A View from the End of the World

Well this is it, the big one. From Blood Stain Child to Trivium, I have pigeonholed my reputation to the point of disrepair, and while Mechinae Supremacy seem like a band I should love the shit out of, I sadly can't get totally under their sound. The question isn't necessarily one of conviction, but perhaps too much adherence to some wildly abstract set of ideals regarding a sound that the band themselves are pioneering. Perchance these Swedes are enjoying the ride too much to actually stop and reassess their surroundings, shooting wide of the realization that there is no need to press the ordeal to the point of inanity.

That said, it should be no surprise by this point that my prime complication with A View from the End of the World is one of balance, as these guys just can't make up their mind whether to play lightweight quasi-power metal or press the electronic aspect further. It is rare that both coexist harmoniously here, but I would lying if I told you those moments weren't fucking awesome. In the end, it frustrates me more than anything, and I can't help but feel that these guys are bottlenecking their approach in an attempt to appeal to a sizable cadre of basement dwellers that live and breathe this retro gaming craze of late. I mean, half of these kids weren't even old enough to remember most of it, so where is this all coming from? I can pick my mind into eternity regarding these queries, so in short: Mechinae Supremacy litters their tunes with what is essentially a blanketing of chip tunes, and slap ridiculously hot girls on their album covers. The end result apparently sells like hotcakes...go figure.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I chose A View from the End of the World for this critique as this is without a doubt their most balanced effort. I still can't really call this "power" metal in the traditional sense, though. The leads are acrobatic while avoiding the dreaded shred-happy postulate, but the actual riffs are rather cleanly-picked and lack collective teeth. What few solid riffs there are find themselves buried between lazy chord progressions and a neutered tone. This slides the weight onto the vocals and synths, the latter of which aren't quite as omnipresent as one might think. The end result is a number of passages where we find Stjärnström out in the cold, and without the proper chops to keep the temperature rightfully up. The vocals are what almost kill this for me, as they are exaggerated, over-emoted, and remind me of Hawthorne Heights more than anything. Oh and the lyrics are almost universally face-palm worthy, save for some cool oeuvres near the middle of "Shinigami."

This all said, the one-two punch of "Force Feedback" and "Rocket Dragon" near the beginning of the procession solidify A View from the End of the World's A-side as a keeper. The former has a great dichotomy between the verses and chorus, and was the obligatory choice for the first single. The electronics remain upfront but not necessarily garish (by these standards). Add the aforementioned "Shinigami" and maybe "Cybergenesis" and there you have it, that is all you really need to see here. The rest of the tracks just fail to cut the mustard, oftentimes slowing the proceedings down too much for the synths to get a rightful grip around the listener's throat. It needs to be running at max-speed to really work, and therein lies the biggest fault in Machinae Supremacy's approach.

I definitely don't hate this by any means, and for what it is, this is very well done and potentially worthy of repeated listens. I just can't call A View from the End of the World a collective success on the whole, and one would be wise to pick-and-choose accordingly. Don't expect this to deliver the goods for the entire duration, but maybe give it a whirl if you are into later Blood Stain Child, DragonForce, Emergency Gate, etc.

Machinae Supremacy probably requires little introduction to anybody reading this review. Chances are, if you're reading this, you already have a good idea what separates Machinae Supremacy from the herd of other metal bands. These guys take smartly written heavy/power metal and unite it with chiptunes, giving their music a sound akin to NES and SNES era video games.

Well, that's what they're supposed to do, anyway. As far as traditional instruments are concerned, this album's creativity is through the damn roof. From the opening lead to "A View from the End of the World" to the closing solo of "Remnant (March of the Undead IV)," the guitar work relentlessly unleashes utterly amazing riffs and leads. The drumming is practically perfect; the beats fit each song perfectly and accent the rhythms to match the perfect lead work. All things considered, even the bass is above average, given that this is supposed to be power "bass? who needs bass?" metal.

Therein, however, is my one and only real complaint with this album. There is so much emphasis on quality on EVERY other instrument that they almost forgot what makes them unique. The SID chip is everpresent, but almost never stands out. It's like they are so worried the chip will sound like a gimmick and undermine their talent as a band otherwise, they choose to push it to the background so the listener almost forgets it exists. The main song where the SID chip is actually dominant is "Shinigami" - it's definitely a highlight of the album, too. Indeed, the rhythms are beautifully, subtly, progressively complex (there's quite a few progressive moments on this album, actually), but it's really the chiptunes, which is actually thrust high into the mix so we can hear it, that makes this song outstanding. There's plenty of other moments where the SID chip stands out too: there's several flashy SID solos in various songs; the beginning of "Action Girl," which features a joyously beautiful chiptune melody before the guitars come in and push the chip into the background again; the beginning of "Force Feedback," where a similar event occurs; and "Remnant (March of the Undead IV)," where the chip actually is high in the mix so we can hear it fairly well through the entire song. Actually, that's what makes "Remnant" another highlight: the chip music is fairly simple, but it's still dominant in the mix and somehow helps accent the supreme leads, namely in the chorus.

