The Compendium

This review has done under about 3 rewrites over the course of several years, so now I want to go back and finally put out a full review of this release, hopefully with much less rambling...

When I first heard that one of my longtime favorite bands Mechina was releasing a compilation of all their albums part of the As Embers Turn to Dust saga, I was pretty excited. If anything I was happy that I might be finally able able to hear Empyrean with actually good production. The end result while a nice package is incredibly mixed surprisingly. The main idea of this set was to allow every song to be played into one another to create the flowing story Mechina presents in their music. The main issue with this is how it impacts namely the older songs, and how some songs' mood or tone is completely changed or gutted entirely. Some of the changes in this collection can be boiled down to a case of "doing too much". Each album will be summarized with their own score which will go into an overall final score, and how it compares with the original.

I - Conqueror
Conqueror opens with the nauseatingly long 2015 single The World We Lost, and gives us an idea of the sound to expect throughout the rest of this compilation. It follows the production trend that's been rehashed since Progenitor and continues to this day. This is probably one of Mechina's weakest tracks only due to it overstating its welcome and ending up being very repetitive. The remastering of Conqueror, however, manages to preserve the much more gritty and raw sound from the original 2011 release, now with some modern updates. You'll begin to notice from the start of Pray to the Winds how the addition to every song was extra orchestration, which mostly works to Conqueror's advantage. This is regarded as one of Mechina's heavier albums, so adding extra symphonic elements may not work out at first thought. However, the original, while sounding more raw and gritty was somewhat hollow sounding, now sounds much bigger and grand in scale. The main drawback to this though is the aggression in the guitars is more subdued to make room for Joe Tiberi's obsession with electronic symphonies, but this won't be much of an issue until later in the compilation. The aforementioned Pray to the Winds as well as other tracks such as Non-Seriviam and Internecion are aided by the stronger, deeper guitar sound as well, the latter especially. This is the version of Conqueror I always wanted, and damn does it deliver with better, stronger production, and as well as allowing the release to match better with Mechina's later releases.
Rating: 76%

II - Empyrean
Empyrean as well as Andromeda both share a common trait of being previously remastered before, so why not a third time? Both this album and single were produced to sound as though the music was recorded behind a concrete wall, and were both rectified in later releases. Empyrean essentially receiving a face lift in the its sonics while Andromeda was completely re-recorded to match Progenitor's sound. Andromeda's third remastering doesn't sound much different other than maybe some extra symphonic elements, other than that it remains basically the same as its previous recording. Empyrean finally completely moves away from the "recorded in a tomb" production style to good results. More aggressive tracks like Interregnum and Elephtheria as well as lighter more symphonic tracks like Infineon can now be fully appreciated for their guitar work as well as being well accompanied by the additional orchestral accompaniments. This remastering pattern of extra symphonic affects actually accompanies Empyrean's sound better than any other album on The Compendium just in how the songs are structured. The only track that took a real hit in impact was Anathema, losing a lot of the energy in the background chanting, as well as toning down Dave Holch's vocals in the chorus that allowed the track to stand out a little more from the rest of the album. Generally speaking though, the changes to Empyrean were more positive than negative, and while I tend to listen to the original V.2 release more than this one, I can appreciate the sound that this brings to the whole collection.
Rating: 82%

III - Xenon
Xenon is the point of the collection where the symphonic elements do more to hinder the original intended sound of the albums rather than enhance it. On a sonic level, 2014's Xenon showcased Mechina's darkest sound yet, a vast departure from the more "heroic" sound presented in Empyrean. Which sound you prefer from the band is largely up to personal preference, but I think it can be argued either way that Xenon did not benefit from the homogenization of the band's sound here. The opening single Cepheus sounds promising in this style, aided by being my favorite single, but then the rest of the album comes in sounding way too cluttered for the album's own good. Notably, tracks like Thales, possibly the heaviest track on the album, now has its aggressive guitar work and vocal arrangements taking a massive backseat to the incredibly droning and redundant symphonic string arrangements. Another example can be seen in Tartarus, where the original had these aggressive guitar patterns and haunting piano melodies, this remastering completely drowns out the original sounds, effectively ruining the feel and mood the track was originally meant to bring. There are some bright spots though. Zoticus was already a heavily electronic track, so the added symphonies blend in well with the electronic elements, and the outro Actaeon works rather well with the added emotional strings, even if it sounds a little crowded. Xenon already benefits the least from the aim of this project, and is a stark downgrade from the original material.
Rating: 50%

