The Empires of the Worlds

If you haven't come across Johny K., the metal alias of Yiannis Koutselinis hailing from the beautiful northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, you're in for a treat. Koutselinis possesses an impressively broad vocal range, effortlessly navigating high-pitched power metal vocal lines and intense screams, as well as seamlessly transitioning to more aggressive, modern, and growly styles. Witness his exceptional voice in the legendary demos of the underground heavy/power metallers, Deceptor, or the progressive metal masterpiece "Heathen Machine" from the British band Balance Of Power. Despite his undeniable talent, Koutselinis' metal career hasn't attained the success it undoubtedly deserves. In recent years, he has found considerable success as a film score composer, though his ongoing connection to the metal scene remains relatively unknown.

In his venture with Biomechanical, originally intended as an English band rather than a Greek one, Koutselinis aimed to merge his love for metal with his passion for crafting orchestral soundtracks. However, not all three albums in the series achieve the same level of artistic success. The initial release stands out as an excellent progressive album, with "Empires of the World" being a masterpiece in my view. Unfortunately, his latest attempt pushed the boundaries too much, resulting in what I can only describe as a total disaster.

The music in this album can be best described as an amalgamation of Judas Priest's "Painkiller" (complete with a cover version of the self-titled track in some editions) and Pantera's "Vulgar Display of Power/Far Beyond Driven", infused with a touch of Dream Theater/Queensryche progressive metal. All of this is complemented by orchestral soundtrack elements. The album features intensely heavy guitars firing off a barrage of riffs, ranging from a modern take on traditional heavy metal to the heavy, groovy, and modern style reminiscent of late '90s/early '00s metal. A few harmonic riffs even echo the signature style of Machine Head. The songs showcase high technicality, maintaining a consistent progressive metal aura throughout. The solos are a whirlwind of shredding, characterized by speed and an abundance of notes, reminiscent of the virtuosity commonly associated with progressive metal shredders. The album covers a spectrum of styles, with pure progressive segments in tracks like "Relinquished Destiny", "Long Time Dead", and "DNA Metastasis". Conversely, there are headbanging thrashy parts in songs like "Truth Denied", "The Empires of the World", "Enemy Within", and "Survival". Additionally, there are groove-infused sections in tracks like "Existenz", "Regenerated", and "Assaulter", the latter even incorporating a short blast beat. The closing song, split into four sub-songs, showcases the soundtrack element prominently in two of them, blending the various styles in the other two. Overall, it can be succinctly labelled as a progressive album.

The mix is well-balanced, blending elements of groove, traditional, and progressive metal, with orchestral soundtrack music either overlaid on top or subtly integrated into the background. In terms of vocals, John K., demonstrates an impressive range of vocal styles, easily transitioning between clean, melodic, high-pitched vocals, growls, and screams—all delivered with equal proficiency. I am not joking when I say that this guy could have been a really successful metal singer. The production quality is excellent, maintaining clarity despite the intricate layers within the music. The sound is both heavy and modern, a result that's hardly surprising given the involvement of the accomplished Andy Sneap in the co-production, mixing, and mastering process.

The music is heavily loaded, with a lot happening, so superficial listens won't do justice to the brilliance of this extreme metal art. Ultimately, it's extreme in every sense—extremely technical, orchestral, groovy, heavy, fast, and shredding. The band has faced accusations of relying heavily on Pro Tools and creating music that's unplayable live. However, I witnessed Biomechanical live in March 2005 in Thessaloniki, just before the release of this album. They effortlessly presented a setlist featuring songs from the first and then-unreleased second album. The line-up at the time had no trouble performing these demanding songs live, therefore, those accusations are simply bullshit.

