Science fiction and more generally space-themed metal has been around for quite a long time. From Somewhere in Time and the early works of Voivod, the cold vacuum of Darkspace, to more recent interstellar fare from Blood Incantation, the cosmos and tales set within have remained a staple. One band with a sorely underappreciated role in sci-fi metal is Bal-Sagoth, the black metal act that forged a unique path laid with epic symphonic keyboards, power metal riffing, lyric sheets that read like entire novels courtesy of frontman Byron Roberts and his iconic spoken word delivery style, and gargantuan tales spanning millennia (all cheesiness in delivery be damned). It may be nearly two decades since the Bal-Sagoth starship has sailed, but there are still a devoted few who seek to follow in their footsteps. One such band is Portland, Oregon’s Old Machines who have landed with The Cycles of Extinction, a grand sci-fi tale interwoven with self-described “cosmic extreme metal” that results a stellar debut that clearly pays homage to the UK cult legends while blazing their own path amongst the stars.

Old Machines first came onto my radar last year with their fantastic demo Backwards through Space that I had in pretty constant rotation the latter half of 2024; the Bal-Sagoth influence was obvious from the get go, but a cheap imitation they certainly were not. While largely keyboard-driven and featuring a fair amount of spoken word, the riffs were a lot more punchier and technical, and the songwriting fairly linear as it guided the listener through a number of disparate sections in a prog-tinted fashion. The Cycles of Extinction expands this 15-minute demo into a full hour with the metal songs returning essentially unchanged and the ambient track lengthened, while still serving as the intermezzo between acts; if you’re going to cover such large topics as the rise of sentient AI, intergalactic warfare, and genocide in such riff-packed music, a breather halfway through is much welcome. Old Machines do the listener a favor right from the start of 11-minute opener “The Twilight of the Old Gods, and the Dawning of the First Cycle” by setting the galactic stage with four minutes of spacey ambience. Yet as soon as that concludes it’s off to the races with the band’s unique blend of blast-driven black metal, chunky start-and-stop death metal, and more rhythmic, thrash-inspired riffage.

With a pedigree that includes current and former members of Oxygen Destroyer, Skeletal Remains, Ænigmatum, and more, it should come as no surprise that Old Machines’ strongest suit is perhaps their songwriting abilities. The title track is a great example of the band’s propensity to construct riffs in a way that anticipate and tease future ones, bringing the experience of each individual track full-circle throughout the album. Tracks like “The Sundering of the Irradiated Sons, and the Rebellion Sparked by the Gene-Plague” — not quite at the song-naming level of Bal-Sagoth with “And Lo, When the Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud the Citadel of the Obsidian Crown,” but they’re getting there — are The Cycles of Extinction at some of its best. The precision with which the band goes from ascending technical riffs, melodies that descend like a meteor shower, bright keyboard jams to rhythmic chugging is something that needs to be heard to be fully understood. While Old Machines play fairly technical riffs for a sound rooted in symphonic black metal and these songs are mapped out in a more progressive fashion to be sure, the overindulgence often associated with these tendencies is nowhere to be found… except of course, in the bombastic keyboard arpeggios, spoken word moments, and overall epic scale of the sound.

While citing as influences symphonic black mainstays like Emperor and Limbonic Art, what makes Old Machines stand out amongst their peers is the hyperactive and almost upbeat nature that the band retains from the Bal-Sagoth influence. That band was by no means obsessed with sounding like the coldest, darkest act in the scene, and Old Machines similarly sound the same. “They Are Legion: The Tragic Exodus of the Veiled Creators” is more interested in upping the stellar themes to 11 with a tremendous solo and some of the spaciest riffs on the album, in particular some heavily arpeggiated guitar. All these cosmic sounds serve as the backdrop for the galaxy-spanning tales contained within that deal with the emergence of sentient AI and the vain attempts by their creators to undo the destruction said AI has wrought — surely something we can’t relate to in 2025!

Like how many of the individual songs on Cycles of Extinction are constructed individually, closer “Glory to the Terrans of the First Contact War” brings the album home in a suitably grand fashion by resurrecting the winding melody of “Crescendo of Carnage: Warsong of the Singing Swarm (Swarm Wars I)” that appears on this album, but more importantly first opened their demo (and the entire Old Machines saga) last year. Despite the war, destruction, and death that is detailed throughout the album, this song ends with a modicum of hope that is the rise of Earth and humanity; how humankind fares in the chaotic universe the band has established is yet to be seen. With this debut Old Machines have created easily the best and most forward-thinking tribute to Bal-Sagoth thus far, proving that story-driven, bombastic, cosmic metal is neither dead nor incapable of moving beyond the style pioneered by the UK band in the mid ’90s. The old gods are dead… long live the Old Machines that now take their place.

— Colin

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The Cycles of Extinction will be available August 22 through Pale Magus Productions. For more information on Old Machines, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.