Track By Tracks: The Machinist - Contempt For Life (2025)
1. Contempt For Life:
Musically, the first track that came together and set the tone for all the other songs, being in
multiple “parts” and complex in its arrangement - also considerably more death metal in tone
and even with touches of hardcore!
When the lyrics for Contempt were floating around, the kind of theme floating around after I Am
Void was the sense that we’d passed the point of no return, and this is a theme that crops up
several times on this album.
It’s not so much a comment about hating life or being alive or some mopey useless whiney shit
like that, but more an expression of anger at not seeing what we have with the respect and
value it deserves. We are in contempt of it.
Oligarchs run our world, and they are not part of some shadowy organization that hired in the
background secretly control things by pulling hidden strings, these are brazen people in plain
view of everyone, puking out misinformation and bullshit for nothing other than their own
personal gain, and they hold nothing but malice, hatred, and contempt for anyone that isn’t them,
and have no regard for the damage they cause or the lasting effect they have on things like the
environment, politics, equality, racism, it’s all just a game, none of us are real and even if we are
real, we are to be hated and used and chewed up.
Barrel of fuckin laughs as ever aren’t we?
2. Cathedrals Fall:
Another complex arrangement, and actually the fourth song to come together from this album,
we wanted to explore more dynamics, and revisit an almost Middle Eastern sound that we
approached on the previous album on the song “the death cults of Abraham”
Lyrically, it explores universal nihilism. THAT OLD CHESTNUT. All things end, monuments
crumble, and all the structures we put up to bolster our own egos will disappear. The Human
Genome itself is somewhat complex, delicate, and prone to mutation, so even evolution has it in
for us. One day we will cease to be human and no amount of preservation, cultural or otherwise,
can change that. Assuming we don’t destroy ourselves, we will change. It’s tempting to say
humanity will transcend or evolve to “elevate” somehow but let’s face it, it’s also just as likely
evolution will turn the other way and we will lose sentience forever.
We all know this. It’s not exactly a revelation. It’s not some deep secret locked away in our
psyche, but the mental and cultural gymnastics people go through to take their minds off the
inevitability of entropy can be somewhat staggering.
There is something of a relief to all this. I dunno. I find this reassuring. One day I won’t be here
to be annoyed by all this bullshit.
I’m all for existentialism and making life have its own meaning, I have a lot of nihilistic ideas but
I don’t consider myself misanthropic and I’m in no hurry to see it end, but there’s something
comforting in its impermanence and exhilarating about how fleeting it all is. Nothing we do here
is forever, and one day even “here” won’t be here.
Now that’s something to look forward to. A bit of peace and quiet.
2. Brace:
Off I do like this lovely bruiser of a track, driven by Tobias, He came along with this gruesome
riff that I and George pulled a stink face to and the rest was history. Compared to the other
songs on the album, it channels our inner caveman. Each machinist album needs at least one
“Ug me got big balls” song on it and this is the one here. OOFF.
Lyrically, this explores similar themes to Contempt but is a little bit more scathing around the
collective sycophantly behavior around these oligarchs.
Catastrophe of some degree, be it financial, political, or environmental is the inevitable outcome
of things going too far, and often there are many warning signs and more importantly there are
people who warn others of the impending disaster.
It’s never In an oligarch’s interest to heed the warnings. Of course. So nothing gets done. Then
the worst happens. Of course.
You can then rub your hands gleefully of course now and say “Haha that’ll show em” but if
there’s anything recent history has taught us, is that nothing quite boggles the mind like a good
old-fashioned doubling down and frankly I’ve been amazed by the number of people pissing
down their own backs then convincing themselves it’s raining.
3. Demagogue:
Driven by George, this is a lovely Eastern scale song that’s deceptively complex and fidgety. I
feel that whilst we touched on the eastern scale stuff a little with Void, I’m glad we got to explore
it a lot more here.
Lyrically, this is about the moment some of us reach when we realize we’ve been lied to, and
we are actively shaking off that yoke.
For evil to flourish, it takes inaction, yes yes we’ve heard it all before, for evil to triumph it just
takes good people to do nothing, but that makes it no less true or vital, and the first step is to
say: No. This is wrong. I will no longer be part of this. I am going to remove myself from this
environment.
4. The Anthropic Mistake:
O,h my word. What to say about this song. If Brace is the bruiser, this is the slasher.
Musically, it’s just all-out violence. The aim was to bewilder, disorient, and overwhelm, and
hopefully, we achieved it by employing some off-kilter time sigs and abrupt style and tempo
changes.
Lyrically, it deals with a broader idea of “original sin”, that by the very virtue of being human, we are
flawed and destined to bring about our own destruction, and this follows us like a bad smell,
tainting every action we make and polluting every decision, outcome or environment. It’s
probably the song that’s most informed by the front cover that Duncan drew, the idea that nature
itself is actively looking to reject us and destroy us.
There will never be a scenario where this won’t happen, but this will be too good for us. We
deserve so much more than simply death.
In a million years all that will be left of everything we’ve ever done will be a geologically
intriguing layer of sedimentary rock.
5. Cracks:
Kind of a companion piece to Schwarzschild Radius from the previous album, The tradition was
continued to have a longer, more atmospheric piece to close the album. Like Anthropic
Mistake, the idea was to be a little off-kilter, unsettling, a little disorienting. It’s hardly Meshuggah
but we had some fun with cyclical time signatures to create a slightly off-kilter feel.
Lyrically, it’s perhaps a little more introspective than the others. The idea of being isolated and
alone, locked in your own head with your own thoughts is one that comes back to haunt often.
It can be hard to find meaning. To some it comes easy, they put everything into work, having fun,
having kids, growing a business, etc etc and most will react rather violently or defensively to the
idea that there’s nothing really behind it, not really. If there’s anything we can’t stress enough it’s
the impermanence and fleeting nature of all things.
And so we do that we do to mask this terror. We exist and fulfill our own purpose. It’s all we can
do.
It’s unfortunate that the “purpose” some of us find is directly responsible for the misery of others
who are only trying to find a purpose of their own. This is what we must challenge at all costs.
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