Review by Jack on November 15, 2001.

Overdone is Midnight Sun's biggest fault. They suffer heavily from being overly metal. Five of the ten songs contain the word 'metal' or 'steel' ('Metal Gods', 'Dungeons of Steel', 'Steel to Steel', 'Metal Machine' and 'Metal Will Stand Tall'). Midnight Sun try so hard to be metal warriors and with "Metal Machine" as their flagship, they ultimately fall a tad short of the mark.

"Metal Machine" is in no way a bad album, and there is some great material that Midnight Sun write on "Metal Machine". The title track 'Metal Machine' contains a great chorus and some imaginative guitar work. And there a few nice ballads like tracks scattered throughout "Metal Machine". The opener; 'Metal Gods' kicks off with a killer opening that is heavily drum based and contains some great pounding of the skins.

The real problem with "Metal Machine" is that it is pretty bland. You are not going to find any tunes on here that you won't be able find by any other similar power metal bands starting with 'M'. That is a big problem for Midnight Sun. Why would someone wish to buy their material, when they can find a very similar artist with very similar material. It is a shame that Midnight Sun are just one of hundreds of similar power metal bands, but that's the reality and I can't really find anything overly unique within their 'cheesy' brand of metal to give a glowing recommendation. But by no mean is "Metal Machine" a bad album, however it's just another little fish in a big wide ocean of similar fish.

Bottom Line: Ultimately Midnight Sun are a good power metal band, who suffer from playing a generic brand of metal. There are far too many power metal bands out there, some better than Midnight Sun and some not. This factor alone makes it difficult to recommend "Metal Machine".

Rating: 6 out of 10