Emmanuel.7 "Machines in Routine" CD
[Thorp]
Hmmm... I didn't know what to expect here, but this is some pretty diverse metalcore. Dissonant chord progressions and stuttered rhythms, chugga chugga mosh parts, heavy as fuck sludge riffs, calmer clean passages, fairly tasteful integration of samples and some mildly experimental textures, forceful vocals that are heavily textured and rest between shouting and growling, as well as some singing and spoken parts - granted the singing is more than a bit off - and then some. At times it reminds me of a more rhythmically straightforward Bloodlet, but a lot of that has to do with the vocals and the thicker, sludgier riffs, as the discordance and such is something else entirely. But this is pretty good. I'm not into the singing vocals, and some the faster discordant parts get on my nerves, but the pummeling heaviness and scathing vocals are dead on. And notably the fucked up time shifts and quirky melodic riffing in "Big Man's Dial Tone" is awesome. The tracks range from around three minutes (not including the brief instrumentals) to more than seven, and things can get a little lengthy in my opinion (the last track is more than seven minutes, but a lot of that is noisiness and improvised jamming stuff, so I don't count that so much). They take care of business, but four to five minutes is definitely their most suitable timeframe. The recording is really nice. I love the distorted bass tone, which is right in the center of the mix, the drums sound right on, the guitars are heavy with enough clarity and grit to get by, and the vocals are mixed deep into the music so they don't come too far to the front. Visually this one looks pretty good. Everything is totally consistent with clean text arrangement, and the photos and textures are all really crisp. The colors are a little weird, but thankfully the saturation is somewhat low so it doesn't get too far out there. The back of the booklet reads, "We're people, numbers, machines..." and, along with the record's title, suggest some of the lyrical content, which sort of deals with people as production units, though there's a lot of personal content in there as well. "And his face vacant of expression, A victim of the unprofitable act of living, Incarcerated yet somehow still victimized, He hung himself in the tombs, Now just a ghost in the daylight on a crowded street..." My only minor complaints with this record are that I find the electronic interludes (as rare as they may be) to be unnecessary and distracting, and I think the disc as a whole is a bit disjointed. At their best Emmanuel.7 is a fuckin' steamroller, but things can get tiresome or just stop flowing so smoothly once they start mixing it up too much. The variety is great, I just think the bulk of their power lies in their knack for rhythms and the moderate tempos, as opposed to speed and disharmonic note choices. Not bad at all, though. I could see huge things coming from this band if they progress from this point. Cut out about four or five tracks of filler and you'd have yourself a winner already. (6/10)
Running time - 73:52, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: He Died at 47, Paper Security, Big Man's Dial Tone]
Thorp Records - http://www.thorprecords.com

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