Dangerous New Machine are a band that not too many people on the UK side of the Atlantic may have heard of. I confess, until meeting Dangerous New Machine guitarist Billy Grey (read Rocksins interview with Billy here) when he was in his other role as Axeman for FOZZY I had not heard of them either. Billy was generous enough to give me a copy of Dangerous New Machines’ debut album Set The World On Fire, so it was the least I could do to review it, albeit a few months late. So, should you be discovering just what Dangerous New Machine are all about? Please read on…
Dangerous New Machine are one of those bands (at least on this album) who sit finely balanced on the fence between hard rock and metal (like Grey’s other band FOZZY) but tend to come down slightly more on the hard rock side of the fence whereas Fozzy are more on the metal side. They have a sound that would fit very well in arenas or smaller venues and would be in good company touring with a wide range of artists and would comfortably hold their own in almost any company.
Singer Erik Rogers has a good range to his voice and is also comfortable delivering various styles of singing and near rapping on occasions, fans of bands such as Breaking Benjamin, Hoobastank and Papa Roach will find a lot to like in the vocal department with Dangerous New Machine. Billy Grey unleashes some high quality riffs throughout the album, something that will not surprise any fans of his other work while the rhythm section is solid with a good quality of musicianship throughout.
As for individual songs, there are some great moments, far more positive than negative. Album opener “Shut Up” sets the tone of the album very well and makes me think if it got some airplay it could be a big hit for the band. I also think had it dropped during the Nu-metal era it would have been absolutely massive, as Disturbed got big on similar songs that were far worse than this. The highlight of the album in my opinion id Bulletproof Hero, a song featuring some fantastic drumming, at least two quality riffs and some great audible bass work and is four minutes of a really terrific hard rock song. What’s Your Name is another example of great riffage and excellent high tempo vocal work and is a song about waking up next to someone you don’t know, A situation a lot of readers may have found themselves in and may be able to relate to as well as bang their heads along to. I Wish is also a prime example that DNM can pull off a slow burning rock ballad of sorts that builds and builds and is another great track that showcases the bands diversity very well.
Whilst I think some tracks are not as good as others, the only one that I think they could have done without is “Let’s talk about sex” which I find abit cringeworthy with its sex and social network based lyrics. As already stated there is plenty of good stuff to be concentrating on with this album without focusing on the negatives. Its also extremely rare for a band to produce a debut album where all the tracks can live up to high standards even if most of the tracks fall into this category.
Overall, I think this album is a very solid debut that shows a lot of promise. There is an awful lot of good work for Dangerous New Machine to build on with Set The World On Fire and it will be very interesting to see if they can keep it up on their second album and with their live shows. If they can, an awful lot more people may be talking about Dangerous New Machine very soon indeed.
Record Label: Four Records
For Fans Of: Stuck Mojo, FOZZY, Disturbed, Papa Roach, Breaking Benjamin, Soil, Hoobastank
