Supermachiner was intended as a side project of the Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 hardcore band Converge

Converge (band)

Converge is an American band from Salem, Massachusetts. Playing a blend of hardcore punk and metal since 1990, Converge has helped to define many of the elements of the metalcore genre.-Description:...

, which includes singer/songwriter Jacob Bannon

Jacob Bannon

Jacob Bannon is the vocalist, lyricist, and graphic artist for the American metalcore band Converge. He is also the founder and owner of the label Deathwish Inc...

 and guitarist Kurt Ballou

Kurt Ballou

Kurt Ballou is the guitarist from Massachusetts-based band Converge. Aside from his role in Converge, he is a prolific producer, engineering and producing out of his own Godcity studio.- GodCity studio :...

. Unlike the heavier, metalcore

Metalcore

Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...

 and hardcore punk

Hardcore punk

Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...

-based music of Converge, much of Supermachiner is ambient. First created as a collection of 4-track

4-track

4-track or 4-track tape may refer to:* The 4-track cartridge as an analogue music storage format popular from the late 1950s* A 4-track tape used in professional recording studios for multitrack recording...

 recordings done with Ryan Parker, Supermachiner based much of its lyrical content about the rise of technology, transhumanism

Transhumanism

Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...

, and the technological singularity

Technological singularity

Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...

. The group took on the name Supermachiner as a play on words from the term Supermachinder, the compound word for Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese giant robot

Mecha

A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...

 toys

Toys

Toys is a 1992 comedy film directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Joan Cusack, Robin Wright, LL Cool J, and introducing Jamie Foxx as Baker. The film failed at the box office at the time of its release, despite its impressive cast and lavish filmmaking. Levinson was...

 of the 1970s

1970s

File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

. In 1999, recording sessions with Kurt Ballou contributed to much of the material for Rise of the Great Machine, a concept album heavily influenced by the instrumentation and style of Swans

Swans (band)

Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...

  and Bauhaus

Bauhaus (band)

Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...

. The finished album was published in 2000 to Undecided Records.

8 years later, Deathwish Inc.

Deathwish Inc.

Deathwish, Inc. is a independent record label founded by Jacob Bannon and Tre McCarthy. The label was originally used to release early albums by Bannon's own band Converge starting in late 1991. It wasn't until late 1999 that McCarthy and Bannon discussed turning Deathwish into a full-fledged label...

 announced the release of Rust, a 30 track double CD that featured remastered versions of the Rise of the Great Machine tracks along with b-sides

B-Sides

B-Sides is an iTunes-exclusive album from the Coventry Trio The Enemy, consisting of ten songs that were B-sides to the single releases from their debut album We'll Live and Die in These Towns.-Track list:#Fear Killed the Youth of Our Nation...

 of forgotten songs and additional audio experiments.

Discography

• Rise of the Great Machine (2000, Undecided Records, Now OOP)
• Rise of the Great Machine (2008, e-vinyl, vinyl only limited repress)
• Rust (2008, Deathwish, Multiple CD Collection)