Review: Moon Machine – Moon Machine

Style: Prog Rock/Prog Metal (mostly clean vocals)
Review by: Sabrina
Country: US-MA
Release date: 30 July, 2021

July this year has been somewhat of a slow month for prog metal, but there certainly have been some scattered highlights. One of the albums that immediately stuck out to me when choosing one to review is Moon Machine’s self-titled debut album which was released just as the month was ending. From my first impressions, Moon Machine seemed to be very promising, with a cool and vibrant album cover, an interesting alien/sci-fi aesthetic, spooky sonic choices, solid riffs, memorable and catchy choruses, and an overall great vision. However, upon a few too many playthroughs of the album, Moon Machine’s weaknesses had slowly begun to reveal themselves.

Nonetheless, what one should expect from Moon Machine is that they utilize tropes that have lingered through the last twenty years of prog metal, but in a musically proficient and holistic way. In other words, they don’t bring much as far as innovation goes but still synergize their influences competently. Additionally, the prog metal sound is combined with a hint of post-rock/post-metal influence, emphasizing crescendos and ambient atmospheres. For what it’s worth: this album is good, but much more could have been achieved had more time and thought gone into its composition.

Now, before my usual criticism, I want to talk about what I enjoyed about this album, and there is a good bit to talk about. The production is nice, and I like how everything is mixed. The album just sounds very good and all the instruments are arranged in a way that makes the listening experience very satisfying. The band stated that they were inspired by Devin Townsend’s wall of sound style of producing. One can also appreciate the thought that went into the aesthetic choices of its non-musical components like the colorful album cover with the bright green starry sky and purple alien-mushroom creature.

As a metalhead, I certainly appreciate the emphasis and abundance of lead guitar riffs, although I’ll say that they are incredibly Opeth/Porcupine Tree inspired, even to a fault (more on that later). But fans of either of those bands will definitely find comfort in hearing these styles revitalized. Additionally, the use of keyboards on this album steps up the composition to the next level. These spacey/psychedelic pianos and synths are in the forefront for most of the album and drive the most dramatic emotional climaxes of the album. One of my favorite keyboard moments on the album is during the ending climax of “Demon:05”. The keys build this big gothic piano melody which was then accompanied by doom-textured guitar and bass chords that led to a small synth solo, this was followed by a crescendo of all the instruments into a guttural pain-filled scream.

In general, the first three songs are the most memorable as Moon Machine uses them to demonstrate their great sense of melody. All have very developed riffs, catchy choruses, and overall well-layered compositions. One song I’d recommend the most is their single “Reckoning” which sounds like a mixture of Tool, Porcupine Tree, and Opeth with clean vocals. These three bands are more or less, what the rest of the album sounds like, with an extra hint of general post-rock atmosphere and guitar padding. However, there is one artist that I’m sure a lot of you have heard of that sounds eerily close to Moon Machine. It is an artist that was not mentioned in Moon Machine’s list of influences that they gave in their promo, so the fact that they sound so similar might just be happenstance. The Opeth/Steven Wilson guitar riff influences, the clean vocal melodies, the other-worldly atmosphere, bright green cover art, even the timber in Eric’s voice sounds a lot like Keor. Because of this, Moon Machine is the biggest recommendation one can give for fans of Petrichor and Hive Mind.

But when I’m comparing Petrichor to Moon Machine back-to-back it becomes more evident that Moon Machine sounds a little underdeveloped, under-composed, and a bit more amateurish in comparison. Don’t get me wrong, they have great songwriting abilities, solid melody, and a great vision for the album. However, they could have spent some more time on making the drum, bass, and even guitar arrangements more complex and interesting. It feels like it’s missing that “pop.” A lot of the album is filled with unnecessary ambiance, and not much happening, like in track 7. Being atmospheric does not mean that you should literally do nothing; that’s just dead space. Additionally, Eric’s voice sounds like it is lacking a bit of training and generally has a small vocal range.

More importantly, most of their good material doesn’t sound particularly very new or refreshing. They sound mostly like microwaved Opeth/Porcupine Tree leftovers. What I mean by this is that they wear their influences on their sleeve but could do a lot more to make them sound unique and more “their own”, because as it stands, they do not stand out very much in the prog metal scene. This is sad because this album could have easily been an 8 if they changed things up a bit more. Sometimes one can easily tell where they took a section from. For instance, the flute on “Post-Upgrade III – Requiem” sounds a little too much like Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, and the last riff on “Post-Upgrade II – Grief” is pretty much stolen from “Blackwater Park”. These make me legitimately question how many of the good melodies and riffs on Moon Machine are actually theirs.

As I said earlier, this is a good album, but it barely misses the mark. If you are a fan of the calmer, more melodic, side of prog metal then I would give at least the first half of this album a shot.

Recommended tracks: Reckoning, Demon:05
Recommended for fans of: (early) Keor, Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, Opeth
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Label: Independent

Moon Machine is:
– Eric Hochwald (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, cello)
– Angel Castillo (drums)
– Jonathan Sirota (keyboards)