And that's it. That's my one complaint with the album. The chip music is usually pushed back in the mix and composed simply, therefore working as added atmosphere for the guitars rather than standing out and sharing attention with the guitars - which, I would like to point out again, are unbelievably splendidly composed. Even the lyrics are great; though I should find lines like the chorus of "Crouching Camper Hidden Sniper" appauling ("I'm gonna do you a favor / And not T-bag you for your behavior"), it's simply amusing and works well. Furthermore, lyrics like that are offset by thoughtful lines like the chorus of "Cybergenesis": "Forever the ones who will claim this day / The age of creation will fade as we turn from grace." Lines like this show that whoever writes the lyrics for this band definitely knows how to be poetic and philosophical, but they like to mix it up with tongue-in-cheek video game based lyrics every once in awhile. My only complaint with the lyrics might be that they make critical remarks about religion a bit too often.

My only other complaint with the album is that it should've been edited a little more; that is, the three songs before "Remnant (March of the Undead IV)" are rather unnecessary and could've been left off the finished album. They evoke more of the "alternative metal" sound that Machinae Supremacy is occasionally tagged with; thus, they drag back the album's consistency somewhat. That said, they still have some sweet rhythms and are still enjoyable songs that I actually do return to once in awhile; I simply feel they are not quite up to the skyhigh standards set by most of the other tracks.

Regardless, the atmospheric nature of the chiptunes still makes Machinae Supremacy's music a wonderfully unique experience. I wish they'd make a more dominant appearance more often, but it works well as it is, too. If you find the music to 8-bit games entertaining, this is basically an instant recommendation. If you don't... well, hell, the chiptunes are more atmospheric than not anyway, and melodious and slightly progressive guitar work make this seriously enjoyable, anyway. That may be the main reason to enjoy this, after all.

One can easily lose the count of unique metal acts tracked down by Spinefarm Records. As every commercial enterprise, the label cares about its own income above all else, still the amount of talented beginners signed is really impressive. Not that many of Spinefarm's bands gained some serious success but the main thing about these Finns' work is about the support and help provided for various Finnish / Swedish musicians (with original ideas or just good music) which would have kept making underground demos in hope for a deal or just splitted-up without any attention given otherwise. And if some band considers Spinefarm its home, you can expect to hear interesting music from the guys at the very least and usually something more than just that. In the year 2006 Spinefarm signed a deal with the young crew named Machine Supremacy (MaSu), hailing from the small town of Luleå, Sweden, which had already gained a real amount of success on the underground scene and in the net due to their unique style combining heavy guitars and 8-bit sounds of SidStation synthesizer and due to several dozens of tracks offered for free download at their website. The band even had one long play under their belt released in 2004 and called Deus Ex Machinae (DXM). Much water has flowed under the bridge since then, the band released two more full-lengths, experienced several line-up changes and other stuff usual for every band out there. Their fourth effort saw the light of day on November 3, 2010 and was entitled A View From The End Of The World.

If someone plays this record right after DXM, skipping everything that was in between, (s)he will surely notice that the band learnt to do literally EVERYTHING since then. No, really, these guys seem to be able to play whatever they think of! Started with interesting sound concept and loads of SID backed with heavy guitars ten years ago, these Swedes ended up with an explosive shake of power metal, heavy metal, alternative metal, pop rock and punk with distinctive SID samples added, not to mention the monstrous solos: it's hard to believe these were composed and performed by the same people, who initially didn't intend to use the guitars that much. There's no need to pick the sound of one guitar from under another one here like raisins from a stale bun, double leads are laid down in a precise and thorough manner, as regards the solos themselves, with the exception of that one in Cybernesis, which is a heavy metal-oriented track, all the others are capable of driving you out of your senses. It's a quintessence of an unfettered, intelligent, genius melodic escalation of the best tunes every song can offer, it's both pure art and fourteen needles ripping right into the brain and pressing nucleus accumbens directly. The catharsis comes at the end of Rocket Dragon's third minute, when Jonas "Gibli" Rörling and Andreas "Gordon" Gerdin, two MaSu axemen, play a solo over one minute in length. Gus G.? Roland Grapow? Timo Tolkki? Andre Olbrich? Like, WHO? Can they or anyone else write fourteen brilliant solos fitted in fourteen album tracks on one long play? The answer seems to be negative. And it's better to be quiet about what kind of guitar / keyboard duels are played with the help of SidStation or what kind of keyboard solo one can hear in Crouching Camper Hidden Sniper. Add an outstanding melodious riffing style, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and great share of humor and you'll get a rough idea about what kind of band recorded this album. And there is so much more than this.

