Machete Justice – Reversion

Kiwi metal! That’s right, unsigned metal band Machete Justice is trying to put New Zealand on the metal map with their debut album, “Reversion.” My sister went to school in New Zealand for awhile, but I’ve never been there myself. I hear it’s a pretty nice place. A really long plane ride from here though, and I really hate planes, so who knows if I’ll ever get there. Stranger things have happened. I never thought to find myself above the arctic circle in Tromsø, Norway either, but that ended up happening. Varg Vikernes was still in prison there while I was there, but I didn’t have an opportunity to go by and see the prison.

With a name like Machete Justice I was expecting some extreme death metal (something akin to Jungle Rot), but that wasn’t the case. They actually play a mix of heavy metal and hard rock, with maybe a little more emphasis on metal than rock. The first track, “Eyes on the Crown” comes off pretty heavy and thrashy but as the album progresses the hard rock influence starts to show up more. Though even the hard rock sounding stuff is still pretty heavy, it just has a little more groove and catchiness than the thrashy material, which is more a punch in the face. The change-over is fairly subtle and I didn’t notice the shift first time through listening so I had to start over to confirm that they weren’t playing that way the whole time. They pull this off without managing to sound cheesy or overtly commercial. “The Ballad of Bubba J. White” had a moment there where it reminded me of “Slave to the Grind”-era Skidrow. Then the next track “Reckless” kicks off like it’s going to go death metal. Nice mix.

I won’t dwell on the production of the album; it sounds good. The music is full of riffs and runs and lead work galore as well as chunky rhythms. The vocals start off with a harsh edge at the beginning of the album, and like the album itself, get more melodic as the album progresses. Harsh or clean the vocals sound good to me.

Machete Justice certainly has the skill to do New Zealand proud if they can get the right breaks. I could totally hear these guys on Prosthetic Records; I think that would be a good fit. I hope things go their way. If anyone were to ask my opinion, I’d be glad to recommend Machete Justice.