I just completed the most intimidating and challenging review in my journalistic career in tackling "Cannibalised"; I wanted to capture the essence of the entire story that spans all three albums. Below is my humble attempt. I'd appreciate comments/criticisms, and would love to hear your own take on the storyline and the intricacy of the musical interplay between the three discs. 
What would happen if George Lucas, the Wachowski brothers, or Star Wars composer John Williams had chosen Metal as their artistic medium? Why, they'd be the maniacally brilliant mastermind behind BIOMECHANICAL, John K. Composer, innovator, conceptualist and philosopher, John K has worked long and hard to create and perfect the new breed of Metal, one that transcends not only musical restrictions but the boundaries between music and film themselves, culminating in the most awe inspiring and creative conceptual trilogy in the history of music. Melding film style orchestral scoring, unhinged schizoid Thrash assaults, revolutionary and evolutionary Progressive Metal and over the top chaos driven Power Metal, BIOMECHANICAL has become an absolutely unique entity in a music scene heretofore utterly oversaturated with rehashed, redundant, inspirationally devoid Metal filler. The "Return Of The Jedi" of Metal, "Cannibalised" draws to a close a staggeringly vast story concept that spans both lyrical and musical visualizations that could keep the ears ringing and the mind racing from the power and depth of its innovation literally for years.
Conceptually, the trilogy (composed of the band's first release "Eight Moons", the follow up masterpiece "The Empires Of The Worlds", and now the equally brilliant "Cannibalised") is a showcase of masterful theatrical storytelling, while simultaneously embodying a dark philosophical perspective of human nature and the dark needs that drive (in)humanity, delivered on a palate of unmatched musical intensity and passion. With "Eight Moons", hope and escape are the themes, with the character and the philosophy seeking to overcome society's long nurtured need to destroy, devour, conquer and kill, culminating in the song "The Awakening" where hope takes seed and the character receives a message encouraging him to seek a release from these binds through awareness-an awareness of what is, and of our capacity to defy dark desires and overcome one's own dark side.
With "The Empires Of The Worlds", the awareness turns to despair for the potential of mankind vs. the eternal drive of our DNA to focus (and waste) our infinite capabilities on improving our ability to kill, with the character ultimately succumbing to the very same dark desires and capacity for atrocity he sought to defeat, becoming the "Enemy Within", revolting against his own attempts to rise above and destroying all he fought to overcome. The darkness he has become makes a final attempt at "Absolution", intending to make one final stand against this inborn evil while reaching back and urging his sleeping self represented in "Eight Moons" to awaken from his DNA driven slumber. And here also lies one of the multiple layers of the music's involvement in the concept, wherein "Regenerated" from "The Empires Of The Worlds" integrates a full piece of the music from "The Awakening" on "Eight Moons", creating an incredible musical multiple-album compositional interaction as well as emphasizing the cycle of the concept, implying an eternal, repetitive attempt to awaken oneself, the subsequent fall into the evil we fight, only to reach out, reach back, and attempt to awaken oneself again.
The end of the journey is "Cannibalised", a complex analysis of the themes that fuel our drive for perpetual destruction through ignorance and feigned innocence-"All we are masters of denial". "Forever torn to shreds, our lives wasted by evolution's executions Unwanted the seasons derive from the fires burning fuel of this hatred, Cannibalised." The message is bleak, the reality of it uncomfortably befitting of human history, reiterating what we as a race have adopted as our most revered tenets, as is reflected in the song "Predatory": "To kill is necessary reciprocate the primal instincts." Ultimately the character is unable to overcome the dictations of our DNA and compulsions as old as the human race itself-"The will of the many assimilates me"-and the question arises as to the meaning of and reason for the death, the hate, the wanton slaughter and destruction; can we/the character ever permanently transcend to a higher meaning, or is all as it was intended? "The Gods are watching and smiling at the sight of death. So proud." And so the character completes his "Violent Descent", reaching out to himself as before (another musical multi-album interaction, mirrored here as in previous album lyrics: "Listen to me, you must awake, this is my final offence"), and the spirit dies.
Complex to say the least, and the musical composition and delivery mirrors each twist and nuance every inch of the way, requiring unparalleled musical skills from all involved. The vocal and instrumental coherent chaos, the atmosphere, the overlying film scoring feel-all are driven by perfection and purpose, as must be the case to achieve such an awe inspiring feat. Few-indeed, perhaps none besides John K-could achieve such a masterful stroke of genius, running the gamut of musical achievement and the finest intricate storytelling. Overall the message is one of despair and lamentation for the human condition, and yet within lies the stubborn tenacity of hope for transcendence and its refusal to be defeated, despite or perhaps because of its constant denial by mankind. "The Universe folds momentarily" and the cycle begins again.
