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Rating: On the notes of this underestimated album grows the sound of unrest. A completely standalone episode in the over thirty-year career of the Italo-American singer, “Angry Machines” was literally ignored by fans. The band was even forced to cancel some dates of the tour in support of the album.
This is metal with sounds that I would describe as twisted and sometimes cacophonous: the noise verve of the guitarist at the time (Tracy Grijalva) initially seems to clash head-on with the lyrical and baroque approach of the singing. The lyrics no longer make any mention of fantasy themes, a trademark of the Dio in the seventies and eighties, the structure of the pieces is often built outside the verse-chorus canon, the classic doom approach of the songs seems grafted onto a branch of impure sound, the so-called easy-listening structures seem deliberately cut off with blows of dissonance. This is the more or less exact description of how this work seemed, just after its release in stores; what a good "defender" would want to hear from the scribe of the moment.
“Angry Machines” was released at a very bleak moment for the sales of metal and hard rock in general. The band was thus forced to roll up their sleeves and experiment, trying out new solutions. “Angry Machines” is a bomb of an album, at least to me: a saga of evil lasting three quarters of an hour and some. The curtain rises with “Institutional Man”, a track paced by hallucinatory lyrics. The sounds of Tracy G.'s six-string are a hymn to madness, in this piece as well as in “Stay Out Of My Mind”, embellished by the effect play of the keys. Listening to it literally gives chills, the soundtrack to a schizophrenic nightmare. In a more classic style “Don't Tell The Kids”, in which Vinnie Appice gives a rock drumming lesson to his contemporaries. In every track a different instrument seems to carry the thread of the piece. A bulldozer-effect bass leads the assault of the ferocious “Hunter Of The Heart”. Towering riffs act as a springboard for filthy vocalizations in “Golden Rules”, finally a mention also to the very strange “Double Monday” (which I admit to be my favorite...). This long and insane hallucination ends with the sad “This Is Your Life”, a ballad with just piano and voice, a melodic pearl hidden in the mud of Tracy G.'s noise. Never again will we hear a Ronnie Dio singing and composing with this approach.
Today he is too busy frying and refrying the usual big omelet all "dragons and wizards" so dear to the central European audience. What has to be done to get by...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Don't Tell the Kids (04:19)
Please, please, make love freeze
And break apart in the middle (of it)?
Then they could see the hate
When they separate
And taste the salt of their tears
No, no, it's all about experience
Control, you might as well be wood, no good
Why why, your questions die
In a shout and no attention
You might have said
That they both were dead
So put the puzzle away
But no, it's all about experience
Control, they're gonna give you none, no fun
Don't tell the kids, they'll never understand it
Don't tell the kids, don't waste your time, no
Get back, it's a heart attack
And the planet needs a doctor
We can tell it looks like hell
But they make us close our eyes
No, it's all about experience
And control, you might as well be stone, alone
Don't tell the kids, they'll never understand it
Don't tell the kids, don't waste your time, yeah
Don't tell the kids, they'll never get the picture
Don't tell the kids, you waste your time, yeah
Don't tell the kids, they just don't understand it
Don't tell the kids, don't waste your time, time
Talk to the animals
Anyone who'll answer
Any fool will do
Just don't tell the kids
06 Big Sister (05:35)
Who controls your mind
There have been changes
No more giving it all for free
There will be changes
Now woman is all you need
A-ah
Here is a number
You've been given an another name
We will be watching
One might fall but you'll all be blamed
Shame, shame
Here's big sister
We're big sister
Hear big sister
There's big sister
Dancing on your grave
Who controls your mind
Who's in charge of hearts
Who controls you time
We're in charge of you
There have been changes
Even mother's a soldier now
There have been changes
You can touch 'cause you don't know how
No
Here's big sister
We're big sister
Hear big sister
There's big sister
Dancing on your grave
Pretty faces, young and clean
Watching you from magazines
All they want is something more
Kill the king and then we'll crown the whore
Here's big sister
We're big sister
Hear big sister
There's big sister
Who controls your mind
In charge of hearts
Controls your time
In charge of you
Here's big sister
We're big sister
Control
07 Double Monday (02:55)
When you're alone and the sun's gone down
One more time
Must you prentend that some light still shines
Sounds like double Monday
Yeah
Each time you think that you've just begun
It's the end
Oh, someone you love wants to just be friends
Sounds like double Monday
Yeah
Feels like snakes and spiders
Crawling up your body
Every someday double Monday
Like a fly against the wall
Just when you think you've seen it all you
You lose your special place to hide
So get ready for the ride, ride, ride
Yeah
Every someday double Monday
09 Dying in America (04:36)
Once upon a high
The streets were gold and blue was
In the sky riders gone
Never could belong
Maybe you still can dream
Sleep through screams
While we're dying in America
Once upon a child
The carnival would stop and stay a-
While you were gone
Everything went wrong
Too soon, cartoon
Dying in America
Dying in America
In places where aces outnumber the queens
Jack is afraid of tomorrow
Colors are changing to red, white and green
As we all fall down
Once upon a hate
They told us they could fix it if we'd
Wait for awhile
Killing you with smiles
Maybe you still can dream
Sleep through screams
While we're dying in America
Dying in America
Sex, sex, sex
Even bigger, even better
Don't lose out, be a winner
Save more, save time and save now
One hundred thirty per cent American people
Would like to be like everyone else
11 This Is Your Life (03:24)
Who cares what came before
We were only starlight
One day, then nevermore
Because we're whispers in the wind
Once upon a time
The world was never blind
Like we are
Right now it seems
You're only dreams and shadows
If wishes could be eagles how you'd fly
This is your life
This is your time
What if the flame won't last forever
This is your here
This is your now
Let it be magical
Who cares what came before
We're only starlight
Once upon the time
All the world was blind
Like we are
This is your life
This is your time
Look at your world
This is your life
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