Machine Fish

After a stellar debut, and a slightly-less impressive (but still solid) second album, The Galactic Cowboys' Machine Fish is, at first, a huge disappointment. While Space In Your Face was a bit more straight-ahead thrash metal than the first album, it was still a richly-produced, textured work with plenty of interesting things going on. This third time around, the band has stripped out everything but the bare essentials, resulting in a pretty basic, comparatively unimpressive thrash metal album. Starting with what is most likely the world's ugliest album cover (and biggest photoshop disaster) and running well through the final track, everything indicates that the band has run out of money, time, or steam here, like the proverbial middle school kid who's teacher says is "really bright, but just doesn't apply himself." Galactic Cowboys, you know you can do better.

The funny thing is, out of context, the album isn't so bad. Individually, most of the material here is decent- it's just not very varied, and when you add the fourteen songs together into one 70-minute package, it's a bit much to sit through. The riffs, the choruses, the solos- they might showcase a talented band that can rock out with the best of them, but they're not different or innovative enough to keep from blending into each other.

It's hard to guess exactly what marked the change. Part of the reason might be new lead guitarist Wally Farkas, who became a prominent band member from that point forward. But he doesn't write the songs- that's mostly the territory of bass player Monty Colvin and his cohorts Ben Huggins (vocals) and Alan Doss (drums)- which has been the same arrangement since the first album. Perhaps the answer lies with the departure of mentor and producer Sam Taylor, who seems to have had a similar effect on compatriots King's X. Both bands, after breaking off with Taylor, started releasing more stripped-down, less layered, less studio-ambitious albums. If that's the reason, it's too bad- his departure may have been necessary, but he was clearly a viable creative contributor who's presence pushed both bands to greater heights.

Drummer Doss takes over the producing here for a less-than-stellar effect. After a couple of great early tracks (Feel the Rage and Fear Not), the rest of the album starts to give you that "haven't I heard this before?" feeling. Other than Huggins' new grinding vocal style (best evident in the killer, growlingly-sung Stress) the new material sounds a bit... recycled. There are impressive moments throughout, but you forget them the minute the next song kicks in, because the next bit sounds like that last bit.

Looking back on their entire body of work, it's clear that the Cowboys, now left to their own devices, would never again reach for the stars, preferring to keep their spaceship in the garage, releasing a few more just-okay thrash metal albums before calling it quits for good.

A common saying of many metalheads when describing their favorite bands' albums is something along the lines of "If this were a just world, this album or song would be at the top of the Billboard Charts." While this cannot be said about The Galactic Cowboys' 1996 "Machine Fish" album, it shouldn't have been the complete commercial failure that it was, despite its hideous cover art.

After the (mostly) dissapointing "Space in Your Face," The Galactic Cowboys were dropped from Geffen Records and after a brief hiatus, signed with Metal Blade. They also fired Dane Sonnier, their guitarist, and replaced him with Wally Farkas, who, while much more talented that the aforementioned Sonnier, had more in common with the other alterna-metal guitarists of the day. The same can be said for the music, which features more "Black Album" sounding riffs as opposed to the thrash riffs of their earlier albums. There are some great headbanging moments in "The Struggle" and "Feel the Rage," the latter of which also has a powerful chorus reminiscent of something off of their self-titled debut. Although the majority of the singing is more "metal" and less Beatle-esque harmonies, those harmonies still show up and are the highlights of "The Lens," "Idle Minds," and the beautiful epic "Psychotic Companion." That being said, the album is far too long and several songs could have been left off completely.

By stripping the thrash elements and band harmonies and changing their sound to be simpler and more radio friendly, although it wasn't a big commercial success, The Galactic Cowboys have managed to create one of the better alterna-metal albums of the 90's. In doing so, however, they have lost the element to their music that made them so unique in the first place.