The contrast between "Empires of the Worlds" and the preceding album lies in "Eight Moons" being more conventionally progressive and less extreme, though still an excellent album. In comparison, the subsequent album, "Cannibalised", pushed the boundaries even further, becoming more extreme, overloaded, faster, and intense. However, this approach didn't work, making the album, if not entirely unlistenable, certainly less enjoyable. "Empires of the Worlds", on the other hand, strikes the perfect balance with a high dose of everything before the formula starts to fall apart. There isn't a single filler track or part; the music is entirely addictive, headbangable, interesting, pleasing, and exciting.

Lyrically "The Empires of the Worlds" is a concept album (but not in a strict sense) that tells a sci-fi story of a man raised in a world of hatred, evolving into a ruthless figure. Divided into parts, the narrative explores his awakening to a false reality, the conflict with evil empires, a descent into the abyss, and an ascension through self-realization. The album symbolically addresses the enslavement of humanity by its genetic code, resulting in conflicts and misery. Despite its futuristic setting, the album tackles real-life issues, the human thirst for power, emphasizing the self-fabricated worlds preventing spiritual growth.

In conclusion, I want to emphasize that "Empires of the Worlds" stands out as a fantastic and highly underrated album in the realm of modern extreme metal. If you haven't explored it yet and have a taste for more modern stuff, don't hesitate any longer. While making a living from such music can be challenging, especially considering the unfortunate outcome of "Cannibalised", I understand why John K. shifted his focus to and found success in other forms of art. Nevertheless, I still hold hope for the possibility of hearing something new from him.

You know, I'm not really into super proggy/experimental/fusion stuff, so when I say that Biomechanical is probably the most breathtakingly over-the-top band I'm aware of, I'm sure as Hell missing something even crazier and more complex. However, in any way this is meant to detract from how impressive this band's formula was, especially on their sophomore The Empires of the Worlds, the ideal compromise between the 'simpler', modern groove/thrash-sounding debut Eight Moons and the severely ADHD-suffering swansong Cannibalised. This album is the sound of a band trying to erase as many boundaries between metal subgenres as they could in 54 minutes, and if its successor had only one fault (spoiler alert: it doesn't), that would be depreciating the here presented accomplishment by obstinately trying to do something more, at all costs. Just think about it, after hearing Cannibalised, this album doesn't feel so 'ambitious' or 'extreme' anymore, but it surely remains admirable in how it never loses its focus on the fact that it is, after all, a musical album.

That being said, despite how many times I've heard Biomechanical labeled quite generically as a thrash metal band (unsurprisingly, mainly on Italian sites), their music is still heavily founded on their groove metal basement, they just began to cover it with more efficiency. In short, you won't find an hour's worth of fresh and typical tech riffs that would be required in order to be classified as an 'intelligent' thrash album, and even the fast-paced songs are often carried by simpler low-notes patterns. All this doesn't cause any problems to me, but may annoy someone else like I read on previous reviews. The fact is, groove metal is widely recognized as probably the most stagnant sub-genre in all metal, so even when bands like this try to enrich its sound as much as possible, people will still complain that the foundation is basically the same. I can understand such point of view, but I don't recall having heard so much criticism about Grip Inc., which was a far less experimental band (but I'm not complaining, because they were awesome). Long story short, if everything that contains the word 'groove' makes you sick, you'll probably still not bother about giving this a chance, and you can safely close this page.

But what about the other people? Well, they'll probably find out that The Empires of the Worlds is an admirably, maniacally thought out and constructed album, no more, no less. Even if the band members' names read like a bunch of nobodies, everyone clearly mastered their respective instrument, and contributed to reach a peak of complexity unimaginable for the genre, since I feel that Cannibalised, albeit more technical, is more predominantly rooted in traditional extreme metal. Just free yourself from the urge to classify every single form of music you come across; I assure you that the listening experience provided by this album is really something to try. In the five minutes of the opener 'Enemy Within' we already have the perfect summa of everything the band has to offer: Dimmu Borgir-esque symphonic intro, guitar noodling between the riffs, a chorus catchy as fuck with amazing high-pitched vocals by John K, and a solo that kicks in without wasting time. Again, it's not the most overtly complex thing you will ever hear, but it may be the perfect opener for this kind of album. When the more elaborate riff goes voluntarily off-beat from time to time... that is simply stunning.

