also get headaches in factories when the machines make huge noises.

In short, as a sophomore studio album, Machine is not a very disappointing record. It does not match the brilliance of the first album by far, but we’re not given a bad album at all. I highly recommend this to fans of the industrial genre and fans of Static-X in general.

Strongest tracks: “Black and White”, “This Is Not”, “Structural Defect” and “Machine”.