To throw my two cents in, I think 'Elite' works well as an opening, more on lyrical grounds than anything else. It's very self-refferential to Machinae's previous works, commenting that 'this is Redeemer' if the listener 'was not a believer' for what came before (i.e. DXM).
'Elite' is a much heavier song than what Machinae have done in the past, that caught me off guard. But I think that's what they wanted. It subverts your expectations. The album isn't as SiD orientated as some of their past stuff, but I don't think that's a bad thing, it shows the band progressing. Hypothetically, if 'Redeemer' had been rubbish, I would rather it be 'Rubbish' by experimenting than be good by simply repeating past-glories (*cough* AC/DC *cough*)
I've only just got the album, as the address it was sent to I don't live at most of the year. I was hoping it'd arrive during Easter break when I'm home from uni, but this wasn't the case. So I waited an additional month before I could here it (my bro brought it up for my b-day)! I have to say I'm thoroughly pleased with it though
The only tune I really don't like on it is 'Hate', but out of 13 tracks (not including the instrumentals) that ain't bad at all. I generally find I like maybe 60-70% of most albums (although I have liked ALL of Machinae's downloadable tunes which essentially constitute an on-line album as it were), so 'Redeemer' really has impressed me.
I wanna write a review for it, but I can't at the minute cuz I'm writing my masters thesis on MaSu and it might intefer with my methodology
Thesis' suck...