That's not to say every song here is a winner, however. The title-track is the typical more subdued second track, but apart of the slightly irritating 'victory/genocide' post-chorus part there's nothing inherently bad. Moreover, once discovered of that hidden Queensrÿche lost twin half-ballad 'Save Me' on the debut, I was also a little disappointed seeing that feature practically abandoned by now, with even the most 'tranquil' songs like 'Relinquished Destiny' and 'Long Time Dead', unluckily placed one after the other, picking up pace in the middle, after a rather unconvincing first half: the former with a juicy groove Dimebag Darrell probably imagined in a weed trip and forgot to write down, and then with... some chaos with keyboards I guess, while the latter exposing once more John K's impressive vocal extension and one of those solos that hit you right in the feels. 'DNA Metastasis' possesses the only chorus catchy enough to rival the debut album, with the spirit of Geoff Tate briefly reclaiming John K's body again. Ultimately, I didn't care much only for 'Existenz'.

Still, as already pointed out by other reviewers, it was clear by now that Biomechanical were specializing on the more elaborate and frenzied takes, which inevitably end up being the best tunes here. 'Assaulter' picks up where 'Enemy Within' left and even raises the intensity up a notch, with tasteful quasi-blast beats. Sure, the bridge still sends those Machine Head vibes at a certain point, but Robb Flynn may have experienced this much craziness only in his nightmares. 'Regenerated', other than for its solo building up with a ridiculously perfect transition, is notable for dropping an unexpected self-quotation at the end, reprising the first seconds of 'The Awakening''s verse. I can assure you that there are several other innuendos to Eight Moons' songs, at least lyrically, scattered across the album. But that should come to no surprise, considering that 'Enemy Within' even anticipates the title of the successor's opener... just some little tricks K uses to lure our minds into his own three albums wide twisted world. And what's that... sort of a tech-death riff which introduces 'Truth Denied'? Whatever, I'm not a fan, it won't gain points based on that, but simply for being an absolute banger of a track. Seriously, it's incredible. It's like a Cannibalised song gone horribly right, in all departments. After that dissonant solo I had a grin on my face whose extent I hadn't seen since a long time ago, rivaling Batman's Joker (or Elizabeth Short – ouch).

So. Much. Insanity. It actually made me build the hypothesis that this song was originally conceived to be the conclusive act of The Empires of the Worlds, in a way, even more so considering that the tetrasuite 'Absolution', which actually closes the album, starts with the same exact segment that introduces 'Enemy Within' – scratching my head so much I had to check I didn't send the CD back to start by accident. This suite was obviously created to up the ante in whatever was left still untouched off Eight Moons (the title-track), settling up slowly in the first two parts, dominated by symphonics, effects and spoken words, picking up steam in the third, and finally demolishing everything in the fourth and last, though in my eyes it doesn't mark the most successful episode of the album overall, like it was meant to be. Was I too tired? Probably, but a 54 minutes long album can be way more tiring than this. And in all truth, K may have his best moments ever on the last two parts. Either way, to erase the doubt, better give it another spin, because it's an album that a) needs time and b) invites, or even forces you to take multiple listens. It's not gonna be painful, at all, so I wouldn't complain if I were you.

I feel like I've already gone overlong for my standards, but the production deserves its own paragraph as well: just like what I said about the musical offering, Biomechanical found the perfect balance in the sound as well. The Empires of the Worlds is basically their only album in which you can hear practically everything, courtesy of Andy Sneap, and who else? His trademark clean, overproduced sound understandably makes some purists look the other way, but on albums like this it's simply a must. The guitars are fat and, dare I say, cold, with a sort of industrial touch that works fine with their formula, but not creating an impenetrable wall of sound, and revealing instead a muscular bass rumbling beneath the surface (not to mention when it goes on its own – masterful). The symphonic parts don't enter the scene in full hard tackle mode forcing something else to exit, but rather they blend without much clashing and empower the overall sound when needed, or at least when K considers it appropriate. Shame all this was dropped on the subsequent Cannibalised, hence put particular emphasis on the title of this review, because it sadly turned out to be a one-time feat.

