Best Machinae Supremacy Songs Reviewed

If there were any justice in this world, the Swedish electronic/metal band Machinae Supremacy would be among the best-known rock bands in the world. With both generic and specific references to video games, sci-fi animé and occasionally English literature, and a clear but not overplayed message to be different, think, learn and evolve, MaSu is a thinking young man's band.

Of the thirteen songs I'm reviewing and recommending, the band makes five available for free download, in your choice of MP3, OGG Vorbis or lossless FLAC. They are:

• March of the Undead, Part 2: A theme song for every misanthropist who's "fallen out of phase / with whatever paused the evolutionary race" (Idiocracy anyone?) and for every geek, nerd and social outcast who's "pretty sure that I am not the one who's weird".
• Origin: Seems to be from the point of view of a long-lived but mortal god or alien who doesn't feel its near-omniscience is as enviable as humans think ("you wouldn't ever wanna try / see through my eyes / you'd break like a child inside / if you ever realized"), and who is confronting its mortality and possibly other humanlike weaknesses. Faintly Lovecraftian. Samples from an obscure B-movie called Virus, but interpreting it as about the movie is a bit of a stretch.
• Earthbound: The lament of someone who's tired of living on Earth ("a cradle of dust and stone") and possibly also of being human ("bound by my two feet / I walk the road paved by our evolution"). Ends on a note of hope: "a vision of ourselves as we leave this time and place behind".
• Winterstorm: An excellent song that defies interpretation.
• Fury: On the surface, this song is about an ancient, evil dragon that menaces the world incessantly and is the dark angel of nature's wrath. Singer Robert Stjärnström writes, "It's about a storm, yes. Or more epically about the power of mother nature, as demonstrated by a storm." A brilliant example, then, of the mundane being transformed into the fantastical.

The rest of the songs on my list aren't available free legally.

• Violator (Overworld): If you're Christian, you can see this song as about Islamic fundamentalism. If you're Muslim, you can see it as about Christian fundamentalism. If you're neither, you can probably see it most accurately as about all kinds of religious fundamentalism. I don't think it's any coincidence this song was recorded shortly after The God Delusion (which I highly recommend) was published in Swedish.
• Edge and Pearl (Overworld): See my old review of the video.
• Rise (Redeemer): Laments how reality TV, and by extension all mainstream entertainment, makes both its cast and audience seem superficial and all the same. The verses are pessimistic, but the chorus offers some hope of change: "Inside, somewhere inside / I'd like to find / a different kind of you."
• Through the Looking Glass (Redeemer): An awesome song about knowledge as the ultimate purpose of life (which I hope it turns out to be, or at least turns out to be a choice as valid as any other). May be based on the writings of neo-Gnostic William Blake, from whose poem "The Tyger" it derives the phrase "fearful symmetry".
• Reanimator (Redeemer): Some people say this song's about H. P. Lovecraft's short story "Herbert West — Re-Animator". I disagree: I say it's about how apathy, social inertia and conformity turn the average person into a zombie ("life force drains, to change takes more than to remain / therefore we lay back in the comfort of our chains"). Robert agrees with me.
• Empire (Redeemer): Says a lot (though nobody's sure exactly what) with very few words. The two verses are 24 words between them, and the chorus and bridge add another 23 words excluding repeated lines.
• Player One (Deus Ex Machinae): A perfect manifesto for gamers and, by extension, all escapists (particularly those of us with no religion), discussing why we need, and what we gain from, "a world beyond this one!"
• Deus Ex Machinae (Deus Ex Machinae): A rare and intriguing venture into spirituality or pseudo-spirituality that calls on humanity to "rise above all dreams of aliens and gods" but still believe in "somewhere close but far away / where we are all forever." I suspect this relates to mind transfer, same general concept as the Matrix Trilogy but much more utopian.

Best Machinae Supremacy Songs Reviewed