There are times that I desire so much to be on the same track with the composer of a musical piece, to actually know what he was thinking when writing a certain song, a caption of lyrics. Motifs are always a thing of interpretation for others to dwell on, constantly trying to scrape the meaning out of everything without really knowing if their estimation was the right one. However, I guess that it doesn't matter much as that has always been the name of the game, a game of riddles, attempting to root out needles in a haystack. Following the up and going ONE MACHINE group's debut album "The Distortion of Lies and the Overdriven Truth", released just last year, which left positive impression, I felt that it can't be the best that could be delivered. So without knowing I kept on waiting and a year passed by and here we are with a new release "The Final Cull", via Scarlet Records. And I was glad to notice that efforts were made for a better answer to the former.

Sadly, after the debut, more than half of the lineup of ONE MACHINE perished, leaving the founders Steve Smyth and Jamie Hunt to seek out new musicians, and recruited talented ones indeed. Each of the new recruits, Stefano Selvatico (Bass), Michele Sanna (Drums) and Chris Hawkins (Vocals), along with smashing veteran guitarist, proclaimed an epos of depth, emotive outburst and technical competency that left me with a taste to have more of the same dish. "The Final Cull" is a destructive piece of work, merciless, aggressive, yet also bears the mark of inner closure, transparency beyond the grey looming over the viciousness of modern society. It felt like a pleasurable mixture of later works of NEVERMORE along with the modern edge of VICIOUS RUMORS and IMAGIKA, promising that there will be no salvation with an additional groove that would be the incarnation of a down tuned BLACK SABBATH. My main impressions were by the guitaring of both Smyth and Hunt, coming up with encouraging soloing, with a few harmonics, of true heart, along with riffs of various of Metal genres, commanding the groove with might. Second, the new recruit, Hawkins, a young British vocalist that I see a bright future for him, strong voice, attacks at will yet also places a room for grace.

In comparison to the debut, I felt much more flow to the songs, even while producing a measure of progression and articulation that isn't even close to the borders of madness. Furthermore, "The Final Cull" felt slightly more melodic even while displaying a pure direction of a riff oriented mannerism. The hefty epos of "The Grand Design" raised my wishes from the debut album, better suiting the band above the more technical sense that was demonstrated earlier on, piercing vocals, attention-grabbing theme and great rhythms that would last for a long time. "Summoning of the Soul" sheds the light on some melodic artistry, arousing with its dramatic flavoured aspects. "Ashes In The Sky" lets the darkness unfold with a semi- balladry, felt a bit 90's ALICE IN CHAINS but slowly to become a spotlight moment of vocalic greatness with low tempo grooving of chunkiness. "Screaming For The Light" and "New Motive Power" are bounded by the almost broken chains of senseless Thrash Metal violence, slowly unleashing massive pounding into the air.

No doubt I stumbled upon the band's best offering to date, an onslaught of groove, Thrash and US Power Metal presentation along with a smite of technical essence. Be sure to grab this one, you will be taken by it.