Review by Greg on January 26, 2024.

Those who were at least starting to be interested in heavy music during the '00s will surely be familiar with Biomechanical. Personally, I wasn't into extreme stuff until my coming of age, with very few selected exceptions, but I distinctly remember discovering the existence of this menacingly named project on no less than Earache's videogame for PlayStation 2. Please tell me I wasn't the only one having one of these in my house! Anyway, I also remember spending more time scrolling through the pages of the booklet, detailed with photos and biographies of the several extreme bands featured (and often wondering what the hell was our own melodic hardcore output Linea 77 doing between them), than actually playing the game, which probably didn't go down in history books. Still, a bunch of them intrigued me, and among them stood the here presented one. Looking back at it, they were probably the most unfortunate ones (if compared to Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, Municipal Waste etc.) as their parabola literally precipitated, like, a couple of years later. If nothing else, they suffered a better fate than all the bands relegated to their demo- or, at most, debut album-state, having had the possibility to make up an intimidating three-album concept by visionary Greek vocalist and mastermind John K, starting with the here presented Eight Moons. Better waste no ulterior time and let the music do the talking.

'The Awakening' is a more than aptly titled opener for Biomechanical's career: after a sinister short intro, it's all about the frequent tempo changes, while remaining substantially fast and overwhelming (sort of an outsider here, in this aspect), vocals thrown all over the place, very powerful, original lyrics (a constant of the project) and a memorable chorus section... you already have it all in four minutes. I have to point out, if compared to later albums the vocals seem less refined, with John K sounding less like a psycho Rob Halford and more like a... psycho Tobias Sammet, or at least that was a similarity that stood out to me the most on the absurdly catchy mid-tempo groove 'Do You Know Me'. But if you're not a huge sucker for the voice of Avantasia's iconic frontman, like me, fear not as K can show a much wider range with ease, not to mention his versatility, and you won't find any abuse of vibrato notes. I'm just not too fond of the higher pitched final choruses, mostly because sometimes I can't help but feel they sound artificially made and fake; check for example that exact song or 'No Shadows' for that matter.

Still, it was already clear that Biomechanical weren't exactly going for the most uplifting album ever with Eight Moons, but 'In the Core of Darkness' reaffirms the concept with its desperately, almost hopelessly sounding march, broken only by a sick thrash metal segment, with particularly intense lyrics. This is where the album may start to sound a bit tiring for the uninitiated, with the slightly forced high vocals not helping in this regard, and it's also probably the song where the production stands out the most, in a negative way. This album simply cannot handle every element at once in the instances where they gather (two guitars, bass, drums, at least two voice tracks, symphonics) and is forced to drown something in the mud, which is really a shame, but also something to expect from a debut album on a small label, even more so considering that most of the times the production remains leastwise adequate and doesn't hurt the experience. Its imperfections may even accentuate, by chance, the aura of chaos of the scenario.

The groove machine goes on, but in the middle part, unfortunately, it stumbles on some drops in quality. 'Hunted', the first non-demo song, is probably the furthest from being a filler in this section, I also sincerely loved the traditional metal-inspired, quasi-Tim Owens howls in the pre-chorus. Only side note: the first solo sounds basically identical to the one on 'Do You Know Me', but I admit the whole part is superior. Good news is that, luckily, we have yet to witness Eight Moons' most original moments, namely the final triplet. The title-track, as you may expect, is the most ambitious cut off the album. The particularly complex lyrics are, for the majority, narrated, over a symphonic background, with the almost total absence of the other instruments except for the fist-raising chorus, if we can call it as such since it appears only once. I personally think that the climax is awesomely built into it, at about half the song, but then the return to symphonic and narration only felt a little disappointing. If nothing else, this track alone may make yourself imagine the eyebrows they raised with this debut album, and the consequent attention they received from Earache.

'Save Me', instead of going back to full assault mode, catches us off guard, being a sort of half-ballad, with hands off the strongest chorus of the album. I honestly didn't expect Biomechanical to have this much of an ear for melodic hooks, and barring the guitar tone, it sounds strangely like a... Queensrÿche song at times? All I know is that I can't stop picturing Geoff Tate in it. Also, it builds somewhat of an unintentional continuum with the former composition, and the clean guitars in the end also flow so smoothly onto the last track 'Point of No Return', which unfortunately is not that high of a note to close Eight Moons. On a positive note, and probably a conscious decision by the band, in the second half the band lets all hell break loose in the most headbangable part of the album. Dare I say... Machine Head-like, but don't beat me. Again, at times it becomes arduous to discern everything that's happening, but it feels pretty good.

There are more than glimpses of what the band was capable of, once in a while you get a nice bass noodling which shows a pretty cool tone ('Do You Know Me'), rumbling double bass on the scarce speedier sections (think of the opener and the closer), hints of sheer madness unleashed (same as before), even some really heartfelt solos which go beyond pure shredding (something that would sadly disappear in the future instead), but if you're used to their other releases, for the majority of time this will sound like Biomechanical taking a step back, probably warming up during a sound-check. And you know what? I like it this way. It's probably their only album you can listen from start to finish without feeling like the near nightclub bouncer made you kiss his fist several times. It sure is different than The Empires of the Worlds, and the production doesn't completely give it justice, but it stands particularly strong on its own.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10