Anti-Machine

Anti-Machine Too Many Eyes EP

There is a dragon that I have been chasing away at since I was a wee little shithead. It’s finding a moment that gets me closer to the initial, cautious, and addictive feelings of first contact with grimy, dark hardcore. It’s fleeting, to say the least, until a band like ANTI-MACHINE comes around and dishes it.  This is the band’s follow-up to their October 2021 self-titled EP, and like their first recorded offering, it destroys and brings pause. Too Many Eyes is loud, fast, and bleeding in vomit.  Who the fuck are these people? The NYC five-piece  shares some of the same mechanics as contemporaries 80HD and KINETIC ORBITAL STRIKE, with a feel of early BORN AGAINST. There is a place for some old fart like myself to situate themselves into this, for that I thank the band. Hail ANTI-MACHINE.

• Reviewer Johnny Leach
• Label Toxic State
• Issue MRR #487 • December 2023

Anti-Machine Shut Up EP

“My mind is just a piece of shit this morning” says the “Winnebago Man” in the intro, which sets the tone for what follows next: an eruption of snotty hardcore punk that reeks of disdain for everyday life. A ferocious discharge of US hardcore punk that owes as much to POISON IDEA as it does to TOTALITÄR, but the vocals really shift the gears to another place. Gritty and snarling, they turn the songs into a cesspool of hate and rawness against the state, xenophobes, racists, and everyday shit situations. The punk on the cover being drilled in the head while being OK with it couldn’t be more appropriate for this banger. That’s what you get when you get NY seasoned veterans from CRAZY SPIRIT, SAVAGEHEADS, EXTENDED HELL, and SUBVERSIVE RITE together. Life is shit and they know it!

• Reviewer João Seixas
• Label Toxic State
• Issue MRR #462 • November 2021