Mechanisms of Destruction is the fourth full album in just two years from Relentless Pursuit. Most artists probably wouldn't benefit from such a prolific release schedule. But as mentioned in previous reviews, this constant output from Matthew Konradt is an exercise in putting growth on display. And the growth has been tremendous. While the music from 2022 was riddled with production and instrumental issues, Mechanisms of Destruction is evidence that Konradt has taken criticism, applied it to his craft, and improved his artistry in nearly every way. The mastering is a bit more consistent track-to-track, the songs don't always sound compressed and muddy, and the instrumentation and songwriting has gotten stronger - and it wasn't even really bad to begin with. In fact, all the things that were always pretty good have also maintained their quality or improved, such as Konradt's screams and his willingness to be lyrically bold and defiant toward the world ("When did we start to rely on fake machinations over our own self-existence? Why do we refuse to believe in a higher power yet put our faith in artificial intelligence? This fabricated system of false hopes and depravity shall be humanity's downfall. Is change still possible?"). The lyrics also follow a story arc similar to that of Project 86's OMNI, which is an intriguing element for Relentless Pursuit.

Although Mechanisms of Destruction is by far Konradt's best product yet, there is still some room for growth. While the sound quality is at an all-time high, not every track seems to have been given the same attention. At the risk of sounding contradictory to the previous paragraph, the listening experience is unfortunately mildly dampened by the roller coastery level of production quality (though listening to an individual track may not have the same negative effect). Additionally, the clean vocals bring the album down quite a bit. On paper, including clean vocals is a good idea (it's a core tenet of melodic metalcore, after all), but Konradt would really benefit from having someone else contribute them going forward. Attention to these issues would certainly result in a thoroughly solid metalcore album. But even as of now, I've gotten to the point where I more expect a Relentless Pursuit album to have a lot worth talking about and listening to. I truly believe that Matthew Konradt is on the precipice of something really good.

- Review date: 4/25/24, written by Scott Fryberger of Jesusfreakhideout.com