RUBIDIUM

They say to never judge a book by its cover. I'm going to say, "Never judge an album by its opening track," because after hearing the opener to Maschine's debut, Rubidium, I was about ready to start track skipping. But I hung in there, and I'm glad I did. Maschine, the new band by the young and former guitar player of The Tangent, is quite a unique group. Initially they give off the impression of 'prog-metal,' but after a few tracks you realize that the picture they paint is quite distinct. While much of Luke's guitar playing has a sort of prog metal style, you'll notice that his done is anything but prog metal; it's quite lightly distorted in fact, creating a sort of non- conventional approach to what is at times, conventional prog metal riffing. But that's just a small part of it. In reality, once you sit through the whole album you realize that the metal is quite spread out. In the end, I'd say there's more jazz here than anything, and between it all is a variety of rock that makes the style of this band quite hard to pinpoint (in a good way. Tracks like "Rubidium" caught my attention with their strong sense of urgency created through quick moving guitars juxtaposed against slow vocals. The jazz parts on this track show great interplay between the bass and guitar and let us take a nice breather and the band caps it off with a rather unexpected, but pleasant, cinematic section and drum solo. If there's anything that you'll immediately notice it's that Luke's guitar solos are to die for. Just check out "Cubixstro" or "Invincible," for instance, where the Steve Vai influences are unashamedly brought to the forefront and Luke displays mastery and taste in his tight control and expression with harmonics, whammy, and human quality phrasing. Track after track, Maschine delivers a high quality blend of jazz and rock, full of great melodies, jaw dropping guitar playing, and a level of unpredictability that makes for an engaging listen. Despite the fact that I felt that at times there were sections of songs that were notably less awesome than others, Maschine delivers a strong debut that should grab our attention and make us say, "pay attention to these guys and let's see where they go from here."