mechina - progenitor

So, at the start of the year I had every good intention to get back into writing some stuff online, playing guitar, recording etc, but as life would have it ive already been bogged down with the daily grind of work and other not so entertaining stuff.

Anyway, at least the listening and enjoying music part never gets taken away. So to start the year the first album I was looking forward to was the new years day release of American industrial metallers Mechina. I ordered my copy of the album Progenitor on cd, and my understanding being that they are still an unsigned independent band, eagerly awaited my copy of the album to arrive from the US which it did earlier this month.

Ive been a massive fan of heavy industrial music since I first heard Fear Factory's Demanufature album, and im also one of those people who has grown up fascinated by science and technology. So, I probably fall into the core fanbase for this type of music. But this album... well it delivers on a huge scale. Ive been a fan of this band for a few years now and have a most of their albums as cds ive bought just to get my hands on everything they do. To be able to write, play and produce something of this level as an independent band is impressive. And the fact that it is a conceptual story spanning over the albums makes it even more interesting. That being said, id be quite happy with a video to this, the whole thing... it could be a musical. No, not in the old sense of a musical, and not just a music video. This is the future, there should be CGI video to go along with each track playing out the whole story.

If you like your industrial music heavy, or if you just wanna load up Commander Shepard or the Master Chief and save the Universe, this might just be something you need to take a listen to.

Mechina - Planetfall


Mechina - Progenitor

mike scaccia rip

Rock and roll. Tough life style. You can die in an airplane, in a car, from a gun, on the bottle, on the drug, and on the stage.
Mike Staccia died aged 47 performing on stage in Fort Worth, Texas, Dec 23rd 2012.
He'd co-founded thrash metallers Rigor Mortis and industrial rockers Ministry. His riffs were the driving force of Ministry's 1992 album Psalm 69, and that still upsets some church goers who fail to understand it was just a show.
An online fundraiser for Scaccia’s wife and children has been set up. More details from the Rigor Mortis Facebook page.

Here is the Psalm 69 track by Ministry filmed in 1996

gary numan

Gary Numan received the ‘Legend’ award this month at the first ever Artrocker Magazine awards in London. Numan, who rose to fame in the late 70's as the front man, writer and producer for Tubeway Army, is considered one of the pioneers of new wave and electronic music. Numans later music would go on to be a lot darker and industrial sounding, though always keeping that familiar Numan sound.

Numan has said that his experimental style was developed in the early days by hooking up keyboards and synthesizers through guitar pedals to make noises that he liked. Although he is widely know for his electronic and synthesized music, Numan has stated that he has always primarily been a guitar player.

Numan's musical style and experimentation has been copied and covered by many musicians in many styles since first appearing in the music industry, with many famous names including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Marylin Manson citing him as a huge influence.

Here is an amazing live performance of A Prayer For The Unborn from the year 2000 album "Pure"

technocracy

Formed in 1998, Technocracy is an industrial metal band heavily influenced by bands such as Fear Factory and Godflesh. Originally a two man project put together by singer Steve Machado and guitarist Phil Demmel after Machado had been remixing metal records including some from Demmel's previous bands. Machado and Demmel were introduced by a mutual friend and decided to work on new material under the name Technocracy. After releasing their first demo Demmel and Machado decided a full band was needed and so recruited a drummer and bassist, and then started playing live shows.

In 2001 the band released their full length album, the self titled Technocracy album, which received impressive reviews throughout the metal community worldwide. Technocracy started to play bigger and better venues, putting on spectacular shows and supporting big names resulting in the band getting offers from numerous larger metal labels.

Unfortuntaley at the end of 2001, whether by coincidence or as a result of the situation in America at the time, the offers from the record labels were slowly withdrawn. Eventually a record company did make a modest offer to distribute the album outside of America which the band reluctantly accepted, but after receiving the signed contract the record company ceased any further contact with the band members. Soon after, the frustrated band members decided it was time to call it a day and Phil Demmel would eventually go on to join Machine Head.

mortiis

Mortiis is the on stage persona of Håvard Ellefsen, a musician from Norway who began his musical career playing bass guitar in the band Emperor. After leaving the band Ellefsen started to experiment with a lot of dark ambient sounding music with his main focus being on Mortiis, which he eventually formed a band under the name of. Until 2007 Mortiis was known to wear a mask on stage resembling a troll like character, but following the remix album Some Kind of Heroin, Mortiis stated that the mask had been shelved.

Mortiis' albums are often categorised by eras, referring to the continuing developement of the way Mortiis' music would sound. This track, The Worst In Me, is taken from the 2004 album The Grudge, which in 2005 was selected by the Norwegian Culture Council to be made available for listening to the public in all the libraries in Norway for free. The album was chosen along with a few others which best reflect and promote Norwegian Music and Culture.

fear factory

Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal, groove metal, thrash metal and industrial metal. The resultant sound proved to be enormously influential on the metal scene from the mid-90s and onwards.

Fear Factory’s innovative approach towards, and hybridization of the genres of industrial metal, death metal and alternative metal has had a lasting impact on metal music ever since the release of their first album in 1992. Fear Factory is noteworthy among contemporaries for their lyrical focus on science fiction, with much of their music telling a single story spanning several concept albums.

Fear Factory is also known for remixing a lot of their own work into different styles, working with many other artists as a band and individually, and having their music used for a handful of computer games. Vocalist Burton C. Bell is also credited as being one of the pioneers of the clean/aggressive vocal style that is now commonly used in metal music.

Many of todays metal bands credit Fear Factory as being a major influence. These include:- Machine Head, Chimaira, Static X, Mnemic, Scarve, Sybreed, Threat Signal and Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad to name a few.

Here are three tracks of varying styles by Fear Factory.

Zero Signal, from Fear Factory's definitive album Demanufacture.



Cloning Technology, a remix of the track Replica by Kingsize taken from the album Remanufacture.



And finally a cover of the song Cars by Gary Numan, also featuring Numan on vocals.

mechina

Categorised as 'Industrial black metal' Mechina are definitely a metal band of the 21st century. With rhythmical guitars and drums sounding almost machine-gun like, ambient sounds, and full on orchestral arrangements, Mechina could be better defined as 'Future space metal'. Whatever the band define themselves as, one thing certain... this is metal at its most epic .

Mechina are cleary inspired by industrial metal pioneers Fear Factory but also influences of black metal bands such as Dimmu Borgir can be heard in this track Non Serviam.