Long-time readers of Soundscape will already know that I’m a big fan of original music and bands that aren’t afraid to do something different, and a band that definitely ticks all those boxes is Machinae Supremacy, a band that utilises the SidStation into their music to craft a unique and engaging sound. Phantom Shadow is the band’s most recent effort and it is once again a tremendously strong release from the outfit.
At sixteen tracks long, it’s quite a lengthy release, but the album wouldn’t sound quite right if any of the songs were omitted because of the way the piece flows from track to track – which is a work of art in itself. Phantom Shadow almost sounds like one continuous track, yet each song is also its own unique entity within it.
A particular highlight is The Second One. It has quite a Indiscriminate Murder Is Counter-Productive vibe to it, with it featuring a few similar ideas to the aforementioned song, but this actually works in the track’s favour as there’s a great sense of familiarity in it, as well as it being a tremendously fun and energetic track that you can’t help but want to move about to. The track also features a phenomenal guitar solo and vocalist Robert gives the vocal performance of his life on this one.
Machinae Supremacy have done it once again and have released yet another album they can be proud of – this is perhaps their best release yet.
9/10
You can read our feature on Machinae Supremacy here.
