Search - Icon of Coil :: Machines Are Us

Dancefloor Hits Abound But Little New Ground

SandmanVI | Glen Allen, VA United States | 04/04/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"IOC has always bneen adept at churning out formulaic, hammering dance anthems. However the lyrics have always been, well, pretty lame and the music usually linear and predictable. Needless to say, fans have been looking for some development... well keep looking. Don't get me wrong these are good songs and certain to be favorites in the DJ booth. The issue is the lack of originality with a couple of exceptions.As always Icon tries to pummel the listener into a fine paste with crushing beats. They also craft some razor sharp hooks that will stick in your head. The first exception to the originality issue is "Shelter", filled with infectious melodies, a killer beat and some unexpectedly decent lyrics. Actually this song isn't new ground in the scene, but at least it sounds a whole lot like a Covenant song - and that's not a bad thing. "Existence in Progress" is the next in line of the IOC anthem collection so get those boots pumping. "Faith: Not Important" is clearly an effort by Andrew to carve out new territory and you have to applaud the effort. However you can just see that he isn't good at writing songs outside of his box as this falls flat. Where groups like VNV, Covenant and APB can slow down, turn down the machines and give you some of their best, IOC just can't achieve that yet. Still I like the try."Transfer: Complete" jumps right back into the formula and it works as well as it always does - no better & no worse. Uh oh, "Dead Enough for Life"... pretty dumb title, could it be? Yes, it is - another IOC floor slammer with slick Teutonic synths, beats turned up to 11 and super dumbo lyrics. "Android" feels like an FLA song from 10 years ago (think 'Tactical Neural Implant'). "Sleep:Less" may be the best song on the album; it's certainly the only time I've ever heard IOC slow down without failing. This is pretty good stuff and shows the most growth on the CD. Still it won't be able to shake the obvious comparison to (yeah, I know your getting tired of it) Covenant. OK - back on the floor robots. "Pursuit" cranks it up again at hyper speed. The vocals are repetitive and rage-filled making this sound like a Cubanate or Inertia song.I know that I (and many others) have complained at the lack of new ground or originality. Still I think this is well worth owning if you like electro or forceful dance in general. Few can churn out drum machine punishment and unbearably catchy hooks like IOC. And while the lyrics are often less than genius, the choruses have a knack for burrowing their way into your skull. Besides there are 1 or 2 signs of growth on this album. Go ahead and get it."

It's grown on me...

Seth Hauser | Chicago | 12/18/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I initially didn't care much for this album because of the dumb lyrics, but subsequent listens have turned me on to the catchy rhythms and old-school industrial beats of this disc.



Like their previous two releases, Icon of Coil's latest effort is bogged down by a most bizarre problem: what seems to be incomprehension of basic English grammar. It was an issue on their other albums as well, but it's more prevalent than ever on "Machines Are Us."



I'm not trying to be a Grammar Commando here, but it is rather difficult to sing along to lyrics that are uninspired in the first place, let alone horribly worded. Some of the lines on this album are so garbled that it looks as though the songs were written in German and then run through an internet translator before they were sung. It's not even incorrect grammar, it's just WRONG grammar - things that a native English speaker would never say. Here's a sampling from three different tracks:



"Many things has changed"

"I've seen this clouds"

"You would never died"



... I could keep going but I won't.



Lyrics have never been IOC's strong point - even when they try to make sense, they end up being formulaic at best.



That aside, this it actually not a bad album musically. As other reviewers here have mentioned, it does little to break new ground or advance them as a band. There is virtually no growth between their first album and their third one. And although you will know what to expect when you pick this album up, IOC pales in comparison to the growth over the years by staples of the genre such as VNV Nation, Covenant, Assemblage 23, and Apoptygma Berzerk.



Still, "Machines Are Us" delivers catchy tunes and is worth a purchase. Checking the coherence of their lyrics would be a gigantic step in the right direction on future albums - it's amusing to me how some of the grammar problems are corrected in the liner notes but are still sung incorrectly; almost like whoever was editing the CD booklet thought the errors were mistakes and fixed them. Usually it's the other way around: lyrics are sung correctly but printed wrong. It's hard for me to get over the glaring errors in English... singing these songs correctly would have done wonders for this album's appeal. Still, it's not a bad disc and brings to mind the sound of older Front Line Assembly and Front 242. It's a nice diversion but does little to advance music of this genre. All around average!"

My favorite IoC album

Erica Anderson | Minneapolis, MN | 09/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I wasn't really sure if I wanted to get the new Icon of Coil cd for some time. I wasn't impressed with "Soul is in the Software" (my introduction to IoC) but I loved "Serenity is the Devil". Eventually over time I decided that I wanted "Machines Are Us". I finally got around to buying "Machines Are Us" (after I couldn't find the new Imperative Reaction cd). I think I rushed to judgement when I first listened to "Machines Are Us" and then wrote a review of the cd for Amazon. I have been listening to "Machines Are Us" non-stop for the past week. One of the standout tracks on this album is track #4 "Shelter". The song may not be a complete departure for IoC but the song is addictively fun to listen to. It is just as catchy as anything by Apop and VNV Nation. I also enjoyed "Existence in Progress" and "Dead Enough For Life". IoC may not be VNV Nation or Apoptygma Berzerk, my two favorite futurepop bands, but they sure as heck has a ear for good dance beats and "Machines Are Us" is a superb example of their ear for melodies and aggressive yet danceable beats. The more I listened to "Machines Are Us", the more I grew to love the album. I think it has even outdid "Serenity is the Devil". One of the best tracks on the cd is "Shelter". I just love the lyrics to this song, especially this line "I can't find shelter in this world, I'm searching for an other world, where I'll feel safe". That really spoke to me. Then there is "Dead Enough For Life". I just love how big and epic the beats are to this song. It completely envelopes the listener and put him or her into a trance like it does with me. I wish a lot of artists nowadays wrote lyrics that were as intelligent as IoC's music is. IoC's strength really lies in the lyrics which almost borders on existentialism if you think about it. They aren't your atypical 'life sucks' songs which I find absolutely annoying. If "Machines Are Us" is an indication to what to expect from IoC, then I can hardly wait to hear more music from this excellent futurepop band. I definitely rank them as one of my favorite EBM/futurepop bands next to Apop and VNV Nation."