The End Machine Phase 2

This is the sophomore effort by The End Machine or if you like by the supergroup consisting of George Lynch/Jeff Pilson/Robert Mason/Steve Brown. “Wild” Mick Brown has retired and gave the torch (or the sticks) to his younger brother, Steve, who is doing a phenomenal job behind the kit. I am sure that those of you, who listened to the band’s debut album, had spotted quite a few similarities with the blues-based hard rock of Lynch Mob. This is, after all, quite natural as The End Machine consists of three members of Lynch’s outfit. This time around, on “Phase2”, things become clearer and more “on target” as The End Machine choses a more “Dokken meets Lynch Mob” style with a modern touch from a production standpoint.

So, for instance, “Blood and Money” bears the same aesthetic as “Tooth and Nail”, “Dark Divide” reminds of the classic Dokken back catalogue while “Scars” could easily be a sister song to “Jaded Heart”. It goes almost without saying that Lynch’s guitar tone and Mason’s vocals (by the way, both of them shine on the record) directly point to Lynch Mob and I’d say that the final outcome is a more balanced one compared to the debut offering which was, nonetheless, excellent.

All in all, The End Machine clearly shows how hard rock should be played nowadays and I only wish that there would be a wider and bigger audience out there that would discover those amazing songs. Come to think about it, if this album would have been released in between 1988-1992, it would have been huge. Oh well…let’s just hope that The End Machine is here to stay!

Highlight: One of the tracks is “Crack The Sky”. The first thing that came to my mind, for some reason, when I read its title, was that this was the name of Jani Lane’s first ever band.