PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra X is the seventh studio album by American electronic band Machine Girl, first released on October 24, 2025 via Future Classic. The album received a companion remix album titled PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra X: The Remix (Minus One) on April 3, 2026. Three singles preceded the album, all with music videos, "Come On Baby, Scrape My Data", "Rabbit Season", and "Dread Architect."
Background The album has been described as a sequel of sorts to their previous album MG Ultra (2024), with themes of psychological damage, culture, society, and a collective unconscious. Elaborating on this, front man Matt Stephenson stated:“I’d been reading analytical psychology and the writings of Joseph Campbell and Jung. There’s a concept of the collective unconscious and these archetypes that we innately have. We adopt different personae in order to get through the day. In essence, you complete yourself by facing your shadow self. To do so, you must accept the less savory aspects of who you are. There’s a lot of validity to these theories. Right now, we’re a very psychologically damaged culture and society. We’re being pushed over the edge with social media and technology. Any chance of resistance against these systems starts in the mind, so this was the genesis of PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra X.”
Reception Colin Joyce of Pitchfork gave the album a 7.5, stating that the album fights "overstimulation with more overstimulation" over 14 tracks of "choppy, distorted, digitally thrashed mutations of noise, EBM, and hardcore." Moreover, comparing the albums themes of culture and society to the Neon White soundtrack, composed by Machine Girl. They also highlighted the eclecticism of the record, noting influences of "noise rock, nightcore-d EBM, hardcore (of both the punk and techno variety), and other extreme music microgenres—often jumpcutting between sounds and styles within a single track."
Jordan Darville of The Fader highlighted an increased influence from noise rock and metal on the record, giving the songs a "new kind of visceral feeling." Specific songs they stated stood out include the post-punk influenced "Psychowar" and "ID Crisis Angel" and "Phantom Doom", which they said blended Machine Girl's traditional glitchy production with "tragic shoegaze." Overall, they believed that the increased amount of influences made the album, and band, feel "rejuvenated, like a new battery has been improbably out of our trash island world."
Track listing
Personnel Credits adapted from Bandcamp.
Keith Rankin – album artwork Nicos Kennedy – mixing Beau Thomas – mastering
References