3 years after delivering the less than stellar follow up to their excellent first album, the Galactic Cowboys came down long enough to drop off another record, their first on the Metal Blade label after splitting with former label Geffen, producer Sam Taylor and guitarist/vocalist Dane Sonnier. Now with Brian Slagel working the boards and newcomer Wally Farkas filling Dane's spot on guitar, Machine Fish had plenty of opportunities to fall off the rails but instead manages to spin the wheel in the other direction and bring the Cowboys back on course.
An aggressive opening cut is business as usual with these Texans and "Feel The Rage" checks all of those boxes with a faster tempo more reminiscent of the thrash riff salad found on their first album, giving listeners a glimpse of a leaner, sludgy sound before rattling off a run of up tempo groove-fests that give bassist Monty Colvin and drummer Alan Doss license to throw their weight around. These tunes have an almost King's X-esque groove (King's X would coincidentally later join the Cowboys at Metal Blade two years after this album). The art rock progginess is dialed back which helps to give the songs some breathing room and keep your ears from feeling constantly overloaded - "The Struggle", "Fear Not", and "Red Sun" are basically hard rock tracks through and through and the vocal harmonies are used more sparingly, only really appearing as they did on previous records on a few pieces. Scattered among the rest of these lighter tracks are a couple of more traditional-sounding tunes that evoke the Cowboys' original, more Beatles-esque sound: "Psychotic Companion", "Easy to Love", and "In This Life" in particular will sound familiar to anyone who's heard their earlier material. Production and mixing are still solid, with Monty's bass tone and Wally's guitars lending a drier, more metallic tone overall.
Machine Fish benefited noticeably from its longer than usual turnaround time and new management and production. The writing is sharper, the songs are tighter and far less ponderous than Space In Your Face, but runtime still remains unapologetically long in the tooth at 69 minutes (the guilty parties are primarily the tiresome "9th of June" and "In A Lonely Room"). Better to have too much than too little though, right?
C+
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