Despite my initial indifference towards Mechina and their 2013 album Empyrean, I have revisited the album quite a number of times and my interest in their music has grown to the point that when they released Xenon early this year I was intrigued. I was in the mood for another sci-fi epic in musical form since these guys definitely had something interesting going on in that last album. What I discovered was a definite improvement over Empyrean in many ways. The epic theatrical setting I was looking for in Empyrean is much more apparent here and I definitely had way more fun with this album.
Right from the start of the guitar playing, I could tell two very important flaws have been fixed since the last album. First, the mix isn't ass. I know Empyrean was re-mixed but I listened to that and the re-mix didn't help; but here on Xenon, everything is so crisp and clear with the instruments but especially the guitars. Speaking of which, the second major improvement is the added variety in the guitar work. Most of Empyrean's guitars were spent chugging or djenting and for the most part weren't very interesting to follow, but now they've got a more straightforward industrial feel to them with sounding like they landed somewhere between Sybreed and Strapping Young Lad. In other words, this album's guitars are what Empyrean's guitar tracks should have sounded like. All in all, Xenon is much more well executed than Empyrean so much that even though it's actually a few seconds longer than that album, it feels shorter because it's much more enjoyable to go through.
The symphonic programming is still omnipresent, but this time it melds better with the rest of the music since it's not the sole thing pushing the music forward anymore. The minute spanning piano/choir build up is a lot quieter than "Aporia" on the previous album but nonetheless provides some ambient prelude to the interstellar warfare that begins almost abruptly at the first minute mark. Imagine the opening theme for Halo starting off an album; that's what the type of mood being set here. Then throughout the rest of the album, it's this sort of Two Steps From Hell symphony thrown alongside the metal music. It certainly makes the title track much more epic sounding especially on the awesome chorus in that song. There's a couple of times that where the band opted for some more electronic elements too, most notably on "Zoticus" which ended up being one of the highlights of this album.
One thing I did notice about the overall atmosphere in the tracks is that the heroic tone present on tracks like "Interregnum", "Imperialus", "Anathema", "Empyrean" and "Infineon" on the last album is largely absent here. The overall tone on this album seems a lot more foreboding with the noteworthy exception being the more upbeat "Zoticus".
There are a few more pressing downsides. David Holch's vocals sound pretty good, particularly his harsh vox, but this time around there's more apparent use of auto-tune and other modulative fuckery done with his clean verses. There's quite a few instances of his voice being intentionally chopped up by the mixing and it does get a little grating, especially since this was less obvious in Mechina's past work. Furthermore, while I did find Xenon easier to go through than Empyrean, it does seem to lose energy towards the end. "Erebus" and "Amytas" are weak tracks to end the album on especially since they sort of blend together. It certainly doesn't help that the album starts with its best track either, the title track. Setting the high water mark early tends to have an effect on the rest of the album. This whole album's span can be compared to that of a dying star, first expanding into a red giant before collapsing into a white dwarf. Though there still is some shining light at the end of the white dwarf stage which here is in the form of the album's true closer the tranquil "Actaeon" which revisits the piano piece from the beginning of the album.
So there's a few things Mechina still need to tighten up, but they've definitely have improved. Xenon, while far from perfect, is the band's most rewarding listening experience to date. Definitely worth checking out for those interested in symphonic metal with an industrial twist. I myself am still intrigued by what this band can offer and await more of their material.
In my earlier appraisal of Empyrean, I stated that Xenon was a step back and a fall from the tightrope that Mechina so precariously balances themselves upon through the utilization of their unique blend of styles. Time for my own revisionism yet again, because Xenon basically embodies the best elements from both Conqueror and Empyrean, forging them into a more tempered Martian steel. On a surface level, this isn't too far off from the last two albums. Tiberi is still churning out his majestic programmed orchestrations alongside a disorienting Sybreed-esque rhythm section. No time for fancy leadwork, instead watch as the keyboards and auto-tuned male vocals fill the melodic void. It is certainly a feat of bombastic excess and lack of inhibition, even if it still grows very tiring after a short while.
If anything, Mechina has finally isolated and shot the earlier production imbalances into the æther. Tiberi's stuttering, mechanical riffs are meaty and upfront. Their tone is interesting, if anything befitting of the cosmic subject matter at hand. The distortion is very harsh and direct, sounding very bottle-necked and deliberate in it's approach - essentially the antithesis of warm and full-bodied. This lends a great appeal to the groove sections, which haphazardly flip on and off akin to sequence of diodes. Add this to Gavin's snappy percussive performance and now we're starting to get somewhere.
This leaves the keyboards, which are honestly the main draw of this band anyway. Imagine sitting in a movie theater right as a trailer for a huge, bombastic Summer blockbuster starts up. The lights dim and the reverberating bass tickles your back as everything rumbles forth. Mechina is pretty much that for an entire hour plus guitars. It goes without saying that there are imbalances in this approach, as Tiberi has yet to fully enthrall me for an entire album. He gets dangerously close to modern Nightwish at times during "Erebus" and still feels the need to shoehorn in the female Enya vocals, but you still have to give him some credit as a composer. Dude should look into a career in scoring films, as he has a serious gift in that department. This is where Mechina blows bands like Xerath to cosmic dust, as the latter fails to comprehend the concept of tension and release. As overblown and theatrical as Mechina's orchestrations may become, you can at least sense that there is thought put into the arrangements. There are never awkward joins and every track flows seamlessly into the next (which seems to be the band's trademark by this point) yielding a single, massive soundtrack to the cosmos.
It is always difficult to isolate individual tracks on Mechina albums, but the title track, "Alithea," and "Thales" are obvious standouts. These can be enjoyed well enough in isolation, and are relatively direct and forthright in their appeal. The title track even features some churning tremolos that are certainly new ground for the group and well worth experimenting with again in the future. The only remaining major gripe I have is the presence of tonal stagnancy. What I mean is that while the keyboards are almost always on overdrive, the atmosphere is always tense and/or foreboding, and rarely does it stray from this path. Even Empyrean had "Imperialus," which served as a nice break in the action and added some triumphant overtones. Xenon doesn't really have that, and it remains a compositional flaw that needs to be rectified if Tiberi truly wants to take his material to the next level.
Xenon can certainly be a lot to take in on first listen, and comes dangerously close to sounding like a cacophony at times, but Mechina has their style down pat by this point and don't appear to be going out of their way to impress anybody but themselves. Tiberi is the true mastermind here, so I'll certainly keep an eye on whatever material he pumps out in the future, be it in the metal field or not.