Review of the Album "Elegies" By Finnish Progressive Metal Band Machine Men

Machine Men was a Finnish heavy metal band formed back in 1998 originally as an Iron Maiden cover band. They had three albums in a 13 year period. Their second album Elegies is the first one that I listened to from these guys and it is pretty darn good! Vocalist Anthony “Toni” Parviainen sounds like Bruce Dickinson and if you hear closely enough, you will hear the similarity in the vocals. Recently, I have been covering a lot of bands from Finland due to the fact that I really like that country. Finland in spite of its small size in terms of population is one of the elite heavy metal countries in Europe and the world.

The date of this album’s release (August 22^nd 2005) is memorable to me because it was only two days later that I departed for a vacation to Japan. Japan like Finland has several excellent metal bands however, Finland is much more well-known to metal fans. Elegies was released in the same year as the album called Deviation from the Flow by Finnish progressive metal band Malpractice.

1. Falling
2. Dream and Religion
3. Apathy
4. Back from the Days
5. The Traitor
6. October
7. Daytime Theatre
8. Doors of Resurrection
9. From Sunrise to Sunset
10. Freak (originally performed by Bruce Dickinson)

The first song in the album, the excellent one called "Falling" is about the fact that the whole world has been covered by evil and unless we do something to eradicate that which is negative, the whole world as we know it could come to an end. I have confidence in humans that we can all work together to create a future for the planet that will enable it to continue. Faith in Jesus is an important quality to have. The band Impellitteri covered this topic in their song called Father Forgive Them. The beginning of this song is memorable for being one of the best riffs ever created by any band! The solo in this song is good as well, but that starting riff is what sets the foundation for the song.

"Dream & Religion" continues on the topic of religion. It is about a person that has dedicated himself to religion (Christianity specifically) in order to free himself from this pain that he has had to endure.

"Apathy" is a song that has that definite Iron Maiden influence in the beginning of the song. Fear of the Dark had soft beginnings like this song does. Does anyone remember the song Afraid to Shoot Strangers? I sure do. "Back from the Days" is about remembering those brave soldiers that fought so hard to give us the good values such as freedom. Freedom has come at a big price often times that’s one of those common themes in history.

"October" is a slower and softer song about someone that has experienced both the good and bad times in his life. He has sailed through the seas, experienced the storms that have hit only to experience the beauty of the sunrise at dawn.

The band would only get better with their 2007 album called Circus of Fools which I think is a stronger album than this one. Elegies is a decent progressive metal album from a band that got better with each album but sadly, they would disband in 2011 because of a lack of interest from the band members. Even so, Elegies is a memorable album for me due to the first song Falling which could have set the tone for the rest of the album. The album is good but not quite good enough to be considered an elite album.