How am I supposed to rate an album that’s not really new, but something that is half-bootleg, half-best-of? That’s what “Can’t Stop the Machine”, the “new” American Head Charge album really is. De facto, the CD contains one new song only (“Downstream”), while the rest has already been included in previous records. Five of cuts are live performances and the last one is a remix of “Just So You Know”. Priority on first play is to disregard the confusion about what exactly we’re listening to - a live or a studio record. Maybe the Charges wanted to put us under the impression that they sound just as good live as they do on record? It’s undeniable that Cameron Heacock’s voice sounds great live, and the other band members’ work on stage is up to standard. The instruments are coordinated, no one’s deafening no one, they play in synchronicity and do not run off in progressive improvisations. It’s not their style anyway. Regarding the new/old songs - we’ve heard them before in previous albums and some in more than one (“Seamless”). The remix of “Just So You Know” is quite softer and more electronic but not bad. It is very personal though, because it depends on your opinion on covers and remixes in general. I personally would prefer the original tune. Probably the biggest benefit of the album is that it represents something like the best of the band plus a comparison between what they can do in and out of the studio. It also shows some of the things the musicians have been through on their way to growing up and the influences they have been under during that time. It is strange for their style, described as industrial sometimes, that they lean more towards the alternative/grunge genre (“When I Failed”), the variations between clean vocals and rough roars are nice and... If they had presented us some new material of the same brand and not a retrospection under a new name, they would have had more of an album, instead of a product.