Biomechanical is a talented band hailing form England, Eight Moons being their debut.
One thing is for sure;
Biomechanical plays a style of music that is very unique and also very hard to define. Elements of Power Metal, a more classical Metal approach, progressive parts, symphonic paths, well it's all there and the album wins with time. The music is as odd as the band name, but in a cool way. My intention was to mention a handful of songs, but as on countless of other occasions I have ended up getting around them all in some strange way.
The Awakening hits with so much intensity and a web of complex features that you very well could end up rather stunned. A hard dominant rhythm section is working pretty interestingly with some symphonic elements. The thundering guitar solo and ultra heavy riffs are big pluses in this extremely bombastic opener. The vocals shift from slower raw passages that work well, to faster shouting parts that end up unclear and not that good.
The vocal approach on Eight Moons is very interesting due to an alternative varied style, overall it's good but from time to time, as in this song, it becomes a bit muddy.
In
Do You Know Me I think that the vocals come out way better and also more harmonious in style, the catchy refrain being a clear highlight. The immensely pounding bass and extremely powerful drums set a solid base for a really good song.
Overall this album gives me an impression of a very gloomy and at times cold atmosphere. The word cold goes both ways, it supports the lyrics nicely quite well, but then again a more exploring mood would have made a more varied picture.
With
In The Core Of Darkness we get a song where the dark atmosphere works really well
. The spacey keyboard mood and slow grooving drums set a very dark stage. The excellent and wild guitar solo has a
Judas Priest touch to it (Jugulator era), very fast and evolving in the up-tempo part of the song that is completely unbound and mega heavy to say the least.
Distorted shifts from having a suitable acoustic guitar style into hard pounding and raw mid-tempo passages. Overall the refrain is a bit uninteresting and I miss a more exciting course.
Hunted suffers from a looseness in structure, it smashes its way forward with a cool aggressive vibe, but it's very hard to find some red lines or a binding moment.
No Shadows begins even before
Hunted has completely finished. It has a very bombastic overall profile, the double bass drums come out very powerful and the grooving mid-section is a real treat. The track is given some extra life by some complex keyboard arrangements; often the keyboard passages are very successfully incorporated into the songs, making way for a more detailed structure.
Eight Moons is a vocal and keyboard dominated song, and let me just say that its pretty strange. Strange in the good way though, the narration parts are pretty successful too, kind of like a sequence in an eerie science fiction movie. The intense voice from songwriter John K captures the dark mood very suitable.
Point Of No Return starts out with some cool interacting grooving bass tunes and a calm acoustic guitar rhythm. Clearly one of the albums best songs, very mystic in character, containing great progressive passages and a very solid rhythm section that explodes towards the end displaying ultra intense drumming and heavy guitar riffs.
Eight Moons is a science fiction based concept story. I find it a bit abstract and not really captivating, even though some lyrical passages are very good, the themes of despair, frustration and different dimensions matches the music rather well. Nevertheless I clearly miss the feeling of a whole and more guided story line.
With nine songs and a playing time of about 38 minutes is pretty surprising how thorough the album appears, the very complex nature of the music makes the album seem longer than it really is, on the other hand a couple of extra songs wouldn't have hurt. The qualitative aspect of the music delivered is of high level; the instruments and vocals are overall well delivered, this is not easily played music at all.
Anyway, some more melodic solos, catchier refrains and more memorable riffs from time to time would certainly have made Eight Moons even more enjoyable.
A word concerning the production is also in order. All in all the tight sound works very well, the drums and bass have a really crispy vibe, but again a clearer profile would have made it better.
Even though there is room for improvements, this is one of the most innovative and interesting albums I have heard in a long time.
Written by
Tommy Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Show all reviews by TommyRatingsTommy: 6.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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