Labels: DIWPhalanx
Review by: Kunal Nandi
A Japanese power-trio, playing straight-up stoner shit, that’s named after a Kyuss song? Where do I affix the gold stars? But seriously folks, these two complete and utter gems of albums finally receive the (separate) reissue they deserve, although you’ll still be hard pressed to find them outside of Japan. Dating from ’96 and ’98 respectively, they come from a world where legendary labels like Man’s Ruin lorded over this particular genre like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Basically, Greenmachine’s modus operandi is to play tuneful stoner riffs at maximum volume, with screaming vocals over the top, never making it get too complicated. Sometimes the songs are fast, sometimes they are slow. That’s about it. The riffs however make the band – pounding, varied, catchy, original, amazing. On the earlier ‘D.A.M.N.’ album, it all sounds so raw, and I mean RAW, even with the remastering! A totally bloated layer of thick distortion sits on the songs like a sodden blanket, numbing your brain with its sheer power. It has the perfect production job, suiting the music perfectly, whacked out in the extreme, always threatening to burst out from the red and rupture your speaker cones. It’s nothing new in the slightest; they even have the token long, slow song that starts with a bass riff complete with a wibbly effect on it, but it’s so totally entertaining, you wouldn’t believe your own goddamned ears. ‘D.A.M.N.’ also features a track called ‘Cunt Maniac’, an unnecessary thing to point out perhaps, but… I can’t finish that sentence.
‘The Earth Beater’ continues in much the same vein, with lyrics this time round suggesting themes such as finding methods of getting stoned, the process of getting stoned and the effects of said stoning, yet despite all that, the band’s approach is considerably more focussed. The songs are more concise, and dare I say it, radio-friendly, with a far more polished feel to proceedings that can expose the weaker elements of the songwriting at times. As a personal preference, I’d go with ‘D.A.M.N.’ as it works better as a whole, but there are some cracking tracks on the later album too.