There may not be a reason for The Most Amazing Century of Science’s “…Or At Least Steady My Hand” to be 14 minutes long other than the fact that three minutes probably isn’t enough time to introduce both the classical and metal genres. “Steady My Hand” is the lone song on MACOS’ recording “Stay My Blade, Oh Lord!” and it has few lyrics, little finesse and no apparent concept. However, the length and abrupt style changes cause the recording to play out like a wordless story, so it’s worth a listen if only for the sake of determining just what sort of story that may be.
A trek through this windy track brings the listener to intermittent spells of jazz, glitch arcade noises and a stretch of silence toward the end in addition to raucous metal and subdued classical influence. The unending musical transitions caused me to formulate a loose idea of a freak modern fairytale, complete with demon gnomes, which may have had something to do with the grinding metalcore that starts off the first two minutes. A short, sweet intermission under the jazz influence follows before MACOS return to deathly growls with some artless piano pounding in the background.
Videogame noise gives way to a warm and airy touch of classical with sweeping percussion, which gives way to a guitar’s jazzy warble and erratic bass. Pounding rhythms, whimpers and howls and an eruption of laughter lead up to three minutes of total silence before an unexpected ending. It finishes with a 30 second doo-wop/Motown ditty with female vocals singing, “At night when I held you tight/I looked into your eyes and felt no fright/but you left me baby for another man/and tonight my darling I’ll die by my hand.”
Nothing on this track can be predicted or anticipated as MACOS experiments with a collection of oddly matched styles, and speaking of “experiment,” it may be the most suitable term for “Steady My Hand.” Don’t expect the strongest representation of any genre explored here—just expect to be surprised.
