Label: Independent
Date: August 15th, 2023
So now we move to Maghreb for a few reviews. The first country of this region we’ll visit is Algeria. Most of the bands coming from there are based in its capital city. In my opinion there’s nothing strange in that since this is also the most populous one where around four and a half million people live, which is more or less tenth part of the whole country’s population. City has of course a long history, but that’s what you can read about somewhere else. Here we’re focused on music, first of all. Well, in the case of such ensembles you hear about for the very first time, at least the most important thing is to give you some historical facts about it. Numidian Killing Machine is quite young, but at the same time experienced (in case of the bassist this is much longer experience than you can think, by the way) band who was born in the year 2017. “Psychotronik Breakdown ” is their debut full-length and contains nine songs (one of them, was released as a single two and a half month before) taking forty six minutes and seventeen seconds.
And what kind of music guys offer us? Well, the answer isn’t as easy as pie, actually. This is a mixture of several sub-genres of our beloved music and all of them are, let’s call it, very traditional ones as well. So it’s definitely something for old-school fans, who don’t like too many experiments. In short, people for whom metal is about what they grew up with. And, even if I probably should write it in the last lines of this review, the reason why you should attract your attention to this stuff isn’t only about the place of origin of the band, but music itself the most. We have here the opportunity to listen to high quality thrash with several and very easy to hear influences of both black (this first wave one) or speed metal. Well, in some riffs I can also hear some death or even some power metal influences. They’re delicate, but still not impossible to hear. Anyways, this thrash we have to do here with is definitely German (to be more precise North Rhine-Westphalia) school one, but more about “Upcoming Terror” creators’ then “Pleasure To Kill” or “Persecution Mania”. I mean, there’s a lot of guitar tricks and stuff like that in what our Algerian friends play. But we also have some echoes of the aforementioned ensembles coming from Gelsenkirchen and Essen. I can also hear some influences of Bay Area school on “Psychotronik Breakdown”. Well, of course you can recognize some other touches, and they’re not all strikte thrash ones. Anyways, from an entire single note emanate what in such creativity is the most important – aggression, wildness and destruction. Riffs are as sharp as razor, sometimes even broken, drumming rhythmic and equal, vocal aggressive and with characteristic harshness, but from time to time Safianne uses a clean voice. It makes, together with several riffs, music a little bit majestic. But that’s only moments, which make it even more interesting. The same melody here and there. I actually could write a lot about it, analyze it and so on. But is it really necessary? I don’t think so! It’s enough in my opinion if I write only one more thing about music we’re able to listen to here. Guys definitely don’t take prisoners.
By the way, I’m just even more than sure you’ll be very positively surprised after listening to this album! And I know you’ll already become Numidian Killing Machine new fans, who’ll (just like I do) just can’t wait for another stuff. What more can I say? Well, I think nothing else. Maybe I repeat phrases I use quite often, maybe even too often, in my reviews. I’m a little bit sad this review has reached the end, because I have no more excuse to listen to “Psychotronik Breakdown” anymore – I need to move to another stuff I’ll do my scribbles about. But is it really my fault that most of the bands I review play great music? Well, I think it isn’t, I just have luck to get in the most excellent stuff.
Before I end my scribble I guess I should give you one more piece of information. As at least some of you just deduced from the ensemble’s name, guys are fascinated, what’s visible in lyrics, too, by the ancient country of Berbers who existed almost two hundred years – initially in today north Algeria, than also Libya and a a part of Tunisia, and its capital was Citra. However, you just need to spend these few bucks to get “Psychotronik…”! And since you can make a choice between digital copy and CD, then you’ll get what you like. And every thrasher with any debts should have this album as well!
