Band:	Electromancy
Album:	Technopagan
Style:	Industrial black metal
Release date:	January 2022

01. Mechanical Chatter (YCLF)
02. The Spark
03. Mechanical Chatter (tS)
04. Disabled
05. Mechanical Chatter (tS II)
06. Soot and Sulfur
07. Glasshole
08. Mechanical Chatter (WP)
09. Antifascist Feverdream
10. Mechanical Chatter (MBiFM)
11. You Cannot Live Forever
12. My Body Is Failing Me

Electromancy is a band of robotic mannequins and their human builder, playing black metal with an industrial and technical twist. Aye, robots. No joke.

In recent years, developments in AI have resulted in a huge volume of computer-generated music, fuelling discussions on topics such as computers potentially becoming better composers than humans, and how to divvy up the spoils from songs created by computers. Enter Electromancy, a project utilising honest-to-god robots for playing the instruments in order to allow sole (human) member Satyra to create metal in spite of the recent onset of a chronic disability. It’s an admirable and intriguing concept, no doubt.

Contrary to what the uninitiated might think, black metal is fundamentally very much rooted in human nature and the absurdity of existence. Sure, it might sound disharmonic, industrial, cosmic, or even alien, but any good black metal band sows no seeds of doubt that their music was made and played by human beings suffering from varying degrees of existential angst. It’s this transcendental, Nietzschean aspect of the genre that gives it much of its charm, if you ask me. So, what does black metal played by robots actually sound like? Can robots capture the fundamentally human aspect of this beloved musical style of ours?

Technopagan rarely sounds much like black metal, to be honest. This is, of course, just fine. Lots of albums have been marketed as something they turn out not quite to be. I’d hate to turn an entire review into a genre debate (because, seriously, to hell with genres anyway). I find, though, that this album makes for an interesting view on what it is we really connect with in this sort of music. On the one hand, the alienating, disconnecting touch brought to Satyra’s compositions by having them being played by machines makes for a sound quite unlike anything I’ve ever heard before; one that brings to mind images of dying bodies on life support and dissociated life forms fumbling in the dark, only doing what they have been programmed to. This is, of course, based on Satyra’s struggle with their illness, which has left them frequently paralysed to the point that they composed parts of the album using feet only. By extension, though, it is not a bad metaphor for the human condition overall. On the other hand, while “robot metal” is obviously a badass idea, much of Technopagan comes off as not putting to good use its unique setup, but rather trying too hard to create something meant to be played by humans and ending up in a borderland between what does sound like decent compositions and failed robo-tremolos conveyed by a grating, near-MIDI guitar tone.

Much of the album sounds more like djent with a way too thin sound, rather than black metal, though there is something to be admired in the unique style of playing of these bots. A few tracks work very well. Their common denominator is that they do not attempt to play something that machines obviously weren’t (yet) made for playing, but instead put to good use the unique setup of having machines play extreme metal. The numerous “Mechanical Clatter…” interludes deserve a greater presence, with their nearly gamelan-like rhythms. “Soot & Sulfur” is the best track on here, because it relents with the robo-tremolo mayhem and uses female vocals to create a goth-industrial atmosphere that still sounds entirely inhuman in a very cool way. “Antifascist Feverdream” is another pretty cool cut, with its torrential riffs, PVC pipe didgeridoo drones, and fittingly disconnected lyrics about transgender identity.

In the end, Technopagan’s concept is undeniably badass, and at times shows great potential, but far too often ends up sounding like extreme MIDI metal. Now, if Satyra would spend some time to figure out how best to put this creative setup to use, I’d be interested to hear what they come up with. For now, though, this is a proof of concept at best.