ALBUM REVIEW: EX_MACHINA – Crossfaith
Ever since first cracking into the worldwide metal consciousness with their much-lauded six track EP Zion all the way back in 2012, it seems as though Japanese electronicore merchants CROSSFAITH have become one of modern heavy music’s most reliably great bands.
The band’s third overall album, 2013’s Apocalyze reaffirmed this prowess even further just a year later by building upon their established template of crushing riffs and lashings of distorted electronic blasts, and its 2015 follow-up XENO saw the five-piece take even bigger strides towards becoming legitimately huge thanks to even more colossal anthems and inspired guest appearances from BEARTOOTH’s Caleb Shomo and SKINDRED’s Benji Webbe. Now though, the band are back with their fifth effort – a dystopian-sounding concept record entitled EX_MACHINA.
As the record begins, intro track Deus Ex Machina quickly sets the scene with a grandiose and sweeping salvo of sweeping strings and narration that quickly devolves into a glitchy mess of synths that heralds the arrival of opener proper Catastrophe. Pretty much following the band’s usual blueprint of throat-shredding screamed vocals atop mountains of distorted riffing, it’s a quick and abrupt affirmation that CROSSFAITH are still one of the absolute best in their field at what they do, and one hell of an opening statement.
Given how well it worked for the band on XENO, there are of course once again a handful of special guests across EX_MACHINA. The first of these comes, surprisingly enough from fast-rising experimental horrorcore rap duo HO99O9, who lend themselves to a quick cameo on the appropriately-titled cacophony of noise known as Destroy. For the most part a fairly typical CROSSFAITH party-metal banger, it’s definitely an interesting moment to hear the pair leave their mark on the track, delivering a rousing verse, the punk ferocity of which sits perfectly next to the sonic chaos underpinning everything.
A far more expected guest makes an appearance immediately afterwards too, with Freedom seeing the band team up with ENTER SHIKARI mainman Rou Reynolds for a track which sees the vocalist initially interrupt CROSSFAITH‘s usual hurricane of riffs for a rap verse played straight over essentially a trap beat, before promptly kicking back into gear for a full-on breakdown that pummels the song towards its conclusion in what’s easily one of the most diverse and enjoyable moments on the record.
The rest of EX_MACHINA follows a somewhat different pattern however. Of course, there’s still plenty of huge choruses and crunchy guitars to be found on tracks like the nu-metal-esque Make A Move and thunderously cinematic penultimate number Daybreak, which sounds like the apocalypse set to music at times, however the real story here is what surrounds those tracks. Lost In You sees the band almost going modern pop-punk in tone for a track that dials back the distortion and screaming, whilst dialling up the poppier side of their electronics and throwing in a ton of effective clean vocals from Ken. Meanwhile, Milestone sees the Osaka collective taking a stab at writing a huge hard-rock banger, to great success, as they pile on more “woah-ohs” and gang vocals than the average DRAGONFORCE track to a punchy stadium-rock-esque musical backdrop.
Following on from the fusion of power-balladry and synths of Eden In The Rain, things then take one final cinematic turn with the one-two punch of Twin Shadows and Daybreak. The former clocks in at a mere 2:21 and serves essentially as an oddly piano-led EDM-like overture for the latter; a final death-growl-packed punch to the face of pure crushing metal that highlights everything the band have done well across the album and combines it into one absolutely outstanding song for what should serve as an excellent closer for the record.
Interestingly though, that’s still not it, and to close things out there’s one final surprise collaboration, as CROSSFAITH team up with vocalist Masato from fellow Japanese metalcore outfit COLDRAIN for an unexpected, yet fairly entertaining cover of LINKIN PARK‘s classic anthem Faint. Staying pretty much as faithful to the original as it’s humanly possible to be, this alternate take on one of nu-metal’s most beloved tracks certainly sits as a curio amongst the rest of the tracks preceding it, and might not be different or unique enough for fans to necessarily revisit too often, though it nonetheless proves serviceable enough and obviously harbours an important sentiment.
On the whole, what EX_MACHINA essentially does is put forward a refined distillation of everything CROSSFAITH have accomplished up to date, rather than any kind of drastic reinvention. The band have clearly found their niche over the last few years, and this record serves as excellent proof of their continued songwriting brilliance and knack for finding and melding together both brutally heavy guitar work and screaming with the occasional anthemic chorus. Fans are sure to love it, and newcomers may well find themselves quickly assimilated into the CROSSFAITH machine.
Rating: 8/10
EX_MACHINA is out now via UNFD.
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