Ultimately, The Empires of the Worlds stands as the most adequate legacy left by Biomechanical. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's a sick effort that could even have been a masterpiece. The way things stand, I rate it not so far from Eight Moons, because they show two different faces of the band, each with its own strength. Go ahead and pick your favourite.

You can also find this review on MetalBite.com.

Amidst the flurry of guitar wanking, jarring industrial metal rhythms and power metal falsettos, it can be easy for one to forget just how goddamn much The Empires of the Worlds sounds like Pantera most of the time. Sure, there's plenty of other frills along the way that constantly try and distract you from this fact, but their effect only lasts so long. The chunky Dimebag-esque groove is what remains after the novelties wear off. So, if you've ever wondered what Great Southern Trendkill would sound like if every member of the band was trying way too hard all the time, this is the perfect album for you. I could see some asshat journalist labeling this as "thinking man's mosh music", but the rest of us will be left scratching our heads, wondering what the point of this really is.

Now, Great Southern Trendkill is a pretty solid spin when you're in the right mood, but part of its charm lies in how single-minded and focused it is while it mercilessly pummels your senses. It sounds fuckin' angry in that way only a dirty Southern-style groove can. When you take a similar riffing style and shoehorn it into a progressive framework as Biomechanical have done, it loses that meat-headed heaviness. The guitar tone of The Empires of the Worlds is big and booming, but when surrounded by all the soaring melodies in the vocals and the solos it gets neutered. You can tell the idea was to make the heavy riffs sound really intense by contrast, but the heaviness isn't given enough time to drill itself into your brain. The constant time changes coupled with the immersive "industrial" feel in the drumming doesn't help matters either. At the end of the day, the meaty groove metal riffs, which are the main feature of the album, occupy this unhappy medium where they are unmemorable, yet still dwelt upon for far too long. There's a lot of ideas on this album, only about a third of which actually end up working the way they're supposed to.

Perhaps it is unfair to compare this band to Pantera, though. For starters, aesthetically this is probably a lot more comparable to something like Strapping Young Lad (especially when considering Devy's eccentricities). In addition, The Empires of the Worlds wasn't written like a one-trick pony because it wasn't supposed to be a one-trick pony. The meat and potatoes of this album may be mediocre, but maybe the frills and garnishes are good enough to get you through the album on their own. It certainly seems that way at first--the way "Enemy Within" fires up in a flurry of keyboards and shredding gets you pretty damn stoked for the rest of the album. Unfortunately, Biomechanical blows their load way too early in most songs, leaving you bored whenever there isn't some acrobatic instrumental showcase. Not only does The Empires of the Worlds fail at keep up the chaotic tension after the massive intro, it spend a good deal of time focusing on its weaknesses afterwad. The album settles into more comfortable, melodic territory around the middle, spending way to much time on attempting to be soulful and grandiose. The intent was obviously to give the album a sense of dynamics, but in an attempt to try and create a well-rounded album that does everything, Biomechanical instead created an album that doesn't do much of anything at all. I feel like this album would have worked a lot better if it had just been stupidly fast and aggressive all the way through, because when they give the more melodic and brooding elements in the music a chance to shine, they never work well at all.

