UMUR "Death Machine" is the self-titled debut full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Death Machine. Death Machine is a side project for some of the guys in technical/ progressive metal act Zero Hour and all three Zero Hour key members are accounted for and present in the Death Machine lineup. The Tipton brothers on guitars and bass respectively and Mike Guy on drums. Elias stands for the electronics on the album and Kirk for the vocals.

While there are some similarities between Zero Hour and Death Machine (most notably the trademark chromatic runs), the latter is quite a different entity compared to the former. First off the vocals are raw. Occasionally even moving into death metal growling territory but mostly a kind of raw hardcore screaming delivery. The music is generally a bit simpler compared to the trademark technical/ progressive metal of Zero Hour. Death Machine seems to be a project where the Tipton brother and Mike Guy can let out some steam and not think too much about technical playing and intricate compositions. That´s not to say that the playing isn´t quite on the technical side on "Death Machine", but overall the compositions come off as pretty direct, aggressive and simple in structure.

The production is professional and powerful allthough a bit standard for the genre.

"Death Machine" is a solid album by Death Machine and allthough it never reaches excellence in my book a 2.5 - 3 star rating is deserved. Even though Death Machine features three members of Zero Hour in the lineup it´s not necessarily the fans of Zero Hour that´s the target group here. This is a case of listen before purchase.