Our album got a review!
and it's GOOD!
Perfect Machines release much anticipated first album
Rock band Perfect Machines will debut their self-titled album, "Perfect Machines" on January 10th 2008 at the Minna Gallery in San Francicso. Led by guitarist and vocalist Sam Chase, Perfect Machines combines the rift-driven angst of traditional punk with the multi-layered rhythms of modern metal. The band also includes Benjamin Corey on vocals and guitar, Johnny Evil on bass, and Adam Gooseff on drums.
From their first track, "Martyr," to their eighth and final song, "All your childhood pets are dead," Perfect Machines creates a relentless sound of throaty vocals, alternating guitar, and aggressive drumming. At no point during the album is the listener handed a shameless, ballad styled reprieve until the next marketable "hit" comes along. Each song is full of emotional turmoil that provocatively thrashes about, as if in a perpetual search for a semblance of meaningful musical narrative. Take for example, the following lyrics from "In the name of Progress": "What did you expect from this room full of angry people, a sympathetic shoulder, and the creation of egalitarian worlds?" Chase shouts and screams a myriad of frustrations about the confines of modern living to the obvious, historical failures of past visionaries as illustrated in "1401": "There's no blockade to stop the stars from seeing us for what we are: Just a million selfish thoughts, and nightmares we could not forget."
Thought provoking lyrics aside, the musicianship of the band is equally impressive. "Two shits to the future" begins with a Led Zeppelin-oriented guitar intro and segues effortlessly into a fast paced Metallica-inspired refrain that leads to soaring call and response vocals. In contrast, and as a testament to the stylistic range of Perfect Machines, the album's fifth track, "Pocahontas," is a playful throwback to the era of ska-punk momentarily popularized during the mid 1990s.
Perfect Machines' first album is an unabashed and defiant mixture of punk, ska, rock, and metal against searing, confrontational lyrics. Clearly, the boundaries of punk rock are pushed to its limits, and no doubt, so long as Perfect Machines participate in its movement, the genre has plenty of room to maneuver.
Kristian Markus
Kristian Markus is a writer for many different publications around the LA area. For more of his writings you can visit his political satire blog at: www.farcethenation.blogspot.com