When The Empires of the Worlds eases up in pacing, you're not only disappointed at the intensity lost--you also have to deal with the wailing clean vocals even more. They become increasingly annoying as the album goes on and are downright intolerable after a few spins. It's difficult to articulate what bothers me so much about these vocals, because the performance is professional and the range of styles used is diverse. It's always difficult to give flak to metal vocalists that use a wide variety of styles, because just being able to perform with so many different voices is a somewhat commendable feat in itself. To explain why Biomechanical's vocals bug me, though, it would help to compare them to a vocalist who is also diverse that I genuinely enjoy: Matt Chalk. Both vocalists change up what they're doing a lot, but with Chalky each individual vocal style used is still compelling on its own. The weird purring quality some of his lower growls have and the hardcore yells over tech-death aren't things that you see very often, either. In comparison, John K. has the diversity, but the individual styles he uses don't really stand out on their own. The harsh vocals, which can be anything from lower grunts to high shrieks, all fall within the Phil Anselmo/Randy Blythe range of vocal performance--there's nothing on here that either of those two guys haven't done better. The clean vocals, while well-done in their own right, really grate against the oddly-timed groove going on underneath. If the only clean vocals used were the high, scratchy wails I might have let them slide, but Biomechanical likes to throw in some awful crooning here and there as well. They can first be spotted in the track "Relinquished Destiny", with all the awful forced intensity bringing to mind something like Creed. (Disclaimer: I don't actually listen to Creed, so I have no idea if that comparison is accurate.) If your album begins to remind me of late 90s butt rock, that's never, ever a good sign.

I've spent a good amount of time criticizing this album, but at the end of the day, it isn't actually that bad. When the solos do pop in, they're pretty crazy and really capture that unhinged, chaotic sort of feel. The keyboards are well placed, never quite overstaying their welcome and the musicianship is tight. Really, there's a lot of good things about this album, and if you've ever wanted to hear what mid-90s groove metal would sound like with more diversity and complexity, you'll probably find a lot to enjoy out of this. If you're the type who really likes Unexpect or other stuff of that ilk that's just pure novelty and almost nothing else, you'll like Empires of the Worlds for the same reasons. I don't fall into either of those categories, though, so to me this album is dissimilar sounds forced together by a bunch of jocks who just discovered how to write in different time signatures.

I've been reviewing on the Metal Archives for a fair while now, but sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say, "This one might have the best of me." How can I describe Biomechanical or the music they create without being drawn into hyperbole or hopelessly metaphorical tangents? Let's get the basic facts straight first. John K is the sole creator of most of the music that Biomechanical have produced and, even if he didn't exactly write every riff and beat, his is the vision driving the project. As of now, he is the only remaining member of the group and the band's status is uncertain, not to mention the fact that he fired all the instrumentalists in one huge sweep of his hand back in 2007, cancelling out the lineup that recorded 'The Empires of the Worlds'. John K's vision is not exactly complicated in itself, though its execution is more than just difficult - it's bewildering that they have succeeded at all. The basic idea seems to be throwing together the soaring vocals of Judas Priest and power metal, the complexity and musical chops of extreme metal, the catchiness of groove metal, and the detailing and orchestral hugeness of classical music, not to mention more than a few extra elements I haven’t mentioned. I would not declare 'Empires' to be a total success, yet there are moments where I'm tempted to throw up my hands and admit that it doesn’t get much better.

The first time I heard a Biomechanical song was on a sampler CD from a magazine, back in 2005. I wasn't really into very heavy metal (my tastes were fairly mainstream) and a listen to 'Regenerated' from this album didn't change my mind, but I remember being stunned by the increasing intensity of the bridge, where the singer's screams kept building ever closer and closer until a solo shot out of the noise, climaxed in about 10 seconds, and left me wondering what had just happened. There are a few of those moments on 'Empires', and they fully justify wading through nearly an hour of material to witness. However, the rest of that hour is sometimes not up to scratch and the album ends up patchy and inconsistent. One of the main problems lies in the synthesis of genres that Biomechanical attempted with this project, since there are several songs that stand out as clear examples of failed hybrids or instances of underwhelming ambition and execution. You won’t have to listen to the album more than once to figure out that there is dross like ‘Relinquished Destiny’ and ‘Long Time Dead’ floating among the more exciting likes of ‘Regeneration’, ‘Absolution, part 4: Disintegration’, and the title track. The poor tracks are pretty boring groove metal numbers, with nothing expanding from the mid-90s Pantera template except a heavier production; ‘Long Time Dead’ even tries to be a ballad and defeats itself through lack of ideas and emotion. On the other hand, ‘Survival’ and ‘Assaulter’ do themselves no favours by being a little too pounding in their heaviness, the former particularly riding an ultra-rhythmic riff for so long that I’m tempted to forgive all of Fear Factory’s sins and listen to ‘Demanufacture’ instead.

