The album Saviour Machine II comes to us remastered & with a new cover similar in concept to the white original. Eric spends much more time in the desperation tone of voice on this 2nd album, making it seem a bit difficult at times to differentiate between some of the songs. They do flow well from the 1st song "Saviour Machine II". In fact, forget about music search on a tape deck, the segues & intro between songs force you to start at the beginning & just sit back & listen all the way through, as with most good art rock albums. I'd like to see them build more on the orchestrations, such as between "Ascention of Heroes" & "Paradox" (I like those India sounds), and the intro on the live disc / video. The nature of the band's music gives all the songs the feel of an epic & in a strange way, sort of mix between Depeche Mode & Iron Maiden. Average time is probably 7 min. but "The Stand" is a crowning 16:12 min. You'll either find S.M. moving & uplifting or good but boring. Eric has a sort of operatic, gothic voice. Nathan's piano & keys add a lot of atmosphere as well as melody, while Jeff is more of a rhythm & mood guitarist than a lead player. This album is well titled as it sounds like a continuation of the Frontline / Intense debut.
In this world of "norms" watching this band, they may strike you as a bit pretentious, if not a bit comical. But I applaud their willingness to stretch out artistically in this visually confused world where we've got the ridiculous liberal left "artists" setting the standards for a confused & blind elite few, and the frightened far right unwittingly building unnecessary walls of what's acceptable, in the name of propriety. S.M. seems to be mocking those who scoff at theatrics by being extreme (abnormal-look at Eric), yet entertaining, while hoping you'll get the message behind the band (kinda like Mike Knott of L.S.U. at C-Stone '94, singing a serious song while wearing a clown suit-it forced you to listen to what he was saying-though S.M. seems more serious). Although this dramatic art-rock could find a wide audience, everyone from classical to metal music lovers, the theatrics & imagery seen live may be a bit bizarre for many. Not necessarily because of anything controversial, but because it's far from the norm. If you have an appreciation for theatrics, you may enjoy this. However for some it won't be theatric enough. It's not Alice Cooper. I think a video screen would've helped, though the focus is on Eric & what he's saying. And what of the controversy? Well, that was on the first album (on "Legion") & I guess that imagery is "OK for Bible prophets like John but not for today" some may argue. Although, as during "Legion" in the video, one might argue the necessity of wrapping oneself in the American flag, when loyalty to the country is continually beat down today in school, etc. It's a matter of heritage, respect & proper handling of the flag, I guess. The picture & audio quality of the video is high. There's many camera angles, which is good since there's not an overabundance of props or things going on. That's not to say it's uninteresting. They could've waited to do the video & live album after a couple more albums, making this a double disc, but this is a visual band necessitating a video and also the songs are already long enough, making the video & disc 75 min. long. The live disc is basically the video without the video-so you can "take it with you". You may want it because it'll have all your favorite songs with a different, an arena ambience, yet with studio quality production. There's definitely nothing else like this out there for fans of goth / art rock.