Review by Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
3 stars out of 4
I had to stop and scratch my head after I looked at the credits for
this CD by New Machine. I listened to the album and thoughtummthis
is a real good band, there has to be at least four guys pumping out
this high-energy progressive metal rock. Little did I know there were
two men performing all of this music! David Garcia (drums, keyboards,
lead & backing vocals) and Bob Gilmartin (guitars, bass, lead & backing
vocals) certainly have it all covered on their self-titled debut.
One look at the image on the cover conjures thoughts of a futuristic
world, then you flip it over to look at the back cover and reality
sets in and you realize it is a picture of a bunch of kiosks or something
like that at a convention, or possibly an airport? In any event, after
you remove the effects of the photographic tweaking, what lies underneath
is the truth. What I am driving at is a concept or idea about humanity
and the difference between the truth and a misleading notion. Let
us take that thought one more step further with music and the images
it creates in your minds eye. Life is not black and white and neither
is music. This band uses this philosophy effectively with their music
as they play hard driving progressive metal and in the same token
work their way through a ballad built for top-forty radio. That is
quite a range in style, not to mention a strong indicator of their diverse talents.
My favorite track easily was Falling, a hook-laden rocker that you
cannot seem to shake loose once you have heard it. Most of this music
stays with you because of the melodic tones and rhythms they use as
a foundation to any style they choose to play, hard and fast or anything
in between. I really enjoyed this CD because it offered so much, never
giving me a chance to get bored and click over to the next track.
This CD is a solid 10 songs from a group that named themselves aptlyNew Machine.
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