What really saves this album from falling down a hole made of having too few good songs is the chaotic energy that comes from the guitarists, especially the lead playing. I’ve mentioned how my brain was fried by the shredding on ‘Regenerated’ and, while that is clearly the choicest nugget on offer, at least half of the songs have some heroic feat of ultra-modern solo work that always injects excitement and sometimes a plummeting feeling in your stomach and a kind of impossible vertigo, which is exactly what it should do. There are moments when you catch a moment of Dave Mustaine in the leads and wonder what would have happened if this had been a simpler melodic/extreme album in the style of Dragonforce, since shedding the groove and more varied moments would have made a significantly more focused and compelling listen. The faster parts are great, such as on ‘Truth Denied’, which has thrash/death drumming and machine gun riffs that sound like plenty of 00s thrash, though the vocals break the template, throwing many-voiced insanity into the mix. The vocals and keys should be bigger features here, but are mixed a little quietly, meaning that the down-tuned guitars (even at fast pace, they are thick and mean) have to provide a nuance and power that they just don’t possess. When all the elements combine, like for the shrieking madness that is the closing track, it’s absolutely terrifying, though it doesn’t happen nearly often enough.

Thinking about what makes Biomechanical special, it would have made a lot of sense to cut a few songs from ‘Empires’ (my pick would be ‘Relinquished Destiny’, ‘Long Time Dead’, and ‘Survival’), which abridges the length to just over 40 minutes, then deal with the problem of the groove/extreme hybrid (use a higher tuning or make the guitars more trebly), and go for the creative chaos without restraint. That way, the album would hit much harder, would shed its weakest features, and would put greater emphasis on its uniqueness and rare ambition. As it turns out, ‘Empires’ is not so much the fulfillment of John K’s grand plan as a hint at where that idea could go.

Every metalhead has their own particular preference when it comes to the many varied sub-genres of metal. To some, the barbaric crunch of death metal will satisfy their needs every time, while another may favour the down-n-dirty tunefulness of good quality groove metal, and others need a good dose of power metal’s soaring harmonies just to get through the day.
Now and again, however, straying from the beaten track is the only way to go – occasionally we’ve all grown weary of our metal straight-up and search for ways to add a few extra elements to see just what kind of metallic cocktail will be set forth by such experimentation.
Biomechanical’s chief songwriter and core member Jon K is a man who’s long since shown himself to be a man dedicated not so much to crafting a cocktail of styles but rather pouring every one of his (many) influences into his invention and mixing them together into an concotion that leaves one hell of a fiery taste of chaos in the mouth.

What must always be noted about Biomechanical is that the above is their stated goal, not nescessarily their recorded achievements. While their latest (at the time of writing) platter ‘Cannibalised’ largely failed to organise Biomech’s maniacally twisting and turning ideas into anything especially coherent, ‘The Empires Of The World’ came far closer to succeeding in that impressive mission statement than it’s overcooked successor or it’s underdeveloped predecessor ‘Eight Moons.’
For anyone who is entirely new to the Biomechanical sound, ‘Empires...’ is the best place to start, largely because it’s a record a million times more accessible than it’s exceptional inventiveness and chaotic sound should by rights make it. In a nutshell, ‘Empires...’ is not so far removed from the idea of being giving a good aural going over by Exodus, Pantera, Judas Priest and the spirit of Tchaikovsky, all at the same time.

