Elegies

Machine Men embody one of the more impressive (and surprisingly unknown) examples of positive lampooning I've come across. In their case, the influence is evident from the first rollicking gallop and harmonized vocal croon: Iron Maiden is Machine Men's prime influence, and not only to the point of adopting a few tropes and standards, Elegies feels like a straight transposition of '80s Iron Maiden by a slightly more modern-inflected outfit. It feels like a very even release melodically, with the vocals and riffs playing off of each other and delivering a bevy of hooks that dig deep, and while this isn't the heaviest example out there, the riffs feel coarser and more bottom heavy than our favorite lads from England. The project ended up lapsing into inactivity due to a lack of interest from the members, which while a shame, is somewhat telegraphed by the material here.

Stuffed with licks redolent of masterpieces like Piece of Mind, there are also some chunky grooves on songs like "Dream and Religion" to help satiate those requiring some more muscle in the approach. Parviainen, however, steals the entire show, with a Dickersonian croon of the absolute highest order. He has complete control of the higher register required to play the part, and the vocal lines are harmonized and layered excessively, although consistent with the vibe implied with Machine Men's approach. The band also teases with some ephemeral progressive padding via acoustic texturing and forward-thinking, cerebral songwriting. In these moments I realize that Parviainen has some Geoff Tate buried in his inflection, especially in regard to his slingshot emotive range and controlled warble. The album has moments of grandiose, atmospheric majesty, but overall eschews the prevalence of suffocating synths and other exultant fare that became part of Maiden's arsenal by the late '80s.

Sadly, many moments of Elegies devolve into stock riffing patterns or notation that feels less distinctively Maiden and more like standard Finnish melodic power metal. The expansive gravity imparted by Parviainen if often hampered by tiring drawls, like the poignant but straight up boring "October" and a handful of the more "modern," groove-inflected riffs that pockmark the album. The mid-paced, swaggering sections in this vein feel rather stock and uneventful from any point of view, for example the verses of "Daytime Theater." Lyrical fare is generally empty from a conceptual point of view, espousing general metal sentiments and pleas to stand up and fight against whatever unseen force belies you, but Parviainen is wise enough to hang on certain phrases that Dickenson would emphasize, so that's cool.

Some people really adore Machine Men, but I'm not unequivocally blown away by this material. It's solid melodic power metal with Maiden's sense of cerebral grandeur, but even with solid songwriting many of these songs simply sound very standard. Maybe that is because Iron Maiden has such a wide range of influence on modern bands, we perhaps realize in cases like this that more focused emulation doesn't exactly set the material far apart from the genre norm. The understated acoustic texturing tends to inaugurate the better moments, but don't let these criticisms keep you from tracking Elegies down. It's still a fun album.