Beast Machine formed in Northern NSW in 2017 with one aim – creating the heaviest, fastest, most self-indulgent band they could. A few months later they received an invitation to play the USA. By the end of 2017, they had travelled to the US and performed a run of shows around California and Nevada. In 2018 they hit the USA once again for their second tour.
Then came the debut single “Time Slowed Down”, followed by the current single “Crawling”. Beast Machine’s self-titled debut LP goes hard and heavy and takes absolutely no prisoners.
The album was recorded in the US with Luke Gerard Webb (The Dead Kennedys, The Ataris) in a tiny studio in Van Nuys called New Monkey Studios. Within it was a rare Trident A-Range console that recorded Elton John and The Police records which belonged to Elliot Smith and is number three of 13 ever made.
‘”We wanted to capture our live sound as best as possible,” explained vocalist/guitarist Reg Barber. “We had one day to track 14 songs, which was no easy task. We managed to get all the songs down and we were feeling pretty clever about it until we went out the back of the studio and our van was gone! It was towed away. We called the number and it turned out it had been towed across town and they wanted $500 to get the van back the next morning. We were spent and in no mood to argue with the guy on the other end of the phone that barely spoke English and couldn’t understand our accents anyway. It turned out not only was Luke an amazing producer, but he was also quite the negotiator! He calmly talked the tow company down in price, managed to get the van back after hours, and got the studio to cover the tow fine. I don’t know how he’s going to feel about recording our next record…’’
The opening track “War” is a sheer statement of intent and the album keeps the pace going until the final bell. If you dig it hard and heavy then the Beast Machine debut album is for you.
