{"id":48553,"date":"2015-03-03T21:50:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-04T02:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=48553"},"modified":"2015-03-03T21:50:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T02:50:23","slug":"metal-machine-free-nation-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/metal-machine-free-nation-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Metal Machine | Free Nation<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"MetalReleased at the tail end of 2014, Free Nation<\/em> is the debut album from Metal Machine, a new project masterminded by vocalist Csaba Zvekan (of Raven Lord and Exorcism). Zvekan also handles keys and some guitar work on this album. <\/p>\n

Csaba Zvekan’s vocal performance on other albums may be noteworthy due to just how much he sounds like a young Rob Halford, but it’s here on the appropriately-named Metal Machine that he really takes that influence to a new level. Halford’s solo albums Resurrection<\/em> and Crucible<\/em> are clearly the template for Metal Machine, as is Judas Priest’s classic Painkiller<\/em> album. In fact, Free Nation<\/em> makes for a much better follow-up to Crucible<\/em> than Halford IV: Made of Metal<\/em> ever did. You know exactly what this means: Free Nation<\/em> is going to have high speed riffs, thundering rhythms and above all the piercing vocal delivery worthy of Rob Halford in his prime (though Zvekan’s cleaner, lower register is quite different from Halford’s).<\/p>\n

Of course the downside of such obvious Halford\/Judas Priest worship is that Metal Machine is very predictable and somewhat one-dimensional. Yes, the songs on Free Nation<\/em> sound like Halford tunes, and they’re totally enjoyable at that, but are they great metal songs in their own right? Probably not. They may not be timeless metal classics like \u201cPainkiller,\u201d but songs like \u201cNailed to the Cross,\u201d \u201cMorning Star\u201d and \u201cBlack Sun\u201d are fun to blast at high volume and definitely get heads banging.<\/p>\n

While it never makes the jump to \u201cessential\u201d status, the Metal Machine debut is still a hell of a lot of fun, and as Judas Priest worship goes, it doesn’t get much better than this. If you’re a fan of Painkiller<\/em>-era Judas Priest, the first two Halford solo albums or even newer bands like Cage and Rocka Rollas, you’ll want to give Free Nation a spin.<\/p>\n

Genre: Heavy Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nCsaba Zvekan (v) (k) (g)
\nPierre Andre Mougenot (g) (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tSkull and Bones
\n2.\tNailed to the Cross
\n3.\tDetox
\n4.\tMorning Star
\n5.\tWorld of Temptation
\n6.\tHellraiser
\n7.\tLord of War
\n8.\tBlack Sun
\n9.\tFree Nation<\/p>\n

Label: Dream Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.facebook.com\/metalmachineband<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist — Released at the tail end of 2014, Free Nation is the debut album from Metal Machine, a new project masterminded by vocalist Csaba Zvekan (of Raven Lord and […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":48554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12394],"tags":[2317,7099,10750,9290,10890,2491,10160,6089],"class_list":{"0":"post-48553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2015","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-csaba-zvekan","10":"tag-dream-records","11":"tag-exorcism","12":"tag-free-nation","13":"tag-heavy-metal","14":"tag-metal-machine","15":"tag-raven-lord"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}