Meat Machine was a British

industrial rock Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten and Chrom ...

band active during the first half of the 1990s. The band released two singles and one album, ''Slug'', with independent label Pandemonium Records. Meat Machine was best known for the single "Times Of Addiction" which was played widely in industrial dance clubs and reached No. 7 on the ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' Top Solid Grooves chart in 1992. Their electro rock song "Charles Manson (Rise and Fall)" samples interviews with the murder cult leader and was ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

'' magazine's Single of the Week in 1993. The members of Meat Machine decided to split up after being approached to open for

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

in the UK and Europe.

Recordings

Meat Machine signed with Pandemonium Records, releasing their debut single, "Times Of Addiction" / "Nightmare" in early 1992. According to the band, "Times Of Addiction" was about desperation and addictions in post-1980s society, ranging from drugs to desire. The flip-side of the single, "Nightmare", was about a controversial war involving Britain that had quickly been forgotten. The

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compa ...

"Charles Manson" was released in 1993. The song opens with a sample of Manson saying, "I'm God and I've killed everybody, now what?" It was followed by the LP ''Slug''.

Principal members

The early members of Meat Machine included: * Vincent James – Vocalist, bassist * Ford Shawcross – Keyboardist * Tony Deville – Guitars * Steven Von Kampen – Keyboard programmer

Reception

A feature article in ''

'' in 1991 described their music as "aural violence to shake your sleepy minds awake" and that the members of Meat Machine were "about as subtle as a blowtorch in the face". When "Times Of Addiction" charted in 1992, ''Melody Maker'' said the single was "Further proof that the boundary between hardcore dub and rock music is going the way of the Berlin Wall, from a group who look disturbingly like

Alien Sex Fiend Alien Sex Fiend are an English gothic rock band, formed in London in 1982. The current lineup of the band consists of Nik Fiend and Mrs Fiend. Five of the group's albums and 12 of their singles reached top 20 positions in the UK indie charts i ...

." A review of ''Slug'' in the

zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

''Impulse'' said, "After the excellent 'Charles Manson' 12", this is a little disappointing". The review rated the tracks "What's Yours" and "Talking To Blind Mountains" as the "most interesting", while comparing "Slug Ugly" and "Mirror Void" to "a distorted Ministry".

Influence

* In 2003, the Japanese

Gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie an ...

band

Buck-Tick Buck-Tick (stylized as BUCK-TICK) is a Japanese rock band formed in Fujioka, Gunma in 1983. The classic lineup of lead vocalist Atsushi Sakurai, lead guitarist Hisashi Imai, rhythm guitarist Hidehiko Hoshino, bassist Yutaka Higuchi and drum ...

used songs from the Meat Machine ''Slug'' album as post-concert background music during its "Here we go again!" tour. Buck-Tick guitarist, songwriter and founding member

Hisashi Imai is a Japanese musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Buck-Tick since 1983. Following the October 2023 death of vocalist Atsushi Sakurai, Imai began sharing lead vocal duties in the band with fe ...

named ''Slug'' as one of his favourite albums.

References

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External links