| AirMech | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | November 13, 2012 | |||
| Genre | Electronica, electro-industrial, dubstep, industrial dance, video game music | |||
| Length | 72:23 | |||
| Label | Metropolis, Dependent | |||
| Producer | Bill Leeb, Jeremy Inkel, Jared Slingerland | |||
| Front Line Assembly chronology | ||||
| ||||
AirMech is a video game soundtrack album by Vancouver industrial band Front Line Assembly. The album was released by Carbon Games in 2012 as the soundtrack [1] for free-to-play real-time strategy game AirMech . [2]
AirMech was released as limited edition CD album and digital download. Each item of the CD version contained a code which granted access to exclusive game content and design. [3] [4] Canadian label Artoffact Records re-released AirMech in 2014 as double vinyl in different variations. [5]
The album was announced in September 2012. [6] Carbon Games' Game Director James Green said, "The first thing I thought of was trying to get music that sounded like Front Line Assembly". [7] The band agreed, on the condition that members could be included in the game with "crazy sonic weapons". [6] [7] During the production process the band wrote "a wide range of tracks that would be suitable for AirMech, from menus to ingame music." [8]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Barcode | 7.5/10 [9] |
| Brutal Resonance | 9/10 [10] |
| Chain D.L.K. |   [11] |
| COMA | Favorable [12] |
| FEARnet | Favorable [7] |
| Reflections of Darkness | 9.5/10 [13] |
| ReGen |  [14] |
| Side-Line | 9/10 [15] |
AirMech received mainly positive reviews. However, some critics thought AirMech is bound too much by the limitations of a video game soundtrack.
Gregory Burkart of FEARnet wrote, "AirMech is a definite keeper for FLA fans and anyone who grooves on dark, violent and cinematic-scale industrial & EBM". [7] He felt that AirMech "follows through in some ways from the band's previous earth-shaking album 'Improvised Electronic Device'", but also brought some innovations: "The real departure on AirMech is the introduction of orchestral elements, something the band only incorporated only loosely in the past, and then in a more experimental way." [7]
Jaymie Burzette of Coma Magazine emphasized how AirMech contrasts with other Front Line Assembly releases, saying, "AirMech is very different from normal Front Line Assembly fare. Instead of their usual Electro-Industrial sound, this album contains all instrumental tracks and bears a heavy Dubstep influence." [12]
Trubie Turner of ReGen Magazine was more critical of the fact that AirMech is a video game score, pointing out, "Fans of Front Line Assembly are sure to find AirMech to be an odd experience". [14] Turner called the album "an impressive showcase of Front Line Assembly's talent". [14] However, "it can still feel overly repetitive and too heavily focused on loop ready riffs at times", Turner wrote and concluded, "Outside of the context of the game though, this purely instrumental work impresses but does not captivate." [14]
Barcode Magazine, otherwise generally favorable of AirMech, found it to be "a downside [...] that AirMech had to be written to correspond to a particular soundtrack-style, which somewhat restricts the album from becoming what it could have been." [9]
All tracks are written by Bill Leeb, Jeremy Inkel, Jared Slingerland
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Airmech" | 4:01 |
| 2. | "Arise" | 5:24 |
| 3. | "Pulse Charge" | 6:01 |
| 4. | "Prep for Combat" | 7:22 |
| 5. | "System Anomaly" | 5:03 |
| 6. | "Mech Killer" | 7:08 |
| 7. | "Everything That Was Before" | 6:57 |
| 8. | "Lose" | 6:20 |
| 9. | "Burning Skyline" | 6:27 |
| 10. | "Stealth Mech" | 4:21 |
| 11. | "Death Level" | 6:42 |
| 12. | "Prime Empiricism" | 6:52 |
| Total length: | 1:12:23 | |
In January 2015, Front Line Assembly announced that they started working on a follow-up album to AirMech. [16] The album, titled WarMech , was released June 22, 2018.
Delerium is a Canadian new-age ambient electronic musical duo that formed in 1987, originally as a side project of the influential industrial music act Front Line Assembly. Throughout the band’s history, their musical style has encompassed a broad range, including dark ethereal ambient trance, voiceless industrial soundscapes, and electronic pop music. They are best known for their worldwide hit "Silence". The band is known to feature female guest vocalists on their albums since their 1994 album Semantic Spaces.
Wilhelm Anton "Bill" Leeb is an Austrian-Canadian electronic musician and record producer. He is best known for being a founding member of the industrial music group Front Line Assembly and Delerium. Additionally, Leeb is known for his work with groups Noise Unit, Intermix, Skinny Puppy, Synæsthesia, Cyberaktif, Equinox, Fauxliage and Pro>Tech.
