Skymning - Machina Genova (2004)

Skymning had really found its lane with Artificial Supernova, and if anything, Machina Genova takes them further down that direction with an even more electronic, industrial sounding evolution of the death and thrash metal which formed the basis for that sophomore. The cyber tendencies have now crept deeper beneath the flesh, with electrodes pumping through the band members' veins, and yet they manage to do this without switching over to exclusively electronic percussion or losing the impulsive death/thrashing of the guitars. It feels like a band that adapted its electronic personality, rather than an electronic band that just decided to punch a few guitars into its recording software. And it's still bloody exciting, arguably even more so than its predecessor, since there's a simpler, punkish energy to some of the guitar riffs.

Groove metal, industrial metal, a little thrash, Machina Genova exists at the nexus with an interesting hustle and flow to its percussion, and guitars that center in a lot on chugging rhythms and then lots of quirky techniques above them to represent circuit boards, assembly lines or whatever other mechanistic vibes are going through their brains. The bass has a great flow to it, occasionally reminding me of the mid to late 90s Voivod stuff with Eric, and this has the most interesting drumming of their catalogue because it's so adept at emulating more purely industrial bands. Lots of weird little riffs on tracks like "Scrapleech" and "Swallow the Holy Piss" keep the record pumping fresh, but there are also a lot of more familiar, thrashing rhythms, as well as a few that might teeter a little too much towards the nu metal sound, but never more than, say, Prong did, a band that continues to have some parallels to these Swedes, only over a much larger catalogue.

This is a very good album overall; it might not have left quite the impact on me as its predecessor, but I will certainly never argue that this was successful at mutating them even further away from their roots in a positive direction which kept them distinct from their Swedish peers. It's certainly a nastier and more pissed off sound than Artificial Supernova, but still maintains plenty of atmosphere and a few surprises that will keep you guessing what's around its welded corners. It's a bit of a bummer that the band decided to call it quits after this was released, but I can never fault them for quitting while they were ahead...there are no disappointments in their discography, and I think the small handful of folks who would track such albums as this down will be quite thrilled with what they discover.

Verdict: Win [8/10]