Master Boot Record: Queens Could Not ESC Computer and Video Game Metal  

Master Boot Record: Queens Could Not ESC Computer and Video Game Metal  

By Justin Smulison

My time at the Red Eye in Ridgewood on May 30 kicked off a bunch of firsts for me. This was my maiden voyage from the ‘burbs to this small Queens venue, where I was looking forward to seeing one of my favorite instrumental groups, Master Boot Record, who perform what they have dubbed “computer metal.” This was originally slated to be the Italian trio’s final show of their North American tour, but just a day or two prior, they added one more date on May 31 at the Meadows in Brooklyn to be able to perform in front of a grandiose cathode ray tube wall. 

The Red Eye has the hallmarks of many smaller clubs in the boroughs – sort of a dive bar in the front with a stage and performance space in the back, a small kitchen window to its left across from the merch table. 

Arottenbit opened the show. He is a one-man project from Milan, Italy whose instrument is a souped-up 1989 Nintendo Game Boy salvaged from the trash. With wiring around it and attached to some sort of transponder, it looked more like a detonator and perhaps was done so to make you feel slightly uneasy. That gear description is another first for me. Adorning a black face cloth and stationed in front of a plastic black-lit garbage can, this performer, also known as Otto, thrashed about the stage to his brand of what can best be described as 8-bit Sludge Techno (which is yet another first). This ambitious approach to a very niche subgenre within noise metal is created without the guitars and drums and instead relies on bit-crushed distortion, glitchy white noise, and heavy square waves. 

Since his only instrument was the Gameboy, he made it a point to come into the crowd of at least 200 to rile them up, get them to mosh, run, stage dive and jump. Check out his track, “LSDJ,” for an idea of how Arottenbit can create a headache-inducing rave. It’s the sort of cacophony that I imagine a gamer hears (internally) before frustration takes hold and manifests into a screaming frenzy because of an impossible-to-beat “Mega Man” level.  And in yet another in a series of firsts, Otto even sent his hopefully clean (?)  trash can into the audience to be passed around. For a guy without a typical instrument, he seemed focused on engaging with the crowd and playing up the novelty of his presentation. Arottenbit also seemed genuinely thrilled to be in New York for what appeared to be a successful run of shows. 

Otto, as it turned out, was a sound engineer for the headliner, Master Boot Record. (You can find my 2025 interview with MBR founder Victor Love on No MSG TV.)

The Italy-based band is purely instrumental, featuring various layers of synth over shredding guitars and drums and they have forged a new level of success through their most recent LPs, 2024’s Hardwarez, and 2022’s Personal Computer, and 2020’s Floppy Disk Overdrive all released by Metal Blade Records. You can find an entire terabyte’s-worth of their back catalogue for free on Bandcamp.  

 

The trio is rounded out by guitar virtuoso Edoardo Taddei on lead guitars and technical death metal drummer Giulio Galati, who all play before a wall of stunning retro-visuals in a journey intodemoscene, crack scene, and retrogaming, and beside what looks to be a computer lab that could’ve been built in the 1990s. 

 

Victor plays rhythm guitar and keyboard – which is an actual keyboard to an obsolete computer (another first for me) while Taddei shreds the leads in a style that is reminiscent of the neo-classical style of Yngwie Malmsteen and some of the whimsy of Joe Satriani. The band played a 15-song set, highlighted by four tracks off Hardwarez – including “RAM” and “CPU,” – and a cover of the “Doom” video game theme. 

 

MBR may not be mainstream metal, but it is undoubtedly more digestible than Arottenbit in that there are lead melodies and more recognizable patterns in the music. Even with programming in backing tracks, the musicianship was astounding and the band delivered a stellar set. 

 

I was stationed to the left, coincidentally where Victor – adorned in his trademark black hoodie – was positioned between his keyboard and the audience, which was fully engaged. During a brief downtime for at least one of his instruments/responsibilities, I noticed he pressed a button on a dot matrix printer (another first) while in the lab. The pages, it turned out, were the unique free passes he was giving away to the next day’s show in Brooklyn and threw them out to the crowd toward the end of the set. This kept with his reputation of making music free to the masses (he may have also needed to incentivize the audience to fill the space, considering how late he added the Meadows date).  

 

In a show where I did not chant along to one lyric (due to the absence of the lyrics), the creativity, musicianship and entertainment value was off the charts. If their YouTube numbers are an indication, Master Boot Record has subtly tapped into a broader metal audience and, considering their modest musical setup (the TVs seem like a heavier lift) they might be one of the few foreign bands to continue playing North American venues. Hopefully, they can transmit live from upstate NY next time in the U.S. If not, it will be worth the local RadioRadioX audience to make a southbound trip to the boroughs to experience Master Boot Record.