Artist: Antichrist Siege Machine
Country: USA
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Digital Demo
Year: 2026
Within the Bestial Black/Death Metal genre, few bands are currently as popular as the American group Antichrist Siege Machine. Although the band has been around for over ten years, they really blew up just a few years ago, and Antichrist Siege Machine is now a fixture on the scene. Yet they’ve never made it onto these pages, and that’s purely because I have a profound aversion to anything hyped. That’s certainly not the best policy, but in the case of Antichrist Siege Machine (sometimes abbreviated to ASM), I’ve never even really understood where all that adoration for them (suddenly) came from.
History has taught us that things like this often turn out unexpectedly; sometimes the best bands go unnoticed, while the most ridiculous acts end up making it big. Nothing they have ever recorded and released is bad, but in all honesty, they by far aren’t the best band around in the genre. One thing Antichrist Siege Machine does have going for it is support from the left-wing Black Metal scene, a phenomenon that (unfortunately) causes more division and general polarization these days than it enriches the scene.
If you are familiar with the previous work of the band, ‘Promo MMXXVI’ doesn’t give us anything really new to chew on. At least in terms of musical content. New songs perhaps, but the tracks follows the old, tried and tested formula of what Antichrist Siege Machine has been doing for ten years now. Which means, 16 minutes of more Blasphemy-inspired Black/Death Metal with enough of hints of bands like Revenge and Black Witchery to give it a slightly more sweltering character.
My “problem” with the band is as omnipresent on this promo recording as on any of the band’s previous work: it is just a bit too clean-cut. These guys can probably play too well, so that essential chunk of genuine barbarism just isn’t there. Just as if a bunch of rich kids who start to play Punk and end up being The Offspring. Might not be bad, but it is a bit of a musical equivalent of a McDonalds meal: once you’re done and return home you’re hungry for dinner.
By the way, for now this promo is only available digitally, but given that the cover says “Made in Canada,” I’m guessing a physical version of this promo will also be released on cassette tape.
