MACHINATIONS OF FATE
MACHINATIONS OF FATE "Celestial Prophecies"
By Dr. Abner Mality
The Redefining Darkness label has a pretty good nose for finding promising extreme metal talent and MACHINATIONS OF FATE proves they still have the knack. Despite an unwieldy name that does them few favors, these guys from Kentucky have come up with a refreshingly different sound that contrasts with a lot of the primitive and ultra-brutal death metal being churned off the assembly line.
For one thing, they integrate a lot of melody into their aggressive style but keep an edge that many melodic death metal bands lack. This balances melody and brutality almost perfectly, with a sound that blends influences like DISSECTION, ATHEIST, and the earliest days of the Gothenburg bands. A more recent name to compare them to would be MAJESTIES.
For once, an opening instrumental is more than just a time waster. "Follow The Ignis Fatuus" delivers its own kind of majesty that sets the table for the rest of the album and leads directly into "A Split Second of Divinity", which establishes that M.O.F. is as fast as fuck. This is a blistering speedy assault with a nuclear drum attack...yet cool guitar melodies are already there. One big advantage the band has are the throat-shredding vocals of Cody Knarr, which could strip paint off my uncle's barn. This guy has an agonized, fairly unique sound with some resemblance to John Tardy but mixed with a black metal sensibility.
From there, we get treated to varied songs that stand up to repeated listens. A cello adds a mournful tone to the title track while longer epics like "To Gaze Upon The Venomous Horizon" and "Of Deimos and Phobos" toss constantly shifting riffs and shredding technical guitar solos at the listener. The short instrumentals "Trinity" and "Eulogy" really add necessary atmosphere instead of just filling space. The album ends with "Demise", where their debt to tech-death pioneers like ATHEIST is paid in full.
A ravaging and multi-layered album from MACHINATIONS OF FATE. I wish they'd do something about that name, but you can't win 'em all.