It’s hell being a virtuoso. Just ask James Murphy, one of the
\nmost-in-demand guitarists of today’s metal genre. In recent months,
\nit’s been hard to find a disc that Murphy hasn’t contributed his
\nsix-string work to.<\/p>\n
On his latest solo effort,
\nFeeding The Machine<\/i>, Murphy assembles some of the genre’s
\nbigger and up-and-coming names to help him create the ultimate
\nmetal groove. Unfortunately, while some of the work is phenomenal,
\nmost of it is merely adequate.<\/p>\n
Being a sensational guitarist, one would think that Murphy would
\nkeep his six-string work at the forefront of the material, and keep
\nthe songs as instrumentals. Instead, Murphy almost treats his own
\nalbum as a session he was hired for, allowing other people like
\nChuck Billy (from Testament) and Trent Gardner (Magellan) to take
\nover the spotlight.<\/p>\n
Regrettably, this is the first problem with
\nFeeding The Machine<\/i>. No disrespect is meant towards the
\nvocalists, but they end up stealing the thunder from Murphy on
\ntracks like “No One Can Tell You” and “Visitors”. It’s not that the
\ntracks are bad, but they don’t seem to really give Murphy the room
\nto show his talents.<\/p>\n
Problem number two is that much of the material on
\nFeeding The Machine<\/i> is not as exciting as one would expect.
\nThe overall sound of tracks like “Contagion” and “Epoch” don’t get
\nthe heart rate going and the neck snapping in spasms.<\/p>\n
Problem number three: it sometimes seems like Murphy stretches
\nout the songs a little too long, with many tracks clocking in at
\nover six minutes. If the material had been a little more lively,
\nmaybe this wouldn’t have been as noticeable. But when you’re having
\na hard time getting excited about the album overall, tracks of some
\nsignificant length seem to stretch on for infinity.<\/p>\n
Murphy is still able to pull some solid material out of the
\nfire. “Odyssey” is one track that does have the kind of excitement
\nI had been hoping for throughout the bulk of
\nFeeding The Machine<\/i>. The album’s closer, “In Lingua Mortua,”
\ngives Murphy the chance to expand from the electric guitar a bit,
\nsomething that was sorely lacking on this disc. Yes, I know that
\nMurphy is primarily a heavy metal guitarist, but it would have been
\ninteresting to have heard how he could have worked in some acoustic
\nplaying into some of the music. (It’s been my experience that
\ncarefully-placed acoustic guitar can help to create a more sinister
\nmood.)<\/p>\n
Murphy has proven time and time again that he is a superb
\nguitarist, and
\nFeeding The Machine<\/i> should have been his opportunity to
\ndisplay his talents to the utmost. Pity that the material – and
\nreliance on vocalists – doesn’t give Murphy that chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7505],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39234","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-james-murphy","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39234"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}