Draft:The Mechanisms

Once Upon a Time (In Space)

Once Upon a Time (In Space) is the Mechanisms' first album, released in August 2012.^[9] The album mixes elements of European fairy tales, including the characters of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella,^[10] with sci-fi cyberpunk themes.^[3] Each song takes inspiration from classic folk songs and sea shanties.^[5]

As lead vocalist Jonny d'Ville narrates: long ago, in a far off galaxy, the wise, merry King Cole was turned cruel by his cybernetically-enhanced long life ("'Once'"). He became obsessed with war and conquest and obtained three sadistic bodyguards, the three little pigs ("Old King Cole"). Meanwhile, twins were born to a noble family in his kingdom, two girls named Snow and Rose. Snow became a politician and peace activist, while Rose became the King's most exemplary soldier. Desiring an undefeatable army, the King kidnapped Rose on her wedding day to create genetic clones of her ("'The Twins'", "Rose Red"). Snow escaped the scene and fled the planet with a group of allies, but their ship was attacked, destroying the oxygen pump system ("'Snow's Fight'"). The crew was forced to manually pump the oxygen themselves, eventually reaching "The Periphery", where Snow formed a partisan resistance ("Pump Shanty", "The Bride"). The only other survivor of Rose's kidnapping was her fiancée, Cinders, who swore to find and save Rose ("Cinders' Song"). Snow's revolution spread to every planet affected by King Cole's cruel regime. Participants in her resistance included Colonel Belle, the Red Hood, and Jack the Giant Killer; fighting against such foes as Gepetto and Scheherezade ("'The Resistance Grows'"). Jack especially became a folk hero known for his strength and bravery, despite having been, in reality, a cowardly drunk ("Our Boy Jack").

The Mechanisms, who had been watching these events unfold, decided to intervene when Nastya discovered the Briar Rose, an early prototype of Rose's genetic clones that slept in the middle of King Cole's kingdom. Jonny, acting as the ship's captain, agreed to the mission on the promise of engaging in violence ("'The Aurora Strikes'"). The Mechanisms entered the fight and found the heavily guarded Briar Rose, protected by their immortality. Nastya suggested Jonny wake Briar Rose by kissing her, which he declined. Instead, he shot at the machines until they exploded, releasing her ("Sleeping Beauty"). The resistance took notice of the King's damaged defenses and both sides prepared for a gruesome final battle ("'Endgame'", "No Happy Ending"). While fighting the three little pigs in the king's throne room, Snow found Rose in a glass life-pod, and shot at it. Rose awakened just in time to see Snow killed. Cinders entered to find Rose, who was then killed by King Cole. In a rage, Cinders killed the king, and was left the only survivor of the ordeal ("'Chapter the Last'", "Laid in Blood").

Ulysses Dies At Dawn

Ulysses Dies At Dawn is the band's second album, released in July 2013. It is a retelling of Greek mythology mixed with cyberpunk elements. Taking inspiration from jazz and blues music, the album tells the story of Ulysses after they are kidnapped by Heracles, Ariadne, Daedalus, Oedipus, and Orpheus, all under orders from Hades.^[11][12]

Far away, an old city had taken over an entire planet, stretching through all of the oceans, sky, and even underground. Many lower-class citizens lived their entire lives in the underground tunnels, where Ulysses was when they were kidnapped by the Suits ("'The City'"). Ulysses was a drunk who used alcohol to cope with their history as a soldier and their invention of a large horse statue that broadcast a faint signal designed to drive any listener to insanity, which they used to win the war ("Broken Horses"). Being so drunk, the Suits—Heracles, Ariadne, Daedalus, Oedipus, and Orpheus—easily dragged them to a vault, lit with a glowing sign that read "Penelope". Oedipus noted that Penelope, Ulysses' late lover, was not in the Acheron, a computer that ran on the brains of the dead, ruled over by Hades—a member of one of the oldest and richest families, known as the Olympians. ("'Olympians'"). Ulysses had previously made an enemy of the Olympians when they drunkenly stole a diamond called the eye of the Cyclops from Poseidon, which they still carried with them ("My Name is No-One").

