Swedish video game metal band Machinae Supremacy released a trailer to their upcoming album Phantom Shadow today. It’s the follow up to 2012’s Rise of a Digital Nation, and is set to be released in the U.S. on August 26 via Spinefarm Records/UMG. This will also be the first album to feature new guitarist Tomi Luoma (Am I Blood/ex-Kill the Romance), who joined after their previous release.

The album is looking like it will be a sci-fi concept album rather than focused around video games this time around, with the band offering the following description:

“In Europe, in the near future, a select few have the ability to grant superhuman powers to those willing to pay the price — a piece of their soul. The main protagonist, a psychopathic former assassin, finds herself responsible for the lives of two young activists — one with an important destiny to fulfill — and hunted by the authorities and a dark enemy from her past.”

As somewhat of an anomaly in the metal world, Machinae Supremacy blends the sounds of chiptune with power metal to an end result of something entirely unlike any other band out there; Metal Hammer went as far to describe them as “One of the most interesting bands of the current era,” and I certainly could not agree more. In 2011, they played a show at Assembly Demo Party in Helsinki, Finland and in a bold move released the video exclusively on the controversial file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, and subsequently TPB featured their following album Rise of a Digital Nation on their front page.

You can watch the trailer for Phantom Shadow below, and also keep an eye out for our interview with vocalist Robert Stjärnström.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1HN_1iQcGY&hd=1[/youtube]