IV - Acheron
Acheron saw Mechina take on a much more djent-like sound in 2015, but does this translate to The Compendium's soundscape? For starters, the single To Coexist is to Surrender sound works well with the new symphonies. It paints a much larger and dramatic scene, and the more "djent-y" guitars aren't drowned out too much in the mix. Things are looking promising for this album. As a whole, I think Acheron benefited quite well from the additional orchestral pieces, managing to actually transform the sound into something new without being incredibly cluttered. On the Wings of Nefeli sounds significantly more epic in scale, Vanquisher sounds more dramatic in a positive way, and most surprisingly, the lighter and more symphonic tracks are elevated greatly. Ode to the Forgotten Few has received the most dramatic facelift, receiving brand a brand new, more ethereal vocal performance from Mel Rose. The more somber mood the track aims to capture is now much more realized, and also makes the much needed amendment of moving the frustratingly long outro that leads into The Hyperion Threnody into the latter track, making the ending of the former much less abrupt and "Holy shit I need to skip this". The only real downsides here are tracks like Adrasteia and The Future Must be Met droning on a bit too much, but that was a problem more in the original album. This is a definite upgrade from the original release.
Rating: 84%

V - Progenitor
We come to probably the best album of the saga even before remastering. Progenitor manages to blend heavy guitars with powerful orchestrations without either overpowering the other, and this is no exception in the remaster. Without repeating too many of the same sentiments, many tracks now feel much more grand in scale, including Ashes of Old Earth, Anagenesis, Planetfall (especially Planetfall this track sounds like the damn apocalypse), and the title track. I think Progenitor was just too good of an album to really find a way to fuck up, so the entire release now with this new coat of paint brings the album to a more theatrical level of sorts, and does so without compromising the original sound or overshadowing what originally made the album so excellent to begin with.
Rating: 95%

VI - As Embers Turn to Dust
We come to the end of The Compendium with the album bearing the saga's namesake. Embers largely feels like if you took Progenitor and turned the symphonic elements up to the front, turning the guitar parts more into an accompanying act, with some spotlights sprinkled in here and there. This album has essentially become progenitor (har har har) of the dominant sound the band holds to this day. Whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to your own tastes. There isn't much to comment on for this remastering, since the sound of the album was already established merely a year earlier, and was used as the blueprint to build this collection, so little has actually been altered. This isn't to say there are no changes at all, as there are some that stand out. The most notable including raising some backing track elements in the tracks Creation Level Event and Impact Proxy. Mel Rose also re-recorded sections of her chorus on The Synesthesia Signal to make her parts more dynamic, a welcome change. You can look at this version of Embers somewhat as a "definitive edition" of the original from the previous year, and how much you enjoy this version is dependent largely on what you thought of the original or how you feel it impacted the band moving forward.
Rating: 82%

Final Thoughts and Conclusions
I've listened to this whole projected in one sitting before (not worth it) and listened to some albums from it more than others for reasons largely explained above, but it's difficult to come up with a final score for the total project itself. There are definite highs but some rather low lows on The Compendium, where the cost of creating what can be labelled as the definitive edition of a given album here comes at the price of sacrificing the original sound of some others. It's not like these versions of the albums are replacing the original at all, in fact you can't even stream Compendium versions of these albums online anymore, leaving you required to purchase these versions on Bandcamp to listen. I can summarize the final verdict of this project as something that, while largely cohesive, was maybe a bit too cohesive. Albums like Xenon were given largely undesirable changes while albums like Progenitor managed to be improved upon. I don't consider the entire release worth it, so seek out the versions of the albums that you personally like, and leave it at that.
Final averaged rating: 78%