The suits argued over how to enter the vault before Oedipus hot-wired the door to open the first of its four locks ("'Trial By Wits'"). Oedipus, a doctor, had previously cured a disease called the Sphinx that accelerated aging so fast that affected children withered and died as if elderly. Oedipus killed a man who'd invaded his lab, later revealed to have been his estranged father. The Olympians, displeased with this, introduced him to his wife and used the public fallout from the reveal that she was, unbeknownst to Oedipus, his own mother, to discredit his work ("Riddle of the Sphinx"). The other three locks would be a trial by strength, song, and love, with each Suit having been picked for each trial. As the narrator, Jonny d'Ville, explains, the vault had been designed by Ulysses before they'd experienced ten years of war and twenty years of dulling the pain ("'Ulysses' Will'", "Sirens"). The next lock was the trial by strength, where Heracles had to turn a large iron wheel ("'Trial by Strength'"). Heracles, a bastard son of the Olympian Zeus, had been given numerous violent and dangerous missions to prove his loyalty to the family, including having been forced to kill his own family ("Favored Son"). Orpheus, who'd previously worked with Heracles on "the Fleece job", was the Suit chosen for the trail by song ("'Loose Threads'"). He sang about his poor luck and naivety, filling the vault with music and opening the lock ("Trial by Song"). Orpheus remarked that he would have enough money to pay Hades, a sentiment shared by the rest of the Suits.

It is revealed then by Jonny d'Ville that Hades was actually a pseudonym of Ashes O'Rielly, one of the other Mechanisms, and that the band had been in the city the whole time. Marius von Raum had been psychoanalyzing the Olympians, the Toy Soldier had been a nymph, and Jonny himself had been depopulating the lower levels ("'Hades'"). Hades had sent Ulysses and the Suits on a mission to the vault, promising them what they desired; Ulysses' peace of mind, an end to Heracles' trials with Zeus, and the revival of Orpheus' late fiancée via the Acheron ("Underworld Blues").

The group then encountered the trail by love, where Ariadne was told she would have to die to prove her love to her husband Theseus. But although Ariadne claimed to love Theseus, she was really only using his status to rebuild the reputation her family lost after creating the Minotaur. Ariadne had given Theseus the Minotaur's de-activation codes, only for him to take all of the credit in its destruction. So, she refused the trial ("'Trial By Love'", "Ties That Bind"). Daedalus demanded someone open the lock and told the others that there would be an increase in pay for the three of them able to use the fourth to open the door ("'The Daidala'"). All four began to fight, and Ulysses used a laser pointed at the eye of the Cyclops to split a beam above them, killing the Suits and fatally injuring themself and Daedalus ("Torn Suits"). Ulysses then opened the door by entering the passcode "Elysium" into it. Inside was a single tree in a sunlit field, the last remnant of the natural world that the city had taken over. Although they'd once hoped the tree could be a symbol of freedom and rebellion from the Acheron, Ulysses now entered the field and closed the door behind them to die in peace ("'Sunrise'", "Elysian Fields").

Tales To Be Told

Tales To Be Told is a compilation album, released in November 2013. It tells several shorter-form stories, including backstories for Jonny d'Ville (Sims) and Gunpowder Tim (Ledsam) ("One Eyed Jacks" and "Gunpowder Tim vs. The Moon Kaiser", respectively), an adventure with the Mechanisms themselves ("The Ignominious Demise of Dr. Pilchard"), and a song set in the Ulysses Dies At Dawn universe ("Prometheus").^[13]

High Noon Over Camelot

High Noon Over Camelot is the band's third studio album, released in July 2014. It is a retelling of Arthurian legend with cyberpunk, dieselpunk, and space western elements.^[14][15]

On an abandoned, sun-orbiting space station called Fort Galfridian, the Pendragon gang, consisting of lovers Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot, rode into Camelot, a wild west-like town run by the villainous Sheriff Lavinia Stone and her clan. Stone told the trio they could overtake her over her dead body, to which the two groups agreed to a draw ("'The Tower'"). Guinevere and Lancelot killed several of Stone's clan, while Arthur killed Stone herself ("Gunfight at the dolorous Guard"). After the sheriff died and her clan's bodies were thrown to the ghouls in Annwn, Camelot quickly grew into a safe, well-kept and guarded community. Arthur sent his youngest hand, Gawain, to get the rest of his group in a camp a hundred miles from Camelot ("'Strength'"). Gawain found the group and attempted to rescue them, but several unfortunate events, including a cracked axle on their wagon and the intense heat and sun, caused Gawain to go back to Camelot alone in search of help ("Empty Trail"). When he returned with Arthur's knights, the entire group was found dead and half-eaten by ghouls. Arthur's daughter, Morgause, had, unbeknownst to them, been taken by the ghouls and raised among them. Eventually, he became a man, taking on the name Mordred, and left Annwn for Camelot. He became a trusted ally of the Pendragons, who did not recognize him as Arthur's child.

