Dead World - The Machine (1993)^{Release ID: 18612}

Now this is a much better improvement compared to this band's debut! The death-doom part of the sound in Collusion became much less in this album The Machine, and they started using a drum machine. Their take on death-doom in Collusion was a bit monotone at times, which didn't help with half of the amount of tracks being interludes. The Machine makes up for that sh*t by a lot, despite some obvious lyrics of social commentary. The music of mid-paced industrial metal is the real deal...

The production fits with frontman Jonathan Canady switching his vocals from growling and talking to just whispering, fitting well with the instrumentation. I like the standard guitar tone and audible bass fuzz. You can find lots of melodic riffs played in downtuned guitar. All of that make up for the somewhat lame drum machine.

First off, "Cold Hate" is perhaps the most aggressive track here. There's a Nine Inch Nails-like intro before Jonathan's vocals enter. During the chorus, the steady drum machine gets toned down for some riff aggression. A nice guitar lead comes in midway through. "Lies" is slower with a similar formula. Although instead of being aggressive, the sound is cold and dreamy. I prefer that one slightly more. "180" is a nicely bleak instrumental highlight.

"Kill" is a pretty good throwback to the earlier doom, though the Marilyn Manson-like lyrics cause some complications, "Football on the TV, beer in the hand, the extent of his rational depth. He's a god fearing man, a wife beating f***, a vacuous flag waving fool." Next up, "Blood Everywhere" has mild ambience before a movie sample appears.

The title track has Voivod-like riffing while staying slow and doom-ish as usual. One more ambient interlude, the 10-minute "Orgy of Self Mutilation" is quite busy despite just letting everything flow in dreamy space. The closing track "El Shaddi" I'm guessing is kind of a sequel to similarly titled track from Collusion. It begins with simple drumming, and is more relaxed than the other non-interlude tracks, making an atmospheric ending to the album.

I would not say The Machine is the ultimate industrial metal masterpiece, but it's really great, and much improved compared to their debut. Any fan of industrial and/or metal should get this offering. Welcome to the Machine!

Favorites: "Lies", "180", "The Machine", "El Shaddi"