I had the pleasure of seeing this Brazilian band in Allentown, on tour and playing in front of ten people. They might as well has been playing in front of three thousand the way they owned it. There's something about Brazil that just creates really good thrash bands. I don't know what it is, but this band sounds hungry, and you can hear it in their music and see it in their performance.
Of course there will be comparisons to Sepultura and you can definitely hear the influence, but Machinage play a little bit looser of a style and don't really delve too much into the tribal music, though that rhythm definitely comes through in spots. To place this on the Sepultura timeline, imagine if this was post-Arise but pre-Chaos A.D. and you get a good idea of where this sits. But it's not fair to to simply hold them up to Sepultura, as they have clearly melded a bevy of influences and creativity into their own stripped-down, primer-gray version of thrash.
There's more than enough virtuosity underneath the anger, and after a listen or two you might be left scratching your head at how a band that seems so slab-ridden and heavy could pull off such a solo or run. It Makes Us Hate has a shit-ton of replay value and will keep your ears occupied for quite a while.
When I saw them live they ended their set with a tribute to those Brazilian gods of thrash, and had all ten people plus the bands screaming along and headbanging to Territory. They had full command of that room, such as it was, and in many ways it's harder to dominate a sparse room than a full one. Machinage know their craft well and play to the hilt, and are one of the few bands that can transfer that live energy to a recorded medium. If you like old-school thrash with a beefed-up modern production that has real passion, anger, and tasteful displays of skill that serves only to accent the raw intensity of the music being played, this is something you need to check out.
Staff Rating
4.25/5
User Rating
5/5