Here, Biomechanical offer a sound with the speed and aggression of thrash, tempering it with the catchiness inherent in all good groove metal, and negotiating this sublimely with writhing, technical guitar work virtually soaked in progressive metal influences. They display enough brute force and power to tempt skeptical death metallers into bending an ear their way, while cleverly adding in their NWOBHM influences through Jon K’s clean, Rob Halford-esque wails. Topping everything with a bombastic and explicit leaning towards classical music territory, ‘Empires...’, on paper, sounds like the most absurdly over-reaching album you may hear for some time.
And yet, this myriad of styles are not thinly pasted together in a transparent mish-mash, but they all come together to create a cohesive, solid, even highly enjoyable and varied whole. Lovely.

The songs here are oftentimes a marvel, largely because they’ve been worked into a highly distinctive form despite the madness they’re constructed from. From cataclysmic opener ‘Enemy Within’ and centerpiece effort ‘Empires Of The World’, through the near-anthemic likes of ‘Long Time Dead’ and ‘Regenerated’, right up to the insanely ambitious four-song ‘Absolution’ ending, the band pack in a thousand ideas and shape them into something exceptionally attention-grabbing. Writhing, unstoppable bass lines rub up against bombastic crescendos, blasting riffs, rising choruses and squealing, solos stacked one on top of the other to delightful effect.
That said, they miss their target more than enough times to be entirely comfortable. Several songs such as ‘Relinquished Destiny’ and the daftly entitled ‘Existenz’ pass by without leaving any kind of mark upon the brain – a shame considering the high quality of most of the material. Despite the album’s blatant accessibility, it still remains a work that requires a great deal of concentration to fully appreciate, and the stamping groove found in many a track has a tendency to instead prompt said listener to simply sit back and let the album wash over them, thus missing some of the hidden joys it contains. The relentles overdubs on the vocals, lending them an effect uncomfortably akin to a bad dose of reverb, are also not entirely endearing.

The ‘Empires...’ line-up thankfully provide distraction from these rather major shortcomings. The drumming here is soaked in progressive influences, never falling back upon simple blasting, while the bass on display is up there in the Sadus and Cynic league with its hyperactive skill. Guitarists Chris Webb and Jamie Hunt astound at every turn with their inventive riffs and magnificent solos, and Jon K exhibits fantastic variety on the mic with his rabid barks and howling, ringing high notes. The production also deserves special mention for avoiding the trap that ‘Cannibalised’ toppled into head-first, not only making sense of the recorded bedlam but granting each and every instrument both nuance and punch, though it would have done the band a world of good to grant the classical keyboards a greater amount of prominence.

With this album coming closer to their self-set bullseye than anything else Biomechanical have yet recorded, ‘The Empires Of The World’ is not weighed down by its flaws but rather bouyed thankfully up by both its inventiveness and retention of a great deal of punch and power. Undoubtedly a pinnacle in the British mentalist’s hopefully illustrious career, and one to check out immediately.

Biomechanical’s debut was a fascinating album with lots of great ideas and pretty much flawless execution. Their formula for success was to combine thrash, hardcore and traditional/power metal into one chaotic mess. You would, in fact, be hard pressed to find another band with a more chaotic sound. This approach worked though, because in the midst of all the chaos, they had melody, great riffs and hooks, and a dynamic, solid songwriting. Biomechanical received a lot of attention and were hailed as one of the most promising new bands, and rightly so.

The Empires of the Worlds takes that formula not one, but several steps further. It’s thrashier, heavier, more chaotic and aggressive this time around, which is all well and good. The problem is that it’s too chaotic. “Chaotic” was the trademark of their sound, and still is, so it’s ironic that it only gets mentioned in a negative sense in this review. It’s chaotic to the point that the songs start to lose redeeming qualities. Listening to The Empires of the Worlds is much like entering an insane man’s fantasy world. It’s not possible to maintain a melody, or squeeze in any kind of coherent guitar riff as a musician under such conditions.

