Static-X

Machine (Warner Brothers)
by Scott Hefflon

Oh, I get it… I’ve taken a lot of shit for thinking these guys suck, because being an angry motherfucker, a metalhead, and from Boston (where certain radio DJs get weak in the knees at the mere mention of the band’s name), I’m expected to worship these guys. So, of course, I rebel and hate them, even though I’ve never really bothered to listen to them long enough to pinpoint why they make my skin crawl.

Until now…

So here it is… Having been a metal guy for nearly 20 years as it’s gone in and out of public fancy, I’ve enjoyed groundbreaking bands who tore your face off, creeped you out, and made ya fight not to carve their name into your flesh. Static-X is a younger, harder, faster version of dumbed-down Ministry and Fear Factory with fashion sense that’ll hound them for the rest of their lives. Ministry was the first band of the sort on people’s lips in ’89/90, but hard drugs have sapped whatever creative fire burned there. And when ya go back to those records, they lack the power every moron with a production budget can buy these days. And Fear Factory was dumb to begin with, but they too blended a couple genres – death metal and industrial – together like no one ever had before. But that was ’93 or so. Static-X falls shy of both bands (and remember, these guys are supposed to be in their prime), and while I think they’re more energetic and make lots of the right noise, they’re a half decade or more late to be touted as “new” metal, and I’m not in the habit of bowing to cover bands.

Send your typo-filled hate email to idontfuckingcare@whatyouthink-dimwit.com.
(www.static-x.com)