Maximum Metal Rating Legend
5 Excellent - Masterpiece. A classic.
4.5-4 Great - Almost perfect records but there's probably a lacking.
3.5 Good - Most of the record is good, but there may be some filler.
3 Average - Some good songs, some bad ones at about a half/half ratio.
2.5-2 Fair - Worth a listen, but best obtained by collectors.
1.5-1 Bad - Major problems with music, lyrics, production, etc.
0 Terrible - Waste of your life and time.

Note: Reviews are graded from 0-5, anything higher or not showing is from our old style. Scores, however, do not reveal the important features. The written review that accompanies the ratings is the best source of information regarding the music on our site. Reviewing is opinionated, not a qualitative science, so scores are personal to the reviewer and could reflect anything from being technically brilliant to gloriously cheesy fun.

Demos and independent releases get some slack since the bands are often spent broke supporting themselves and trying to improve. Major releases usually have big financial backing, so they may be judged by a heavier hand. All scores can be eventually adjusted up or down by comparison of subsequent releases by the same band. We attempt to keep biases out of reviews and be advocates of the consumer without the undo influence of any band, label, management, promoter, etc.

The best way to determine how much you may like certain music is to listen to it yourself.
Band
Construcdead
Title
The Grand Machinery
Type
LP/EP
Company
Black Lodge
YOR
2005
Style
Death
9/16/2005 - Review by: Eric Compton
Construcdead - The Grand Machinery - 2005 - Black Lodge

Track Listing
1. Grand Machinery
2. A Cog In The Machinery
3. The Lustfull
4. In A Moment Of Sobriety
5. 8 Inches Of Flesh
6. The Cynical Revolution
7. Treachery
8. The Eye Of Revelation
9. Pater Noster
10. Rusty Armour
11. Forever Cin
12. Hatelist
At some point you really have to ask when is enough really enough? I mean honestly, think about it for a moment. This melodic death thing has been done and done and done, and just when you think it is over, it gets done again and again and again. Don't get me wrong, I honestly believe there are some very good releases found in the genre, INCLUDING this album from Construcdead, but in all reality no matter how good this record is, I'm really just not going to find myself playing it a whole lot. Why? Because next week or the week after another band will release this same album with maybe a sharper guitar sound or a few more clean vocals and I'll play that for a week until the next band releases a catchy melodic death record.

Let's just call a spade a spade, just this summer I have rejoiced in and then abandoned Darkane, Burden Of Grief, Manntis, As I Lay Dying, Soilwork, Frameless Scar (which was actually last week's pick), Arch Enemy (to an extent), Ektomorf, Dew Scented, Nightrage, and Hatesphere. I really just pick up the record, tell myself this is really good, and then by the following week some other band is putting out the same album. It is a far different cry than your other genres. These bands sound almost identical, and I guarandamntee you that you could put one of the members from one of these bands in a dark closet with a set of speakers and he or she would not be able to tell you which guitar riff was from their band and which was not.

So off of my soapbox for just a moment is the review for "The Grand Machinery", the third release from Construcdead, a damn fine Swedish act that is really just caught at the wrong place at the wrong time in terms of originality or craft. This record is a speed rush, a thrashing machine that mixes in the same material that The Haunted, Dimension Zero, Darkane, Arch Enemy, and Nightrage have played before, and before that. So really in terms of staying on par and competing with those other top tier acts, well Construcdead is just as good as any of them.

Nothing really sets this apart from the other releases. The more I try to hear something different the more frustrating it becomes. So I don't dig that deep, instead the listener needs to just give the record a spin or two, do whatever energetic movement the music compels you to do, and then simply put the album away and grab next week's release. It is as simple as that.


--EC 09.02.05
  • 1 :REVIEW COUNT
    N/A :AVE RATING

ALL REVIEWS FOR: CONSTRUCDEAD
TITLE
DOR
COMPANY
REVIEWER DATE MADE RATING
The Grand Machinery
2005
Black Lodge
Eric Compton9/16/2005
-
Violadead
2004
Black Lodge
Ajax5/20/2004
-

ALL INTERVIEWS FOR: CONSTRUCDEAD
INTERVIEW INTERVIEWER DATE TAGLINE


<< back >>