Have you ever taken a trip to 1984? It's a nice place to visit. One Machine takes you there with their first release "The Distortion of Lies and the Overdriven Truth" - a time travel experience in the "way back" machine to the birth of Thrash! So take a meat grinder, jam some Tourniquet, Forbidden and Vio-lence in there and there you have the styling of One Machine. A band that brings the past alive when Thrash was just underground.
On the first and title track, they come out swinging! Hurling guitar riffs drum fills and angry vocals at you. You can only sit there and take your lumps. Next up are "Crossed Over" and "Kill the Hope Inside". These songs are non-stop! The vocals are gritty and yet filled with melody and bright, shiny things (anyway....where was I?). "Armchair Warrior" and "Defiance" continue their constant continuous countless crushing chord progressions (say that three times fast!).
Not only is there a title track, but a band track also - the song "One Machine". As a lyrical piece it's ok, but as an instrumental it would have been monumental. There's a cool breakdown and plenty of room for solos. "Into Nothing” brings in the mellow metal sound, then "Evict the Enemy" puts you back on the punching bag hook. The bass really cuts through on the melodies of "Last Star Alights" and I really appreciate a Thrash singer that can lay down some soul. And this guy does it here.
Ending with a BOOM is the ear-splitting onslaught entitled "Freedom and Pain". Like I said before, you want your record to end like this. Leave the listener wanting more and I want more! The vocals are amazing - angry, blistering, melodic and understandable. Rhythm section is tight, precise, and thick and the guitars sound like the greats of the genre; fast, surgical and makes you air guitar right out of the gate!
Downside is the tune "One Machine". I would have liked this one better if it was an instrumental. There is only one band that had a song with their name as a title that was cool and that's Iron Maiden.
Upside is the talent of the whole crew. The songwriting, the production, the arrangement is exactly how a thrash record should be put together. I'm gonna listen to it again, but before I do, I'm gonna give these guys a big, fat 8! Get the record and you'll be metal thrashing mad in no time!!!
Tim Duran, HMS
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