Front Line Assembly (FLA) is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. FLA has developed its own sound incorporating elements of electronic body music and electro-industrial. The band's membership has rotated through the years, including Michael Balch, Rhys Fulber, and Chris Peterson, all of whom are associated with several other acts.
Tactical Neural Implant is the sixth full-length studio album by electro-industrial artists Front Line Assembly. Third Mind Records originally released it in 1992 on both compact-disc and LP formats. The album has also been issued by Roadrunner in a two-disc set that includes the Millennium album.
Caustic Grip is the fifth full-length studio album by Front Line Assembly, originally released on Third Mind Records in Europe and on WaxTrax! Records in the United States in 1990.
Hard Wired is the eighth full-length studio album by Canadian electro-industrial band Front Line Assembly, released in 1995.
Noise Unit is a Canadian industrial band, founded by Bill Leeb of Front Line Assembly as a side project. The band has seen several changes in line-up, with Bill Leeb being the only permanent member.
Artificial Soldier is the thirteenth full-length studio album by Vancouver industrial band Front Line Assembly, released in 2006. This is the first Front Line Assembly album to feature new member Jeremy Inkel.
Jeremy Michel Neville Inkel was a Canadian electronic musician based in Vancouver. He was best known as a keyboard player and programmer for Left Spine Down and electro-industrial band Front Line Assembly as well as producing tracks for various well known musicians worldwide. He began his work with Left spine Down in 2003 when he replaced original member Frank Valoczy. He was invited into Front Line Assembly in 2005 and made his first contributions to their 2006 album Artificial Soldier. He also made contributions to Front Line Assembly side-projects Noise Unit and Delerium. Inkel died from complications with asthma at the age of 34 on January 11, 2018.
Fallout is a remix album by Vancouver industrial band Front Line Assembly, released in 2007. Initially announced as an EP, it is a collection of nine remixes by both the band themselves and other artists as well as three previously unreleased tracks.
Left Spine Down (LSD) is a Canadian band based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that plays what they call "cyberpunk": a mixture of electronica, metal, punk, and drum & bass.
Jared Slingerland is a Canadian guitarist and electronic musician based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is best known as a member of the electro-industrial band Front Line Assembly (FLA).
Front Line Assembly, a Canadian Vancouver-based electro-industrial band, has released seventeen studio albums, three live albums, numerous singles and compilations, and two video game soundtracks. With Bill Leeb being the founder and sole permanent member of the band, Michael Balch, Rhys Fulber and Chris Peterson were acting as long-time members during different periods of time.
Improvised Electronic Device is the fourteenth full-length studio album by Vancouver industrial band Front Line Assembly, released in 2010.
Echogenetic is the fifteenth full-length studio album by Vancouver industrial band Front Line Assembly, released on July 9, 2013. It was well received both by critics and fans and charted in German and US charts. Critics commented on the band's return to a purely electronic approach and on the dubstep influence on the album. Front Line Assembly toured extensively in Europe and North America in support of this album and remix follow-up Echoes, which included a tour with vocalist and band leader Bill Leeb's former band Skinny Puppy. This was the last studio album to feature Jeremy Inkel before his death in 2018.
Echoes is a remix album by Industrial band Front Line Assembly. It was released on May 13, 2014 through Metropolis.
Kampfbereit is a live video album by Canadian electro-industrial band Front Line Assembly, recorded in 2011 and released on April 7, 2015, through MVD Visual. It was shot during the band's 2011 Improvised.Electronice.Device Tour at the Kinetik Festival in Montreal and a number of North American cities.
Mythologie is the fourteenth studio album by Canadian new age/electronic music group Delerium, released in 2016. It is their first album for Metropolis Records. The album was produced by Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber with the help of Jared Slingerland and Craig Johnsen.
WarMech is a video game soundtrack album by Vancouver-based electro-industrial band Front Line Assembly. The album was released through Artoffact Records on June 22, 2018 as the soundtrack to Carbon Games' AirMech Wastelands, a sequel to the 2012 video game AirMech that also featured a soundtrack by Front Line Assembly. WarMech features Jeremy Inkel's final recordings, as he died on January 11, 2018.
Wake Up the Coma is the sixteenth full-length studio album by Vancouver industrial band Front Line Assembly. It was released on February 8, 2019 on CD, vinyl and digitally through Metropolis.
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