Time Signature Order of Baphomet...

Genre: industrial black metal

Blacklodge are among the more daring industrial black metal bands, combining two genres that would otherwise be considered pretty much extreme opposites - namely, hardcore techno and black metal. But this French trio shows that, in the world of metal nothing is impossible, and on "MachinatioN" they pull it off quite successfully (even to me, and I don't really like techno music all that much).

The opening track starts out with a machine gun electronic drum beat (the techno version of the blastbeat, I presume), and sets off into metal riffs accompanied by electronic dance beats, and this is a pattern that appears repeatedly throughout the album (as is the machine gun electro blastbeat). Some of the tracks, such as 'Empire's Hymns' have a militaristic marching drive to them (which is not a first from Blacklodge, by the way).

Although the soullessness of the machine is deliberately a prominent feature of this album, "MachinatioN" strikes me as being less bleak than Blacklodge's earlier releases, but that could perhaps be because the guitars are not all out black metal. Maybe that is exactly why the album comes across, not bleak, but still oppressive in a sort of mechanical way. A lot of the guitar work also consists of more defined riffage, some of which is even groovy. A track like 'Neo.Black.Magic' even has a bizarre rock feel to it, and also features some archetypical black metal tremolo picking - this is probably my preferred track on "MachinatioN".

"MachinatioN" is definitely an interesing listen. It perfectly captures the oppressive soullessness of the machine and boosts this with the aggression of distorted guitars and black metal screams. Any fan of extreme industrial metal will want to check this album out, which might also appeal to fans of more extreme techno music.