Robert "Gazz" Stjärnström doesn't possess a wide vocal range, still he a) keeps improving his "chords mastery" with every record b) has a great skill in "lyrical intoning", no matter if this is an anti-religious sneer, band's native video games topic described in a pretty much funny way, social issues or just some cool own-made story c) sings such an insanely wide spectrum of melodic soundscapes that you just get carried away without any concern given about who's behind the microphone rack. Curious remark, most of the killer, soulslaying vocal passages are not just sung but aspirated with fading out, low tones, the style is extremely bizarre (just try to hum that soft but emotional «I see it all laid to waste…» line in A View From The End Of The World, almost whispering «Run, run away…» in Rocket Dragon or subtle «You’re in hell and this is your own fault…» in Persona and you'll get the idea). Eccentric for power metal, this vocal ain't a crooked experiment but a fine boon, a real discovery instead.

The music comprises a lot of outasight peaceful passages, when guitars don’t scalp, the drums don't kick in and aggression is scaled around zero degree: magic, dreamlike rhodes piano touches in Persona, calm before the apocalyptic storm in Remnant's verses, eclectic keyboard breaks of Force Feedback, the ending of A View From The End Of The World with guitars like coming off a cliff leaving a blazing evanescent synth trail and finally World Of Light, a softening transition to the second part of the album, where bass parts are more interesting than those of keys (huh!). At the same time MaSu have a perfect idea where to "blast" a song and let the spring break loose. This spring is mostly Robert himself: fast-paced verses of sid-punkish Shinigami landside with a pile of riffs when «I long only for nightmares, FOR APOCALYPSE AND WAR» and «So ready to inflict his sense OF JUSTICE ON MANKIND» lines sweep in, Remnant's chorus is ignited with atomic blast radiance at «TELL ME if sun remains…» heights but this technique can be exemplified at its best around the end of Action Girl which evokes the picture of Robert hurling the mic at the wall after screaming «Just take your clothes off AND ENJOY!». Guitar melody not just flies to the skies but takes the hell off with the third cosmic speed out of this fucking Solar System. Apart from all the above, the band doesn't gush the music with great deal of chiptunes but uses those along with sampling in a more moderate way showing the genuine arrangement prowess.

All this hints at the most powerful, ultimate three-layered melodic approach, the rarest case when vocals, guitars and keyboards are fully and equally present, not diminishing or overtaking one another. Being also born from one melodic source, three instruments both take lead and sound in unison, whichever the music demands.

As to the general sound, it's a bit surprising that the album is less heavy and metal than the previous effort, Overworld, which was frankly presented as pure metal record (surprising because Spinefarm seemed to aim at making a full-time battle unit out of this band, so to say). Despite this, guitars can easily be considered the best in entire MaSu's discography, there are helluva lot of guitar licks all across the album, half of the riffs is designed for lead not rhytm guitar and one can pick a random song, but especially the s/t one, Action Girl or Rocket Dragon, hearken to the leading guitar — and regain conscience at some point after approx. three full-time album spins, resurfacing from a torpor. DXM wasn't about such a playing style at all, Redeemer contained several astonishing but short solos, though showing the band's excellent composing skills in this area, Overworld was split into "riffs & leads" as most metal records are and finally A View From The End Of The World is a total songwriting liberty — and not just in the guitar aspect. All the more interesting to hear all this with an alternative-oriented, a bit deliberately dirty mixing.

MaSu are one of the most, if not the most experimental power metal-related band and this doesn't need an additional clarification for anyone familiar with the band. A View From The End Of The World appears to be experimental to a certain degree for the band itself, drawing inspiration from mass sources including their early works as well. The first half is more power metal, while the second one leans towards various experiments: punkish & DXM-ed Shinigami, Crouching Camper Hidden Sniper and Indiscriminate Murder Is Counter-Productive, The Greatest Show On Earth, pop-rockish to the backbone, Action Girl and One Day In The Universe, more metal by design but still the same as for their cores, hard rock / heavy metal Cybernesis, which are, despite totally different from other songs, don't slip out from the context which unfortunately happened with several songs on Overworld, namely Gimme More, SID Icarus and even Skin. The album ends like it started, crowned with the fourth part of March Of The Undead, Remnant, picking up the anthemic epic mood of the third part and referring a listener back to deep and intense sound of the opener, also closing the bitter topic of monotheistic religions' nature.

Machinae Supremacy was on its way to recording such an album like A View From The End Of The World from the very start, so it wasn't that unexpected, but the actual implementation of all its potential here is stunning. Power metal, as any other style, rests upon several lineaments, and bands playing this style either try to explore or develop them. Some succeed more, some less and some push these lineaments to the limit. These Swedes began with a truly eclectic Deus Ex Machinae six years ago and had pretty good chances to do something like that ever since. And finally this came alive — A View From The End Of The World became exactly the embodiment, the embodiment of modernity and contemporaneity. This is the foremost edge, vanguard of a free art, to a degree it's possible in this framework, a benchmark manifestation of the experience gained in the style over two decades in league with band’s up-to-date genius, a unique vision of familiar things, an idea which outstripped the time, still being enclosed in the habitual shape, a kick in the face of scepsis, a brick wall tombing any doubts.