SAVIOUR MACHINE (DEMO 1990)

I´m not sure about the story behind Demo ´90 album from american dark christian rock/ metal band Saviour Machine. Was this recorded as a full album or is it a couple of demos collected into an album ? Well it doesn´t matter as the music is of pretty high quality on the whole album. If you like the debut album from Saviour Machine chances are that you will enjoy this demo album as well as it is in a similar style albeit a bit more rough around the edges both when it comes to sound quality and compositinal skills.

Before you get all woried about the whole christian rock thing, I´ll just state that I´m an atheist and normally don´t like christian rock as many of the bands with those beliefs have a tendency to preach. Saviour Machine is a bit different. They do tell biblical stories and use biblical references but they don´t preach. They tell stories. I´m not so ignorant that I can´t enjoy a bands music just because of the lyrics if the music is as excellent as it is when we´re talking about Saviour Machine. And don´t worry these lyrics are dark and angered and sung with the most powerful paatos you can imagine.

Saviour Machine´s style is best described as dark rock/ metal influenced by early eighties dark rock bands like Joy Division, The Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim and The Mission, some mostly eighties progressive metal tendencies and the most important thing the beautiful and very distinct vocal style of singer Eric Clayton who sounds like an operatic version of David bowie. Eric has an incredibly powerful and majestic voice that took me some time to appreciate. On this demo album there are also influences from genres like punk and classic heavy metal which is not something you normally would hear on a Saviour Machine album.

The album consists of eight songs and only two of those songs appear on the debut album from Saviour Machine which means you get lots of value for your money. The two songs that appear on the debut is Carnival of Souls which stars this demo album and is played in a more unpolished version here than on the debut and When The Cat Came Home which is basically an early underdeveloped version of the Mask from the debut with different lyrics. It´s easy to hear why it´s those two songs who made the cut when Saviour Machine chose the songs for their debut album as they are both strong and memorable songs. The other songs are also very good even though they are not as tight or memorable. The album ends with the 20 minute long epic track The Revelation which is really enjoyable even though it´s clear to hear that at this time in Saviour Machine´s career their music had a hard time entertaining for 20 minutes straight.

The musicianship is not the tightest but I like the raw and powerful youthful approach to the songs. It´s really strange to hear parts in a Saviour Machine song that makes me want to bang my head.

The production is of good quality when you remember that this is a demo recording.

Being a great fan of Saviour Machine these days this demo album is a real treat for me. It´s taken me years to understand and appreciate Saviour Machine´s music but it´s easier to understand people´s excitement over this band when you listen to this album or the debut first. Preferably the debut of course but this one should be listened to before going further into their discography because from the next album forth Saviour machine´s music became pretty inaccessible and much harder to appreciate. That´s not to say that the later albums ( Saviour Machine II and the Legend albums) aren´t as great as the early releases from the band they are just much harder to get into. This one is pretty straight forward though and should be easy to appreciate. As it is a demo album and the sound quality and the quality of the compositions does vary, I´ll rate the album 3 stars even though I enjoy it more than average. Be sure to check out Saviour Machine as they are a great progressive rock/ metal band.