What would happen if George Lucas, the Wachowski brothers, or Star Wars composer John Williams had chosen Metal as their artistic medium? Why, they'd be the maniacally brilliant mastermind behind BIOMECHANICAL, John K. Composer, innovator, conceptualist and philosopher, John K has worked long and hard to create and perfect the new breed of Metal, one that transcends not only musical restrictions but the boundaries between music and film themselves, culminating in the most awe inspiring and creative conceptual trilogy in the history of music. Melding film style orchestral scoring, unhinged schizoid Thrash assaults, revolutionary and evolutionary Progressive Metal and over the top chaos driven Power Metal, BIOMECHANICAL has become an absolutely unique entity in a music scene heretofore utterly oversaturated with rehashed, redundant, inspirationally devoid Metal filler. The "Return Of The Jedi" of Metal, "Cannibalised" draws to a close a staggeringly vast story concept that spans both lyrical and musical visualizations that could keep the ears ringing and the mind racing from the power and depth of its innovation literally for years.
Conceptually, the trilogy (composed of the band's first release "Eight Moons", the follow up masterpiece "The Empires Of The Worlds", and now the equally brilliant "Cannibalised") is a showcase of masterful theatrical storytelling, while simultaneously embodying a dark philosophical perspective of human nature and the dark needs that drive (in)humanity, delivered on a palate of unmatched musical intensity and passion. With "Eight Moons", hope and escape are the themes, with the character and the philosophy seeking to overcome society's long nurtured need to destroy, devour, conquer and kill, culminating in the song "The Awakening" where hope takes seed and the character receives a message encouraging him to seek a release from these binds through awareness-an awareness of what is, and of our capacity to defy dark desires and overcome one's own dark side.
With "The Empires Of The Worlds", the awareness turns to despair for the potential of mankind vs. the eternal drive of our DNA to focus (and waste) our infinite capabilities on improving our ability to kill, with the character ultimately succumbing to the very same dark desires and capacity for atrocity he sought to defeat, becoming the "Enemy Within", revolting against his own attempts to rise above and destroying all he fought to overcome. The darkness he has become makes a final attempt at "Absolution", intending to make one final stand against this inborn evil while reaching back and urging his sleeping self represented in "Eight Moons" to awaken from his DNA driven slumber. And here also lies one of the multiple layers of the music's involvement in the concept, wherein "Regenerated" from "The Empires Of The Worlds" integrates a full piece of the music from "The Awakening" on "Eight Moons", creating an incredible musical multiple-album compositional interaction as well as emphasizing the cycle of the concept, implying an eternal, repetitive attempt to awaken oneself, the subsequent fall into the evil we fight, only to reach out, reach back, and attempt to awaken oneself again.
The end of the journey is "Cannibalised", a complex analysis of the themes that fuel our drive for perpetual destruction through ignorance and feigned innocence-"All we are masters of denial". "Forever torn to shreds, our lives wasted by evolution's executions Unwanted the seasons derive from the fires burning fuel of this hatred, Cannibalised." The message is bleak, the reality of it uncomfortably befitting of human history, reiterating what we as a race have adopted as our most revered tenets, as is reflected in the song "Predatory": "To kill is necessary reciprocate the primal instincts." Ultimately the character is unable to overcome the dictations of our DNA and compulsions as old as the human race itself-"The will of the many assimilates me"-and the question arises as to the meaning of and reason for the death, the hate, the wanton slaughter and destruction; can we/the character ever permanently transcend to a higher meaning, or is all as it was intended? "The Gods are watching and smiling at the sight of death. So proud." And so the character completes his "Violent Descent", reaching out to himself as before (another musical multi-album interaction, mirrored here as in previous album lyrics: "Listen to me, you must awake, this is my final offence"), and the spirit dies.
Complex to say the least, and the musical composition and delivery mirrors each twist and nuance every inch of the way, requiring unparalleled musical skills from all involved. The vocal and instrumental coherent chaos, the atmosphere, the overlying film scoring feel-all are driven by perfection and purpose, as must be the case to achieve such an awe inspiring feat. Few-indeed, perhaps none besides John K-could achieve such a masterful stroke of genius, running the gamut of musical achievement and the finest intricate storytelling. Overall the message is one of despair and lamentation for the human condition, and yet within lies the stubborn tenacity of hope for transcendence and its refusal to be defeated, despite or perhaps because of its constant denial by mankind. "The Universe folds momentarily" and the cycle begins again.
