By Grayson Hale
Progressive rock has always been about excess - a genre ruled by a philosophy of ‘more is more’. Taking a basic principle of rock music and stretching it to near-illogical extremes, with double albums and lofty concepts, meant that there were always going to be a few snags hit along the way, but it’s sometimes difficult to imagine that there wasn’t a point during the creation of at least one classic prog album where someone said “Hang on, guys, maybe we should leave out that completely unnecessary guitar solo in the 24th minute of the first song on the album” (I’m looking at you, Dream Theater).
Because the bands that do it best are the ones that utilise restraint; and to get right to the point, Maschine are not one of those bands. Don’t get me wrong: Rubidium, the debut album from the UK five-piece, is a sprawling and captivating slice of progressive rock/metal. All of the elements are there – the technicality, the atmosphere, actual progressions... and they’re all done really well. But like the band’s aforementioned influence in Dream Theater, those elements can have a tendency to sound overblown.
As a result, Rubidium is one prog fan’s wet dream and another’s unending nightmare. True to their band name, there’s a superbly-executed robotic atmosphere, helped along by the evocative album art. At times, the music and general technological-takeover vibe resembles Swedish metal titans Meshuggah, albeit in a significantly less aggressive manner. At others, the psychedelic vocal effects bring to mind The Mars Volta and the soft/loud dynamics can be reminiscent of Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree. Maschine are a very clear conglomeration of their influences, but just the sheer number of them allows for consistently interesting, if not slightly uneven, listening.
And that’s really where most of the criticism for this album will come from – one part mind-boggling technical riffage, one-part mindless self-indulgence. This is an album that is as intelligent as it is senseless and, as harsh as that may sound, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. As stated above, many progressive rock albums considered to be outright classics have had to deal with that very same criticism and, unlike a few of those, Maschine manage to be both fun and fascinating to listen to throughout the album’s hour-long duration.
Perhaps the easiest way to explain it is that Rubidium is an album for prog fans and prog fans only. If you like any of the aforementioned groups, give Maschine a listen and decide for yourself; what may sound like pointless noodling to one may sound like a gorgeously-crafted sound world to another.