So, it’s not a coincidence that the strongest tracks are the more orderly ones such as ‘Relinquished Destiny’, ‘Long Time Dead’, ‘Regenerated’ and ‘DNA Metastasis’. This band is just much more enjoyable when they allow tempo changes, melodies and catchy guitar riffs to enter the mix. Now, don’t get the impression that this is a bad album. While it’s certainly weaker than the debut, there aren’t really any outright horrible songs to be found. I’d go as far as saying that if your attention span is just a little bit longer than mine, you might see this as a masterpiece instead of the rather slightly-above-average disappointment that I view it as.

This is the part where I either recommend this album to fans of this and that, or totally trash it through some witty, well chosen words, but not this time – sorry to disappoint. Biomechanical’s music is just not the kind you generalize on like that. You might love it, you might hate it - the only thing I can tell you for sure is that it’s well crafted and well played beyond the norm, and 100% Biomechanical. The rest is up to you.

This album has it all. You like thrash? Buy this. You like power? Buy this. You like progressive? Buy this. Death metal? Give this a try. Chaos? Get this...

The Empires of the Worlds is an insane album, in the best possible meaning of the word. It contains more things, notes and fury in a single package than virtually any other album out there. To classify Biomechanical as progressive metal is a simplification, a crime, and the obvious easy way out. The album contains elements from virtually every metal genre imaginable, save black metal, folk and doom perhaps, but it does that in an ingenious way, mixing them all together, and eventually, the only simple definition left is progressive. That is the only way to describe an album with such ruthless way to expand the boundaries and topple the walls between the genres within metal.

The elements the band uses from the different genres of metal are unexpected and the result is chaotic, but in the other end of the tunnel, a guiding light keeps the whole on the track. Despite the exhilaratingly chaotic nature, the album progresses like a train and may or may not reach its intended destination, but damn, the ride is nice.

To describe the sound is like trying to describe a painting by both Escher and Giger. The sound is a landfill avalanche of everything. The drumming is rather complex, in various timings, and occasionally fast as hell, all without using actual blastbeats. The riffing is complex and has the largest collection of genres stuffed into it: there's everything from thrash and power metal to progressive death metal in there, and the delicious rhythm guitar sound keeps the songs together. The bass... oh, the bass! The bass does what it damn well pleases, running is circles around the rest of the band like a hyperactive kid on a sugar high, but still serving the greater good. Magnificient!

The most recognizable and striking element are the vocals. They are so over-the-top that they go beyond mere extreme. John K does everything from growls and grunts, through clean singing and shouting, to falsettos and very high-pitched screaming. The power metal influence is occasionally most prominent in the vocals, but the rapid, unpredictable changes from one style to the next add to the chaotic nature of the album, and to turn their dial to eleven, the vocals have been produced with periods of insade triple or quadruple echoes. The vocals are simply everywhere.

Finally, the whole has been spiced with bursts of frantic and piercing synths and the production, despite the echoes, effects and the unbelievable mass of notes, manages to keep everything audible. The production alone is an incredible feat of craftmanship.

There are no sing-along tracks here. Maybe the tracks Long Time Dead and Regenerated could be considered catchy in the traditional sense, but the rest are simply too manic to really stick to the memory. The whole concept of the album has been to overload the album and the audience with material, riffs and a sonic equivalent of running the gauntlet. It won't kill you, it will simply leave you feel mentally thrashed.

The really incredible things about this album, in the final analysis, are its unbelievable consistency, precision and discipline. First of all, the album stays together and coherent despite the amount of ideas crammed into it. Second, the precision in this rhythmic maelstrom is the real piece of musical mastery; a lesser band would not be able to both execute the complexities within and make it sound good. And finally, the discipline, or rather, the last nail to the coffin of the idea that this could be simply progressive metal: the music on The Empires of the Worlds is a huge group effort, and no one in the band tries to dominate the stage with useless musical wankery. The band is a cohesive unit with a common goal, and that goal is to exhaust the audience with something pleasurably violent, chaotic and skilled. Definitely worth enjoying, and certainly multifaceted enough to keep the interest alive for a long time.