Heavy Metal Machine

Based off of the title of this, it basically sounds exactly like you'd imagine. Heavy Metal Machine is the debut EP by the UK headbangers known as Stormrider. Picture this: something along the lines of Manowar with raspier vocals and borderline power metal riffwork. They like to play on words a lot, combining the idea of songs about heavy metal music with monstrous metal machines. See the title track to get a feel for what I mean. Again, sounds pretty familiar, right?

For such a short effort, it actually doesn't ride on this formula for the entire distance. the second track "In Time" is actually a slower number that emphasizes clean melodies over an acoustic guitar to start. The vocalist here does display a pretty strong amount of talent, specifically in the tracks that dial the power back some. I say this because the falsettos are a little rough around the edges, and he does far better with soft singing than he does with your typical heavy metal bursts. "In Time" finishes with delivering the strongest solo on the EP.

"The Patroller" is another pretty great one as it actually combines the good things from both preceding tracks by utilizing a far cleaner vocal style, and this time atop heavier riffs and thunderous drum kicks. There's far more emotion to this despite being a harder hit, unlike with the title track. The disc then concludes with "Made Of Metal", something similar to the title track. It's not bad by any means, but it couldn't be any more typical and is rather dull. So how to sum this up? Listen to it for the center pieces. Tracks 2 and 3 hone in emotion, musical complexity, structural flow and overall beefy songwriting, while the ends are about as generic as a classic metal throwback band can get. Or in other words, the two songs with "metal" in the name are the forgettable ones.