Since discovering their 2016 self-titled album I have been bewitched by the music of Death Machine and the voice and guitar playing of Jesper Mogensen. There was a steady stream of albums from 2016 to 2019, a single in 2021 and then nothing. I would check in with Jesper from time to time to see how things were going, and he would say that songs were being worked on. After a three-year break early 2025 brought the announcement of a new album Dawning Eyes, and a double album at that. The reason for the long gap was a different approach to writing and recording:
“From the beginning, we chose not to set a deadline for when the album should be finished, as they wanted to dive deep and thoroughly work through each track. The creative process has also been different from previous albums. Many of the songs have been assembled from various ideas and fragments, woven together like a mosaic, which has required a lot of consideration and taken time. This has, among other things, resulted in some longer tracks and a more varied sound throughout the album. We’ve really focused on the details and have had to continuously adjust arrangements along the way if we didn’t feel the vibe was quite right.”
Dawning Eyes is a veritable feast with nineteen tracks and as many moods, like the many courses of a tasting menu. Each one offers a variety of flavours; some dazzle, some give pause and others make you feel like you’re standing on a mountain top soaking up the majesty of the view. ‘Opium Wound’ is a bold opening moving from church-like awe to an eastern keyboard riff that accompanies some tectonic power chords. Whereas this may play to the band’s name ‘Beat The Drum’ steps up to provide some classic Death Machine with a propulsive beat, the strum of Jesper’s distinctive Spanish guitar, and keyboards accenting the beats and providing background colour.
The haunted piano on ‘Vending Machine’ is heart wrenching, the simplicity of the guitar on ‘First Blood’ is a counterpoint to the powerful drum beat that dips in and out whereas the beat on ‘The Offer’ is a crunchy opposite to the drifting vocals. There are too many songs to review them all I would single out but the pulse quickening urgency of ‘Free Soloing’, tape wobble of ‘The Sun’, the plaintive melancholy of ‘Dawning Eyes’, and ‘Black Holes’ with its gigantic vistas and the kinds of icy synth sounds of early Gary Numan releases. For me the standout track is ‘Modern Man’ which has the glow of L.A. sunshine, bouncing along with dampened bass that swirls around the solid core of drums, clanging synths and a perfect guitar solo.
The rich synth sweeps and emotive keyboard motifs throughout the album recall Talk Talk or Georgio Moroder, but Death Machine travel seamlessly between high polished joy of The Beach Boys to the best AOR music from the 1980s but also offer the kind of quiet introspection that sits on the outskirts of folk. The arrangements and production (by the band) are incredibly crisp and ensure everything has space to breathe. But the most exceptional element in Death Machine’s periodic table is Jesper Mogensen’s voice. He can convey such heartrending emotions with his gentle, almost breathed, sotto voce and then soar up to a tremulous falsetto, and his harmonies are to singing what technicolour was to film.
Dawning Eyes is the crowning glory of Death Machine’s career so far. It’s rich and deeply layered, moving and contemplative, meditative and rousing. If this is dawn I cannot wait to see what the rest of their day holds.
Death Machine is: Jesper Mogensen – vocals & guitar, Sven Busck Andersen – drums, Morten Vinther Ørberg – bass, Simon Christensen – keyboards.
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Released through Celebration Records
Review by Paul F Cook
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