Review Summary: The cycle is broken, as Mechina returns to form
Like clock- wait, hold up,
not like clockwork? Grand cyber metal outfit Mechina have released their newest monolithic project, and it
wasn’t on January 1st? Yes, believe it or not, the Mechina cycle has been broken once more, and with it comes some of the most drastic changes to the band in years. And I can safely say that all of the changes are for the better.
Bellum Interruptum is Mechina’s best full album in literal years, arguably coming close to the heights of
As Embers Turn to Dust.
Firstly, to answer what is likely the most pressing question: yes, the growls are back, and not just in one track either. The entire album is littered with some of Mechina’s fiercest screams to date, courtesy of brand new vocalist Dave Lowmiller, who enters the picture at the same time as longtime vocalist Dave Holch exits it. While it’s shocking to see Holch, a member of the band since its inception, step down, Lowmiller does a fantastic job filling the void, providing screams and growls that much of Mechina’s recent output has been sorely lacking. His grand entrance on “The Wasteful Energy of Words” provides one of the album’s biggest “hell yeah” moments, and he keeps momentum throughout. Anna Hel returns as well, and, not to be outdone, provides some of the gnarliest harshes on “The Plague Pits”, practically snarling out her character, Enyo’s, grand declarations of war.
Obviously, Mel Rose is here once more, though she sings on her own this time. Her voice soars as never before, helped by some of Mechina’s best damn production to date, which keeps the grand scale of the discography without burying the vocals in the mix or sacrificing guitars, or really any of the mixing problems that plagued past releases.
However, in the midst of all of these changes, the most surprising element of
Bellum Interruptum is how it showcases something that has largely been unknown to Mechina for a while: restraint. Unlike
Cenotaph or
Venator or
Siege,
Bellum is far more restrained in its song lengths and lyricism. Songs rarely extend beyond 7 minutes (barring the title track and “When Honor Meant Something”), and the lyrics are far shorter and simpler than they have been for a while. Rather than feeling like a single slab of music,
Bellum Interruptum truly feels like an album, complete with incredible highlights such as “On the Wings of Vecterra” (which features the returning Treasur’ Nicole from
Venator) or the earth-shattering closer “The Overwhelming Harmony of Collective Suffering”. The album even reincorporates solos into the mix! It is quite literally everything one could’ve hoped for from a new Mechina release.
I won’t dive into the, at this point, nigh-incomprehensible story that Mechina are telling, there’s a whole wiki that does that job far better than I ever could. I’m just here to admire good music, and holy shit is this ever good music. It’s unbelievably satisfying to see Mechina return to what had made them so special in the first place, that magic that had been lost on so many of their previous albums. A lot has changed in the interim between albums, but it seems like the breaking of the cycle, and the changes that came alongside it, were exactly what Mechina needed. Time will tell if this momentum carries forward to album #13, but for this moment, I’m happy to indulge in some good-ass cyber metal. Here’s to new beginnings, Mechina.
