KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * * *
Label: Warners
Verdict: Seventh and most accessible album yet from local rock monsters
While Shihad have made shonky decisions in their 20-year career, the Wellington lads have never made a bad album.
The pummelling power of Churn and beautiful brutality of Killjoy in the mid-90s not only made them one of the heaviest bands to come out of New Zealand, but their rock sound was unique.
On the Fish album, the anthem Home Again ensured the band was etched proudly on the toilet walls of venues around the country alongside the Exponents (Why Does Love Do This To Me?) and Th' Dudes (Bliss).
There was the classic, General Electric in 1999; then came the name change and the Pacifier album, which, despite it being pristinely produced and American sounding, has some of the best Shihad songs on it like Semi-Normal and Run.
Last album Love Is The New Hate was poisonous and bitter but purging. And so, on the band's latest, Beautiful Machine, we get a more optimistic and happier Shihad. But it's not soft, thanks to questioning tracks like Waiting Round For God - a hymn for non-believers, says frontman Jon Toogood.
They have never lost that big, ballsy, distinct Shihad sound. On Beautiful Machine it has morphed yet again to include more keyboards and technology and overall takes on a more breezy, melodic and fresher rock 'n' roll form.
That might sound like another term for lightweight, and many will want Beautiful Machine to rock a bit more. But keyboards and cleaner, 80s-soaked guitars can rock too.
There's also string arrangements, shimmering synths and wonky tremolo effects, which shows the quartet are children of the 80s, influenced by more than just Metallica, AC/DC and Slayer.
There's the cocky, slightly camp swagger of Rule the World which comes complete with "woohoos"; many of the bass lines, especially on the title track, have a touch of Joy Division about them; and Chameleon and The Bible And The Gun have guitar parts that sit somewhere between the steeliness of post punk and U2's grandiose The Unforgettable Fire.
Waiting Round For God is one of the most beautiful songs they have written, again, without being soft, because of ribbing lines like "while all the lunatics are waiting round for God".
The most raucous Beautiful Machine gets is Count It Up, which can only be described as Shihad doing Mint Chicks.
However, it's the eerie, keyboard-driven When You Coming Home? that sums up Beautiful Machine best. It's very un-Shihad but proof they can write songs that don't rely on being heavy or, in the words of Toogood, "f****** weighty".
So, and don't take offence, it's about time metal-head bogans who still worship Churn moved on. Synthesisers rule.
