Critical Mess
Man Made Machine Made Man

Man made machine made man could be a future evolution or just a critical mess that leads to a bleaker future of darkness. MMMMM is also the second album by German death metallers Critical Mess fronted by the aggressive dame called Britta; the first one was released in 2018. So they seem to be a quite diligent band with two albums in the same number of years and they did have time to tour between the albums as well – unfortunately they didn’t seem to have much time to device a great artwork, but did they have enough to device some fantastic music?

Classic death metal with rather raw and evil vocals from Britta, there are some elements of thrash and groove in the soundscape making the album feel quite energetic. The production is good, the soundscapes works rather well and the performances are really strong, and they certainly have the elements for making great music. The variation is a bit lacking but it is somewhat compensated by a sensible playing time, but while the use of a female vocalist is somewhat uncommon it is nothing really uncommon or unique about the sound of this band – the album is fairly predictable.

They have the ingredients to make something great but don’t manage to mix them into anything even close to great. The songs aren’t even close to memorable and there is no standout material at all, and consequently there aren’t any really good songs on the album. Perhaps they should lower the releasing pace and release albums less often and put more effort into them, I haven’t heard the debut so it may not be the same for that album.

Sure, the good sound and all that makes the album sound pretty okay at first glimpse and it is not bad, it just isn’t good. There have been some good reviews on the web though, like it usually is for most albums, so there might be a chance that you’ll like the album if you are a fan of the death metal genre. But I wouldn’t count on it and the chances are probably larger that you will find it rather uninteresting, the title is a lot more interesting than the album – that title can make for some interesting stories but it doesn’t make for interesting music.

HHHHHHH