Album & EP Reviews

The Machinist – Contempt For Life

The Machinist – Contempt for Life
In Vitae Manifestatio Records
Release Date: 24/01/25
Running Time: 42:13
Review by Dark Juan
666,666,666,666,666,666,666,666,666,666/10

Well, thank fuck that 2024 hasn’t let the door hit it on the arse on the way out. A year that has had many highs and lows and very much ended on a low note into which I shall not be going into details about here. Hence, Dark Juan has had a low-key start to 2025 and is very much of the opinion that the only way is up right now, so let’s grip 2025 by the fucking throat and throttle it into submission while spitting in its face and snarling viciously at it until it bends itself to my will. This year WILL be a year of success, happiness and plenty, otherwise I am going to chainsaw it into tiny little pieces and feed it to various wild animals.

It is in this somewhat apocalyptic frame of mind, then, that I bring you the latest thing to grace the Almighty Platter of Splatter™, and it is something I am very excited to write about because it is an album that the band themselves very kindly provided me many months before a release deal was assured, taking it on trust that I would not leak it. That trust has now been repaid. Thank you, gentlemen.

I write this, also, while experiencing a small bout of neurasthenia. Don’t offer me sympathy because it is entirely the fault of my manager at work, who had bought me a bottle of rum. Obviously, I had to drink it because it was a gift. It was possibly not the right decision to drink the whole fucking bottle, but here we are.

So, here’s my thoughts on the latest album, “Contempt for Life” by my favourite British Extreme Metal band, Manchester’s The Machinist.

Note: Vocalist Scott Walton did contribute vocals to this album but then discovered that, for medical reasons, he had to stop singing and took the difficult decision to retire from the band – however the band still credit his contributions and have left his vocals on the album where they were completed. Luke Chapman also left the band but has been credited with the bass playing on this album.

The record opens with the title track and in typical The Machinist fashion, there is absolutely ZERO fucking about with introductions or anything like that, instead it is two “BLEGHS” and into the hyperspeed Technical Blackened Industrial Death Metal. Yes, it’s a mouthful but that is what The Machinist plays. Except now, the band have taken the complexity of ‘Schwarzschild Radius’ (from their previous album “I Am Void” (Here’s the link to the review for it, if you are interested – https://www.ever-metal.com/2020/12/21/the-machinist-i-am-void/) and amped up the technical aspects of it. In conversation with main throatripper John Thompson, he stated that ‘Schwarzschild Radius’ was to be the STARTING point of the sound of “Contempt for Life”.

Well, fuck me sideways up the arse with a turbocharged petrol-powered chainsaw. Because that’s what the listening experience is like! The brutality of everything is unsurpassed. Granted, the drumming is sequenced but it adds a certain The Berzerker-like frisson to the music, but the sheer velocity and murderous intent of the band completely overpowers any reservation that the listener has about sequenced drums. ‘Cathedrals Fall’ is an absolute highlight, a truly epic romp of a song that encompasses Industrial, clean singing, electronics and spectacular Tech Death and a serious Gothic Mechanicus aesthetic that does NOTHING to assuage Dark Juan’s hangover, and instead merely makes me murderous and consumed with rage.

I fucking ADORE The Machinist. Their alloying of Tech Death, Black and Industrial Metal with a Gothic streak covers every single pleasure centre Dark Juan has and a few more erogenous zones Dark Juan didn’t know he had. ‘Brace’ is a constant, pneumatic-ram punch to the guts that just blasts away until the torso of the poor listener is liquid, but with a middle part of the song that sounds like a sneering overseer gloating over the remnants of humanity that the rams have basically liquified… 

I am over seven hundred words into this review, and I have only described three songs. Poorly. That is how good The Machinist are. Their admixtures of things like Gabba Techno keyboards and multilayered vocal attacks are what lift them from the mass of Technical Death Metal out there and it is this Industrial component that really drives Dark Juan wild with excitement. Which is not a thing you want to see, and this is why Mrs Dark Juan has decamped to her studio.

‘Gog’ is an instrumental interlude that leads into the sound of burning and the howl of wind across a devastated landscape, scorched earth and silence before the band slam into ‘Demagogue’. Whirring and sharp-edged electronics bubble beneath the surface of a song that achieves gravitic escape velocity within five seconds of it starting and doesn’t let up the Industrial pummelling until submission or a purely liquid state is achieved. ‘Magog’ is a companion piece to ‘Gog’ and is another Industrial instrumental interlude.

Album closer ‘Cracks’ has a real Chronicles of Manimal and Samara vibe in parts, with unusual guitars and arrangements that ebb and flow over a spoken word performance that chops in and out of crushing, concrete brutalism and speed that is dizzying to experience. The band really stretch their capabilities on this song…

Vocally, the performance of John Thompson is a bit special as well – the man operates at a level of murderous, totally without scruple murderousness that is actually a bit fucking frightening. The man’s commitment to his vocals is nothing less than staring, eye-bulging, single-minded insanity. Imagine being screamed at by an entire legion of demons an inch away from your face. THAT’s what he sounds like. I am convinced that John Thompson is not actually human and is just pretending.

Still, even if he is demonic, he’s a valuable ally. Let’s go smash the Fash, our kid!

To attempt to sum this absolute monster of an album up – If you want to be looking for your face for the next year because you have listened to “Contempt for Life” then you might enjoy this. If you dig Technical Death Metal you’ll dig this. Hell, even if you like the Extreme Gothic Cabaret of Cradle of Filth, you’ll find things to enjoy on the album. If you are just a fan of brutality for brutality’s sake The Machinist have you covered. It is yet another triumph from Manchester’s finest, the twisted fuckers.

The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System is back for another year of holding back the sex wee and avoiding environmental disasters around the Calder Valley area. Already it has had a serious and almost catastrophic test of its capabilities because it has scored The Machinist 666,666,666,666,666,666,666,666,666,666/10. The dials only go up to 10 and they were spinning faster than the flywheel on a steamroller. The bearings have already worn out.

TRACKLISTING:

01. Contempt for Life
02. Cathedrals Fall
03. Brace
04. Gog
05. Demagogue
06. Magog
07. Anthropic Mistake
08. Cracks

LINE-UP:

John Thompson – Vocals, keyboards, drum programming
Tobias Gray – Lead guitars, backing vocals
George Kal – Rhythm guitars, backing vocals

Other contributors:

Luke Chapman – Bass
Scott Walton – Vocals

LINKS:

Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.