Static-X: Machine : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Among the pierced and masked knuckleheads of new metal, Static-X roar and chug like 'bots with loose hip bolts. On "Get to the Gone," the first song on their second album, the band grooves as hard as it grinds, using squealing electronic noise, a punishing, amelodic riff that sounds like two guitars and a bass Super-Glued together at the neck, and absolutely no solos. The itchy bass and drums underpinning "Black and White" suggest that Static-X, like Mudvayne, are the monstrous offspring of the math metal of Primus, but there's something altogether more hilarious (and tongue-in-cheek) about singer Wayne Static's cannibal-zombie vocals, not to mention his gravity-defying push-broom 'do. The other thing that distinguishes Static-X from a moshable theater troupe like Slipknot is that even on a hard charger like ". . . In a Bag," when they seem to be racing full-throttle, they somehow pull back from true speed-metal tempos (and the man-machine metaphors that those inhuman velocities suggest) just enough to let the riffs breathe. Which is probably why Machine isn't just furious but funky. In a Mr. Roboto gone berserk sorta way, that is. (RS 870 - June 7, 2001)

PAT BLASHILL