SCREAMACHINE
“Church Of The Scream”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

ScreaMachine are a heavy metal band from Italy formed in 2017, releasing their debut album ‘ScreaMachine’ in 2021, and the four song E.P. ‘Borderline’ in 2022. Currently on the crest of a heavy metal wave, the band have wasted no time at all in delivering their third release in just two years! ‘Church Of The Scream’ is the bands new album…

…and is a ten song tirade of pace, power and heaviness! ScreaMachine are in devastating form, oozing energy in abundance, yet retaining the immense melodious intent of their debut. So my fellow metalheads, come follow me as we gather here today for a heavy metal battering, as ‘Church Of The Scream’ storms into life with the blistering ‘The Crimson Legacy’, featuring the classic gallop of old school “foot on the monitor” heavy metal. The band blend traditional metal with the muscular style of American heavy metal, redefining an old sound and making it fucking huge! A simply breath taking opening salvo!

And the riff that opens the title song ‘Church Of The Scream’ is so eighties sounding I think it just travelled here at eighty eight miles an hour in a DeLorean car – ScreaMachine echoing a heart pounding sound that every single metalhead instantly recognises! And with a pace faster than ‘The Crimson Legacy’, heads will ferociously be nodding back and forth. A sensational opening double from the Italian five piece, ‘Church Of The Scream’ (the album) moves swiftly on with the hard rocking and heavy hitting ‘Night Asylum’ – emanating a bombastic nature that’s simply out of this world! ‘Night Asylum’ is metals equivalent of “arena rock” – infectiously high tempo and hugely sing a long-able. A crowd favourite for sure, the band on to a winner with this one! As they are with every song heard so far, ‘Revenge Walker’ picking up the pace and returning the classic gallop of earlier. The band may be from mainland Europe, but sure are delivering a sound that was born in the UK over forty years ago.

So not only have we got a strong British vibe going on here, and more specifically the legendary NWOBHM evolution with bands such as Iron Maiden, Saxon, and the power driven metal of Judas Priest, but also the muscular metal of American bands such as Manowar and W.A.S.P. And with an electrifying turn of speed, ScreaMachine storm on with the ferocious ‘Met(h)aldone’, and a head bang ability that’s just shot through the fucking roof! The speed is breath taking, the band at full tilt banging the heads of metalheads faster than ever! The bands debut of two years ago was a barnstorming album of magnificence, with the follow up turning out to be an even more magnificent one! Widening their soundscape, ScreaMachine dip one foot into the thrash metal pond for ‘Flag Of Damnation’, a shuddering heaviness descending upon the album – a heaviness that harks back to the black album era of Metallica. ‘Occam’s Failure’ returns the glorious guitar sound of the NWOBHM, pounding the ground with purpose and intent. The head bang ability of ‘Occam’s Failure’ is incredible, I defy anyone to not be head banging right now! ‘Cause if you’re not – you surely must be deaf! Or dead!

Have ScreaMachine just placed themselves in the running for the Album Of The Year title? I certainly believe so! And with a wonderful play on words for a song title, ‘Pest Case Scenario’ delivers a level of menace not heard previously – the band pummelling the senses with a savage battering of heavy metal. So savage in fact, that walls are gonna crack and crumble, reducing buildings to rubble, leaving a desolate landscape where only metal survives! And in the mighty shape of ScreaMachine, metal is gonna survive for many years to come – ‘Deflagrator’ striding over the horizon, adopting a ground shuddering foot stomp. The band are immense here, setting off incendiary devices left, right and fucking centre! And why wouldn’t they? ScreaMachine are an explosive blend of glycerol mixed with nitric and sulphuric acid – nitro-glycerine in other words! And for all you fact fans, coincidence finders and conspiracy theorists – nitro-glycerine was discovered by chemist Ascanio Sobrero…who was also Italian! Just like ScreaMachine! Bringing the album to a close, ‘The Epic Of Defeat’ is seven minutes plus of elegant, majestic and melodic heavy metal, featuring everything the band have in their arsenal. ‘Church Of The Scream’ (the album) has been a non stop roller coaster of high intensity and even higher head bang ability – a listening pleasure of the most pleasurable kind.

Overall, forty eight minutes of intense and infectious heavy metal from a band performing at the top of their game.

TRACKLIST

The Crimson Legacy
Church Of The Scream
Night Asylum
Revenge Walker
Met(H)Aldone
Flag Of Damnation
Occam’s Failure
Pest Case Scenario
Deflagrator
The Epic Of Defeat

https://www.screamachineband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/screamachineofficial

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