It is not a rare thing for people to link metal with satanism, blood rituals and the like… Videogames merely have a slightly better reputation. Thus, when Machinae Supremacy claims to make video game metal on their website, you can expect people to picture Satan-worshipping nerds. However, the truth is utterly different.

Machinae Supremacy — or MaSu, for short — is a Swedish metal band born in 2000. You could describe their music as being either heavy metal or power metal, but then this would be missing a major element of what  Machinae Supremacy is: the chiptunes. Indeed, most of their songs feature an unusual instrument: the SidStation. It uses the SID chip of the Commodore 64, a console from the 80s (other bands such as Depeche Mode have used it, though in far less extensive ways). This is the reason why they define their music as SID metal, a genre played only by…MaSu. Since 2000, they have released a dozen albums including two game soundtracks.

Machinae Supremacy is also strongly linked to the Internet. Indeed, they accept and encourage file-sharing of their songs to increase their fan base, and have even made most of their albums freely available for download on their website. In fact, their first “albums” are compilations of webography tracks, meaning these tracks were previously released on the Internet. But this goes even further, as they strive to involve their fans in their music. With this in mind, they maintain a forum to keep in touch with their fans. Pretty common, you might say. Well, the official video for Rise of a Digital Nation is made entirely with bits and pieces from fanmade videos:

Website: machinaesupremacy.com

Youtube Channel: youtube.com/user/MachinaeSupremacy

( youtube.com/user/SpinefarmRec )

Stand fast and proud.