Carl Jung believed that our collective unconsciousness - a universally shared structure of the human unconscious mind - is compiled of multiple archetypes that are passed down throughout human generations and manifest themselves in a variety of representative forms.

And now that I have your attention... If we look at the world of Metal as our collective unconsciousness - that place where all our repressed desires awaken at the sound of a power chord - we may be able to suggest that it too is made up of a variety of archetypal forms that are recognisable to us all. You have your Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal...and the list goes on. Yet amongst those aforementioned elements, there is also Hard Rock; which is arguably the stepping-stone that led to the birth of the latter.

Hard Rock is loved by all, and the genre itself contains a variety of instantly recognisable archetypical substances. "The Machine, The Devil & The Dope" by STONEWALL NOISE ORCHESTRA attempts to bring those familiar elements to our conscious minds in theory and in practice, striving to please our mental health.

It is dirty, gritty, and will have you pounding shots like the night before the start of Prohibition. "The Machine, The Devil & The Dope" sees STONEWALL NOISE ORCHESTRA display all the familiar Hard Rock personality traits akin to bands like QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, VELVET REVOLVER, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS and LIONS.

There are piston-churning drums, fat, tire-burning riffs, whining wah-pedalled licks and rolling bass grooves. Tracks like "The Fever", "Welcome Home", "Superior #1" and the blues shuffle "Stone Crazy" are classic up-tempo rock staples, and see the band apply their almost psychic synergy to churn out energetic, high-powered numbers.

However, STONEWALL NOISE ORCHESTRA truly kick in the grooves when they slow things down on tracks like "Into The Fire" and "I, The Servant" and the filthy title track, which see them deliver hard knocks to the microphones with heavy, bar-trashing cuts.

There is a strong vibe of such classics as DEEP PURPLE's "Machine Head". No bar gets left unfilled. The songwriting is solid ("Don't Blame The Demons" being a strong example), and as I've previously mentioned, the band are set in stone like Mount Rushmore. The only quip I have is with the production; which is far too muddy and thus swallows up the instruments within the mix. Granted that the intention may be to give the record that "un-remastered" feel of old-school greats, but unfortunately it only ends up sounding too rough and incoherent.

Overall, "The Machine, The Devil & The Dope" has no latent insecurities, no Freudian slips, and no ambiguous image associations; it is pure Rock. You need not overanalyse this piece, just get up off the couch, press play and let it the therapizing begin.
 <