Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Construcdead - The Grand Machinery - 2005 - Black Lodge

Track Listing1. Grand Machinery 2. A Cog In The Machinery 3. The Lustfull 4. In A Moment Of Sobriety 5. 8 Inches Of Flesh 6. The Cynical Revolution 7. Treachery 8. The Eye Of Revelation 9. Pater Noster 10. Rusty Armour 11. Forever Cin 12. Hatelist

At some point you really have to ask when is enough really enough? I mean honestly, think about it for a moment. This melodic death thing has been done and done and done, and just when you think it is over, it gets done again and again and again. Don't get me wrong, I honestly believe there are some very good releases found in the genre, INCLUDING this album from Construcdead, but in all reality no matter how good this record is, I'm really just not going to find myself playing it a whole lot. Why? Because next week or the week after another band will release this same album with maybe a sharper guitar sound or a few more clean vocals and I'll play that for a week until the next band releases a catchy melodic death record.

Let's just call a spade a spade, just this summer I have rejoiced in and then abandoned Darkane, Burden Of Grief, Manntis, As I Lay Dying, Soilwork, Frameless Scar (which was actually last week's pick), Arch Enemy (to an extent), Ektomorf, Dew Scented, Nightrage, and Hatesphere. I really just pick up the record, tell myself this is really good, and then by the following week some other band is putting out the same album. It is a far different cry than your other genres. These bands sound almost identical, and I guarandamntee you that you could put one of the members from one of these bands in a dark closet with a set of speakers and he or she would not be able to tell you which guitar riff was from their band and which was not.

So off of my soapbox for just a moment is the review for "The Grand Machinery", the third release from Construcdead, a damn fine Swedish act that is really just caught at the wrong place at the wrong time in terms of originality or craft. This record is a speed rush, a thrashing machine that mixes in the same material that The Haunted, Dimension Zero, Darkane, Arch Enemy, and Nightrage have played before, and before that. So really in terms of staying on par and competing with those other top tier acts, well Construcdead is just as good as any of them.

Nothing really sets this apart from the other releases. The more I try to hear something different the more frustrating it becomes. So I don't dig that deep, instead the listener needs to just give the record a spin or two, do whatever energetic movement the music compels you to do, and then simply put the album away and grab next week's release. It is as simple as that.


--EC 09.02.05