Machinae Supremacy

At a midsummer´s eve party in Luleå, 2000, Jonne was introduced to Robert and Kahl via a common acquiantance. Robert and Kahl had recently detached themselves from all prior projects and were planning on forming a new band (by that time already dubbed "MACHINAE SUPREMACY"), but were still uncertain of what direction the new project would take. Jonnes talents with the guitar turned out to be just what was needed to spark both inspiration and imagination. The first step towards what would become a truly unique sound had been taken.

Andreas and Tobbe joined in early 2001 and the first couple of songs were recorded. To distribute to friends and families, the songs were uploaded into an empty web-directory (not a music community site or even a website, simply a directory listing of the songs available). Word spread and in no time at all some 20 000 people had downloaded the material. MACHINAE SUPREMACY was obviously popular by word of mouth on the Internet, and a temporary website was constructed.

In April 2002 Tobbe left the band and Tomas took his place one week before the festival FaceFront. Tomas and Robert had a history together in the skate punk band Garden of Concrete a few years earlier, so there was no doubt in his mind about Tomas´ skills behind the kit, and the rest of the band saw proof of that as Tomas performed exemplary at the gig.

MACHINAE SUPREMACY´s first concert abroad was in London, a Soho night club called Gossips, during the "Back In Time Live" festival event. A few months later followed the Helsinki major LAN event "Assembly". The band´s performance at these two events sent shockwaves through the retro gaming scene and geek communities -- the mix of metal and video game styles and sounds became the official signature of the band; something new and uniquely different, and definitely not lessened by the fact that Robert´s vocals were far from default few in the world of metal music.

In late 2002 two german fans built a new and impressive (and award-winning) website for MACHINAE SUPREMACY. This site was to be the band´s face outward for the coming 4 years.

Even though they´d not been in contact with any record label, the guys felt it was time for something different in 2003. Releasing a couple of songs now and then on the website was still fun, but it was getting old. MACHINAE SUPREMACY was ready for a larger project. They began writing their debut album, DEUS EX MACHINAE. Without a plan for how it was going to be released, the production continued on into 2004, when the band was timely contacted by MBD Records, UK, about releasing the album on a master deal. The label offered nothing but online retail, but it didn´t really matter to the band at this juncture. 50% of sales profit went directly to the band, and being independent is cool after all, so wtf.

DEUS EX MACHINAE was released in May 2004.

Later that year MACHINAE SUPREMACY was asked to produce the soundtrack to the PC Game "Jets´n´Guns" (by RAKE IN GRASS). A massive 28 track O.S.T. was created, a soundtrack which is still being highly praised in reviews and online communities. This was also the year when MACHINAE SUPREMACY began recording their second album, REDEEMER.

In September the coming year the album was completed, but the band again found themselves without a label affiliation. Disregarding this simple fact, a trailer for REDEEMER was released.

During summer 2005 Kahl left the band and Johan joined as his successor.

In late 2005 to early 2006 MACHINAE SUPREMACY was contacted by a number of various record labels, one of which almost convinced the band to sign, but they chose to remain independent because only one of the labels could offer any kind of real distribution, and in the end even that label was turned down due to its poor communication with the band. MACHINAE SUPREMACY decided to go full DIY and press, sell and distribute the album themselves. The Underground Edition of REDEEMER was released at the opening of the MACHINAE SUPREMACY webshop (a.k.a The MACHINAESHOP) on March 18th 2006, and the band broke even on the album production costs in only a few hours.

In May 2006 MACHINAE SUPREMACY were contacted by Hannu Lehtonen at Spinefarm Records, inquiring as to whether they were interested in signing a record deal with them. Hannu and Sami Tenetz, also with Spinefarm, flew over to see the band play live in Stockholm on August 19th, and shortly thereafter a 4 album record deal was compiled and presented to the band.