I wish, yes only WISHED that they released an album with a SOUL and not just another cool sounding but so easily forgetable one.

Ah, been a while since they dropped a Jan 1 album. Still waiting for them to release something as consistently enjoyable as Xenon, rsather than a mostly forgettable one with a couple of highlights

Written by musclassia on 01.09.2020 at 21:49

Ah, been a while since they dropped a Jan 1 album. Still waiting for them to release something as consistently enjoyable as Xenon, rsather than a mostly forgettable one with a couple of highlights

Agreed! Still though.. you gotta love those 01.01 releases when music is in a winter lull.

Okay, this album REALLY surprised me, definitely a different turn in their music style. While people would hate that there are no growls in this album whatsoever (Except for the title track), i really love this for the fact that they finally make something new and i want them to continue this direction.

What an exceptionally dull misstep. Easily the worst of their otherwise fantastic discography. Maybe they need to take a break and recharge...

Written by DonMoenning on 03.01.2021 at 20:40

What an exceptionally dull misstep. Easily the worst of their otherwise fantastic discography. Maybe they need to take a break and recharge...

What I've been thinking. Actually I'm amazed Joe has managed to release so many fantastic albums following his 1 year interval pattern.

Written by MeatWolf on 04.01.2021 at 15:19

Written by DonMoenning on 03.01.2021 at 20:40

What an exceptionally dull misstep. Easily the worst of their otherwise fantastic discography. Maybe they need to take a break and recharge...

What I've been thinking. Actually I'm amazed Joe has managed to release so many fantastic albums following his 1 year interval pattern.

Agree. The vocal shift does bother me a bit, as the music is far too aggressive and industrial to have 95% cleans. The cleans have worked very well in the past as a compliment in their music, bringing an epic dynamic into the fold. But front and center, they fall flat on their face. It's apparent now that Mechina aren't particularly good at writing interesting vocal melodies or patterns. Nevertheless, the weakness here really lies in the repetitive and monotonous chugging and the songs being far too long for their own good. "Seige" and "Blood Feud Erotica" are worthy cuts and inject some excitement, but everything else is just so bland and never develop into anything worthwhile. Super odd for a band that is usually extremely energized and always throwing cool little nuances. I've felt since Progenitor it has been a slow yet steady decline. This is certainly listenable because they're so talented, but it feels like a creative rock-bottom.

I've always considered Mel to be a super talented singer, one of the best I know actually, her performances in Realm Breaker, Synesthesia Signal, The Horizon Effect etc are brilliant but that's the problem, there vocal melodies on Siege are just so weird and un-catchy it almost seems done on purpose. I'm all in for Mel album but not for 'zero hooks' album.

Another issue is that with cleans taking the reigns Joe simply abandoned the actual symphonic arrangements, especially his trademark strings that hit so hard on previous albums (the middle part in Starscape is pure gold, same goes for Realm Breaker opening, Tyrannos main theme and many many other tracks). You can hear the orchestrations are still here but completely as a background. With the vocals being so monotonous, this makes the songs really really bleak. Only parts with strings are the ending of Purity Storm (which therefore immediately stands out) and a very brief part in Freedom Foregone.

Agreed about no dymanics as well, even on Progenitor the songs were quite diverse actually, on Embers we had three beautiful instrumentals, Acheron was SUPER diverse and super dynamic. Even Telesterion had some kind of differentiation but goddammit I so wanna take a nap with everything that comes post the s/t track on Siege.

I found their first couple of works pretty cool and brutal, but... What is this? What happened? It's not so much the instruments, which certainly don't sound bad. More the paste of some random dull vocal tape on top of it. Even stopped listening after three songs.