Shortly after his arrival, a previously inanimate figure known as the Hanged Man began to speak of a wandering preacher named Galahad. Engraved on the Hanged Man's chest was a name read as "Merlin", but was actually "Brian"—the Mechanisms' pilot ("'Death'"). Brian told Gawain that his hatred of the ghouls was misplaced, and told Arthur that his son was alive, which both Gawain and Arthur refused to believe. When Galahad appeared, Brian told him of the Galfridian Restricted Access Interface Login (Holy GRAIL), the key to his salvation, and Galahad enthusiastically agreed to find it ("The Hanged Man Rusts"). Galahad then entered the town hall, where he sat at the Siege Seat at the great round table. The seat, which plugged one's mind into the decaying knowledge and sensors of the Fort Galifridian station, gave Galahad religious visions ("'The Hierophant'"). He began to evangelize his visions, preaching against sin and concluding that the only way the station could be saved from damnation was with the GRAIL ("Hellfire"). The Pendragons agreed to lead the ride to find the GRAIL and left Gawain and Mordred in charge of Camelot ("'The Lovers'"). The Pendragons spent the night before they left drinking in the Joyous Gard, a saloon ("Blood and Whiskey").

With the Pendragons gone, Mordred pleaded with Gawain to consider a truce with the ghouls. When he refused, Mordred traveled back to Annwn to propose peace to the ghouls ("'The Fool'", "Skin and Bone"). Meanwhile, those seeking the GRAIL found a sealed passageway leading to a door marked "Captain". Galahad moved through the passageway, ignoring the automatic gun turrets until he opened the door, at which point he fell dead. Inside was the body of the captain in his lifepod, still holding the GRAIL ("'The Hermit'"). The station's logs kept in the room, which the Pendragons would never find, detailed the station's descent into ruin after losing contact with the outside world and the captain's declining mental state as he struggled with the responsibilities of being the holder of the GRAIL ("Holder of the GRAIL"). They opened the lifepod, killed the captain, and took the GRAIL, at which point machinery rose them through the station and back to Camelot's town hall. A voice told the Pendragons that there could be only one holder of the GRAIL. Elsewhere, the townsfolk gathered with the ghouls, led by Mordred. As the groups looked each other in the eyes, a fatal misunderstanding caused them to divulge into bloodshed ("'Judgement'"). Gawain led the fight, taking savage joy on it, while Mordred watched, horrified and upset ("Peacemaker").

Inside, the Pendragons' love for one another overcame their greed, and they agreed that Arthur should hold the GRAIL. Just as it seemed that the three would revive Fort Galfridian, Mordred shot Guinevere and Lancelot dead and wounded Arthur. Mordred dragged his father back to the lifepod and fired him into space, then declared himself the new captain of the station. Reactivating the station's engines, he drove it into the sun, destroying it and everyone inside ("'Justice'", "The Once and Future King").

Frankenstein

"Frankenstein" is a single released in 2015.^[16] It is based on the novel by Mary Shelly. Structured in four parts, the song follows Victoria Frankenstein as she struggles with the consequences of having created the world's first functioning artificial intelligence. The AI kills her and possesses her body in what is revealed to be part of an established, continuous cycle.^[17]

The Bifrost Incident

The Bifrost Incident is the Mechanisms' fourth studio album, written from 2015-2016 and released in January 2017. It is a retelling of Norse Mythology with cyberpunk elements.^[18] The album follows an inspector's attempt to uncover the truth behind a train's disappearance, featuring such characters as Odin, Loki, and Thor.^[2]

The album's narrator, Inspector 2nd class Lyfrassir Edda of the New Midgard Transport Police, is tasked with combing through the black box of the newly re-emerged Ratatosk Express, a train that had disappeared 80 years previously. The train had been the passion project of Odin, an Asgardian ruler, who sought to shorten the distance between worlds through the Bifrost ("Black Box"). Lyfrassir views the videos stored on the black box, starting with Odin's launching speech ("Odin"). They scan through the first day, noticing that no one, not even Odin, seems entirely comfortable to be on the train. Then they spot Loki, a terrorist and rebel who had supposedly been executed for killing Baldur before the train's completion ("Cold Case"). Loki clutched her head in her suite, confused and apparently having had her memories erased. She was then spotted by Thor, who became enraged upon realizing that Odin had lied to him and spared Loki for her knowledge of the train ("Loki"). Lyfrassir notes that it's hard to tell if Thor was upset over Loki's having survived or over what Odin had done to her mind ("Person of Interest"). He went to Odin at her observation deck and the two had a heated argument, ending with Thor threatening Odin and her train, and Odin firing him ("Thor"). The display convinces Lyfrassir that Thor was the one to sabotage the train, but when they look through more of the footage, they see Loki's wife, Sigyn, and other members of the Midgardian resistance hidden aboard the train ("Conspiracy to Commit Treason"). Sigyn was overjoyed to find Loki in her train compartment, but quickly realized that Loki's memories had been erased when she did not recognize her ("Sigyn").

