{"id":67869,"date":"2018-08-13T13:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=67869"},"modified":"2018-08-14T21:36:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T20:36:38","slug":"review-crossfaith-ex-machina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Crossfaith &#8211; Ex Machina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-67870\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina.jpg 425w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>It\u2019s no real surprise that <strong>Crossfaith<\/strong>\u2019s new album is about a dystopian futuristic sci-fi world where people being are turned into mindless drones, controlled through artificial intelligence. The\u00a0Tokyo genre-busting rock group have always been pretty out there in terms of music and concepts, and this fifth studio album <em>\u2018Ex Machina\u2019<\/em> is no exception.<\/p>\n<p>Dramatic movie-style opener <em>\u2018Deus Ex Machina\u2019<\/em> drops us straight into the action with a strong dance beat underneath eerie spoken words, telling us about the &#8220;Angels&#8221; taking over.<\/p>\n<p>The remainder of the songs expands upon that universe, a concept inspired by a Japanese anime called Devilman Crybaby. We&#8217;re introduced to the Devils \u2013 rebels fighting against the system. <em>\u201cAngels aren\u2019t necessarily good and demons aren\u2019t necessarily bad,\u201d<\/em> said lead singer Ken Koie. <em>\u201cThe most important theme is that we should never stop questioning the world around us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Crossfaith - &#039;Catastrophe&#039;\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OOG_qW7XNB4?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As the album continues, we\u2019re treated to a wealth of different genres and sounds, all fused together in the way <strong>Crossfaith<\/strong> do best. On <em>\u2018Catastrophe\u2019<\/em> we have gruelling, growly screams mixed with upbeat EDM style synths, and <em>\u2018Make A Move\u2019<\/em> is dance meets metal, with a catchy, soaring, heavy chorus. Whereas<em> \u2018Lost In You\u2019<\/em> is more of a straight out alt-rock power ballad.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the record, a handful of guests pop up, adding to the diversity. On <em>&#8216;Freedom&#8217;<\/em>, Enter Shikari&#8217;s Rou Reynolds&#8217; cuts through the funky, fast-paced stomper with a rapid, unique interpretation of freedom. While fellow genre-crossing duo Ho99o9 appear on <em>&#8216;Destroy&#8217;,<\/em> adding a heavy and in-your-face mix of rap, dance and brutal metal, with some gruelling screams and gnarly guitar sounds.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s much to unpack on <em>\u2018Ex Machina\u2019<\/em> and it\u2019s worthy of a few listens to delve deeper into the lyrical content to unravel the world they\u2019ve created, and the commentary they&#8217;re making about our own current society.<\/p>\n<p>A dramatic and epic heavy opus, this album will surely stand the test of time amongst the band\u2019s back catalogue.<\/p>\n<p>4\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8216;Ex Machina&#8217;<\/em> by <strong>Crossfaith<\/strong> is out now on <strong>UNFD<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Crossfaith<\/strong> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/crossfaith.jp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/en-gb.facebook.com\/crossfaithofficial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CrossfaithJapan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/crossfaithjapan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Becton Simpson (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/swallowmyeyes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@swallowmyeyes<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s no real surprise that Crossfaith\u2019s new album is about a dystopian futuristic sci-fi world where people being are turned into mindless drones, controlled through artificial intelligence. The\u00a0Tokyo genre-busting rock group have always been pretty out there in terms of music and concepts, and this fifth studio album \u2018Ex Machina\u2019 is no exception. Dramatic movie-style [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[5879,15688,262,13026,561],"class_list":["post-67869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-becton-simpson","tag-crossfaith","tag-ex-machina","tag-unfd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Crossfaith - Ex Machina - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s no real surprise that Crossfaith\u2019s new album is about a dystopian futuristic sci-fi world where people being are turned into mindless drones,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Crossfaith - Ex Machina - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s no real surprise that Crossfaith\u2019s new album is about a dystopian futuristic sci-fi world where people being are turned into mindless drones,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-13T12:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-08-14T20:36:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: Crossfaith - Ex Machina - Already Heard Staging","description":"It\u2019s no real surprise that Crossfaith\u2019s new album is about a dystopian futuristic sci-fi world where people being are turned into mindless drones,","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: Crossfaith - Ex Machina - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"It\u2019s no real surprise that Crossfaith\u2019s new album is about a dystopian futuristic sci-fi world where people being are turned into mindless drones,","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2018-08-13T12:00:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-08-14T20:36:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":425,"height":425,"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3"},"headline":"Review: Crossfaith &#8211; Ex Machina","datePublished":"2018-08-13T12:00:17+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-14T20:36:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/"},"wordCount":369,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina.jpg","keywords":["Album Reviews","Becton Simpson","Crossfaith","Ex Machina","UNFD"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews","Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/","name":"Review: Crossfaith - Ex Machina - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina.jpg","datePublished":"2018-08-13T12:00:17+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-14T20:36:38+00:00","description":"It\u2019s no real surprise that Crossfaith\u2019s new album is about a dystopian futuristic sci-fi world where people being are turned into mindless drones,","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-crossfaith-ex-machina\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/crossfaith-exmachina.jpg","width":425,"height":425},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67869"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68402,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67869\/revisions\/68402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}