Machines On Blast - Black Market Happiness

It is astonishing to see how far Machines on Blast has come in the four years since their previous album "Tin Man Empire". Attempting to compare their current album "Black Market Happiness" to their prior effort is useless; "Tin Man Empire" sounds off as a demo of a band trying to find their niche in the metal scene. Whatever process Machines on Blast modified to create this new powerhouse of an album has paid off as the electronic, metal, and industrial elements found within are crisp, clean, and filled with rage. 



The review for the album can start with the cover art of the album. It shows a hellish mist of fire-fueled smoke masking a Jesus-posed figure with fanatics surrounding them. You can almost assume the jam session's sound before even streaming or injecting that CD into your long-forgotten CD player. It also lays in contrast to Machines on Blast's previous album covers whose simpler, logo-based designs did the job well enough but never appealed entirely to the scrutinous eye. To both Bahrull Marta and Machines on Blast, I salute you.

Pressing the play button for "Black Market Happiness" will grant you access into a smashing album of industrial metal, nu metal, and general electronic fuckery. Like icons of the scene such as Rob Zombie, Static X, and others, Machines on Blast is homing in on a cross between music that you can either dance to in a club or nastily headbang to in a furious, unconscious rage. Songs such as 'Like Facts to the Slaughter', 'Face the Fire', and 'The Motives of Tied Hands' are perfect examples of the fun-but-frenzied electrometal anthems on "Black Market Happiness". 

Two of my favorite songs on "Black Market Happiness" stab the previous compliments I have given the album in the back. 'This Warm Embrace', which serves as the first song on the album, maintains itself as my current favorite. Thrash metal percussion and blast beats introduced me to the album then abruptly switched into an unholy, melody driven chorus. The song continues in that pattern for its duration and the on-off nature of the song kept me on my toes; it's a brutal introduction to the album. On the other hand, 'Living the Lie' seems to bring out Machines on Blast's love for gothrock and darkwave artists. It start with standard industrial rock machinations, but swiftly turns into a more emotional verse lacking frenetic guitars. Deeper pitched and handsome vocals takeover before hitting us back into the aforementioned industrial rock beats. Just like with 'This Warm Embrace', the constant switching maintained my fascination. 

I would not be able to say this is a complete review without mentioning the collaborations held on the album. Chris "Lutachrist" Dupre (Fractured Fairytales, Narcotic Wasteland) lends his aggressive chords to the song 'The Proclamation'. And, I don't know about you, but if Evan Mitchell and this guy were standing at a podium screaming to a chamber of audience members about an issue, I'm pretty sure they'd be able to start a riot. The dual vocals on the song during the chorus works wonders; there's more testosterone in this one song than at a Planet Fitness during peak workout periods. Machines on Blast also recruited Henrik Udd (engineer, producer) for mixing and mastering; his credentials are phenomenal as he's worked with the likes of Bring Me the Horizon, Architects, Powerwolf, and many others. This is one of the many reasons as to why "Black Market Happiness" comes off as sounding so crisp. 

As far as criticisms go, I have almost none. I suppose it comes down to personal taste in this regard; there's not a song on the album that I think is bad. But there are songs that I think are better than others. For example, when I get to 'The Chosen Failure' on a straight playthrough of the album, I could listen to it or I could skip it and hit 'Blur the Lines' which is a song I appreciate much, much more. "Black Market Happiness" is one of those albums where I'll pick and choose certain songs to be in rotation on my personal playlist, but the rest will be entertaining digests whenever I decide to go back through the band's discography. 

Whatever I said above can be applied to a conclusion whereupon I repeat myself over and over again. So, instead of doing that, I'll leave you with the reminder that "Black Market Happiness" is available on Bandcamp in both digital and CD formats. With a big ol'eight-out-of-ten, I'd say this album is more than worthy of being added to your collection. 

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Nov 23 2020