[Metal] Machinae Supremacy - The Last March of the Undead

[Spectere]

Before Machinae Supremacy released Into the Night World I wondered how they could possibly top Hubnester Rising, the final track on Phantom Shadow. From the very first time I heard The Last March of the Undead, however, I knew that they'd managed to do it. Like Hubnester Rising, The Last March of the Undead is the closing track of its respective album. MaSu seems to have a knack for putting their best work at the end of their albums.

The instrumental work is great as always. The guitar solo near the end, coupled with the percussion during that bit, practically beg for some headbanging, with the rest of the song being fairly energetic (which is basically one of MaSu's staples).

The lyrics and how they're delivered stand out to me. It shares the bleakness from the previous March of the Undead titles ("Come watch with me / As our world burns"--strange appropriate in this political climate), but carries with it an air of defiance ("I will not let you go for anything / Screw balance, I want more / A life worth living for").

While I think that Phantom Shadow as a whole is a better album, the bookends of Into the Night World (the other one being My Dragons Will Decimate, another amazing track) are some of the best songs that the band has on offer to date.

[Zephlar]

 I will have to check this out tonight. Hard to listen at work

[Bobbias]

Been a while since I listened to much metal, but this is cool. The heavy piano use and the 8bit sounding synths are a really interesting mix. Very melodic.

That breakdown at about 3 minutes is cool as hell.

[Spectere]

Machinae Supremacy make use of a SidStation, so generally if you hear any chippy sounds from them, it's a genuine MOS SID 6581 at work. Pretty awesome stuff. They've actually dialed that back quite a bit over the years. Their older work (particularly the stuff in their webography) has a much more SID-colored sound.

The piano use is a bit more of a recent development, but it's certainly welcome. I can't think of a better way they could have kick this song off.

I really can't wait to see what they do next. I've been a huge fan of MaSu for over a decade (ITG got me listening to them and my rampant fanboyism just snowballed from there) and I still get giddy whenever they announce a new album.

[Bobbias]

I definitely remember you mentioning them some time ago. Its cool that they actually use SID in their music. That chip is flat out amazing when used well.

[Zephlar]

I really love metal, but I wasn't too into this. I listened to it twice to be sure. It's got nothing to do with the lyrics or instrumentals either, it's just his voice. He's got this almost whiny emo sound or something I can't quite put my finger on it but it turned me off.

What other metal are you into?

[Spectere]

MaSu is a Swedish band and Robert Stjärnström's (the lead singer) accent has always poked through a bit. It's actually far less pronounced now than it used to be.

You might like some of their instrumentals more. Here's their take on the Gerudo Valley theme from Ocarina of Time:

That one incorporates their synth a bit more than most of their other recent work does, to pretty awesome effect.

I'm into just about every sort of metal, really, everything from pop-friendly nu-metal to power metal to industrial to the more extreme subgenres (grindcore, fun stuff like that).