AirMech was released as limited edition CD album and digital download. Each item of the CD version contained a code which granted access to exclusive game content and design.[3][4] Canadian label Artoffact Records re-released AirMech in 2014 as double vinyl in different variations.[5]
Background
The album was announced in September 2012.[6] Carbon Games' Game Director James Green said, "The first thing I thought of was trying to get music that sounded like Front Line Assembly".[7] The band agreed, on the condition that members could be included in the game with "crazy sonic weapons".[6][7] During the production process the band wrote "a wide range of tracks that would be suitable for AirMech, from menus to ingame music."[8]
AirMech received mainly positive reviews. However, some critics thought AirMech is bound too much by the limitations of a video game soundtrack.
Gregory Burkart of FEARnet wrote, "AirMech is a definite keeper for FLA fans and anyone who grooves on dark, violent and cinematic-scale industrial & EBM".[7] He felt that AirMech "follows through in some ways from the band's previous earth-shaking album 'Improvised Electronic Device'", but also brought some innovations: "The real departure on AirMech is the introduction of orchestral elements, something the band only incorporated only loosely in the past, and then in a more experimental way."[7]
Jaymie Burzette of Coma Magazine emphasized how AirMech contrasts with other Front Line Assembly releases, saying, "AirMech is very different from normal Front Line Assembly fare. Instead of their usual Electro-Industrial sound, this album contains all instrumental tracks and bears a heavy Dubstep influence."[12]
Trubie Turner of ReGen Magazine was more critical of the fact that AirMech is a video game score, pointing out, "Fans of Front Line Assembly are sure to find AirMech to be an odd experience".[14] Turner called the album "an impressive showcase of Front Line Assembly's talent".[14] However, "it can still feel overly repetitive and too heavily focused on loop ready riffs at times", Turner wrote and concluded, "Outside of the context of the game though, this purely instrumental work impresses but does not captivate."[14]
Barcode Magazine, otherwise generally favorable of AirMech, found it to be "a downside [...] that AirMech had to be written to correspond to a particular soundtrack-style, which somewhat restricts the album from becoming what it could have been."[9]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Bill Leeb, Jeremy Inkel, Jared Slingerland
In January 2015, Front Line Assembly announced that they started working on a follow-up album to AirMech.[16] The album, titled WarMech, was released June 22, 2018.
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