ALBUM REVIEW: All Is Not Well – The Machinist

All Is Not Well. It kind of feels like an understatement doesn’t it? As we pick up the pieces from the global pandemic and look to a world full of intolerance, disinformation, and ecological crises, ‘not well’ is putting it lightly. That’s the chosen title though for the second full-length from New York trio THE MACHINIST. Channelling their frustrations with all of the aforementioned issues and more into a tight 34-minute package, it’s a work of predictably snarling fury from a band who could well have a real ace up their sleeve in the future.

In terms of where they sit on the whole heavy music spectrum, THE MACHINIST aren’t the easiest to stick into any one box. While their overall sound is quite familiar, it does seem to draw from a fair few different places. Probably the closest you’ll get is metalcore or deathcore, with a heavy emphasis on chugging riffs and an urgent hardcore bite. There are also a few more extreme elements – a blast beat here, a death metal riff there, etc. – as well as some of the industrial electronic buzzes we’ve come to expect from modern metalcore, and a solid command of melody too. It results in a sound that should definitely please fans of bands like ARCHITECTS or WHILE SHE SLEEPS, albeit one that’s a little rougher round the edges.

Getting into the record at hand, the band definitely hit listeners with one of their best efforts first in PIG. It’s a massive, groove-driven rager, one with a serious political bent and an obvious target given the title. “Another cop called, another man dead” screams vocalist Amanda Gjelaj, her voice bristling with pain and hatred alike. Indeed, All Is Not Well ends up feeling pretty top-heavy in general. Second track Mother Earth delivers a seething condemnation of environmental abuse wrapped in swaggering grooves and driving blast beats, while the title track takes aim at religious hypocrisy with the first real showing of clean vocals in amongst the otherwise expected aggro.

Soon enough however, it feels like All Is Not Well could really do with something genuinely different. This does appear to come on fourth track Hourglass, but to be honest the results still leave a little to be desired. Essentially, it’s a big, washy alt-metally ballad, the kind of thing that’s quickly becoming quite synonymous with LOATHE for example, but it just doesn’t manage to hit with the emotion or beauty that it really seems to need. It ends up feeling a bit like LINKIN PARK at their wettest, which really isn’t where a band like this should want to be. 

This kind of leaves THE MACHINIST in a bit of a tough spot. They absolutely nail the more furious stuff, but, as the record goes on, they seem to struggle with much else. Seventh track Lysergic Lullaby does buck the trend a bit at least; it does that washy LOATHEy thing again, but this time with more of a GOJIRA-esque bite to balance it out. Monsters follows and rages especially hard, but sadly it isn’t the only time where there’s at least a touch of cheese in the lyrics as Gjelaj delivers the rather clichéd promise to be a “voice for the voiceless” in the face of “monsters in the system”.

Ultimately then, All Is Not Well is a bit of a mixed bag. THE MACHINIST are clearly capable of some really great and aggressive moments, but sometimes they feel a bit like they’re repeating themselves, and even when they do push the envelope the results aren’t quite up to the standards of what they do best. Maybe this is all a bit harsh, but the promise is definitely there, and the hope is that perhaps by album number three the band will be able to turn in a more rock solid record all-round, rather than one that has just a few moments of greatness.

Rating: 6/10

All Is Not Well is set for release on July 8th via Prosthetic Records.

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