After that, the rest of the black box's recordings are heavily distorted. Lyfrassir can only make out a few seconds of Loki wandering the train, Sigyn briefly talking to Thor, and ten minutes of Odin's face staring directly into the camera ("White Noise", "Losing Track"). Seeing no other option, Lyfrassir visits the Mechanisms, who had appeared on the planet shortly after the Ratatosk Express disappeared. Since then, they'd been captured and kept in prison, where none of them appeared to age. Marius attempts to explain what happened with the Bifrost through song, which Lyfrassir emphatically rejects. Ivy then repairs the black box for them. From the new recordings, Lyfrassir sees Thor and Sigyn in the engine room, where a man named Kvasir was hooked up to the chamber. Sigyn rushed to pull the tubes out of him while Thor messed with the controls, warping glyphs across the room ("Expert Testimony"). Their meddling, having destroyed the magic keeping the Bifrost safe from the void outside, caused reality to warp and tear, and released an eldritch, Lovecraftian demon known as Yog Sothoth ("Red Signal"). Kvasir convulsed and died, and the passengers were skinned, flayed, and otherwise gored alive in cosmic madness.

Loki and Odin watched from the observation deck, where Loki realized the truth of the train that she and Odin had built. Odin denied knowing that the void was real, but delighted in its overtaking her train anyway ("Ragnorok I: Runaway", "Ragnorok II: The Calling"). Loki left to find Sigyn, where she came across Thor leaving the engine room. The two had a brief respite, remembering when they had once been friends ("Ragnorok III: Strange Meeting"). Thor, with an engineers hammer, found Odin transformed into a snake-like eldritch being. She told him that when the train reached Midgard, Yog Sothoth and the other gods from the void would follow. Thor smashed the window of the observation deck with the hammer, killing both of them ("Ragnorok IV: Jormungandr"). At the front of the train, Loki and Sigyn embraced as Loki explained what they would have to do. They uncoupled the carriages behind them and laid Loki on the alter. Sigyn pushed a line into Loki's heart, where her blood would slowly drip. While the two could prolong the inevitable, once her blood was gone, the train would arrive in Midgard ("Ragnarok V: End of the Line").

In the present, Lyfrassir notes that the Mechanisms have disappeared from their prison, through solid steel and heavily armed guards. Lyfrassir themself is set to do the same and get as far away from the Yggdrasil system as they can. Radio transmissions begin playing, where several voices comment on changes in energy readings, interference, rates of violence, and the color of the sky as chaos ensues ("Terminus").

In 2025, the Beloit Independent Theater Experience (BITE), a theater club at Beloit College in Wisconsin,^[19] performed a shadow-casted stage adaptation of the album.^[20]

Tales To Be Told, vol II

Tales To Be Told, vol II is the band's second compilation album, released in January 2018.^[21]

Death to the Mechanisms

Death to the Mechanisms is the band's only live album, and last release before their disbandment. It was released in May 2020^[22] and its final performance was in January 2021.^[8] The album includes live performances of all of The Bifrost Incident and select tracks from the band's other albums, as well as a rendition of "Drunken Sailor" entitled "Drunk Space Pirate".^[22]

Towards the end of the album the death of each Mechanism is revealed. Nastya Rasputina, prior to the show, had launched herself into space. Jonny is stabbed through the heart in a bar fight. Ashes O'Rielly is accidentally cast forward into the end of time and watches the universe die. Raphaella la Cognizi throws herself into a black hole as one last experiment. Gunpowder Tim goes on a rampage and crashes the largest gunship in existence into a space station. Ivy Alexandria dies while launching an escape pod full of ancient books to save them from ruin. Marius von Raum is devoured by octokittens. DrumBot Brian, similarly to Nastya, casts himself into the void. Finally, the Toy Soldier, who was never truly real to begin with, decides to stop pretending. ("Death to the Mechanisms").