The story behind this UK band is unusual. With an album released in 2000, a key member died and his work for the next recorded album had to be recovered after a computer crash. If the story behind the band is different, so is the music.
Sound effects are at the centre of what has at its base hard rock/metal arrangements. It’s never really heavy but rather it’s strong on mood and occasional aggression. Sometimes it’s melodic, sometimes it’s not. It is constantly haunted by electronic intrusions. “Another Mark is Drawn” comes from a band who knows how to create a good song and make it unusual – Type O Negative, Mely and Love de Vice are bands of whom I was reminded. It’s always eccentric.
So the opener “Powdered” is not typical of the rest, having a hardcore punch to add to the electro-modern metal. “Defiled” is more pure in its oddball way, then the eccentricity of “DeadOcean” is taken over by an utterly funky rhythm. A feature of this album is the unusual voice of the singer. Distant, child-like and in the higher ranges, it nevertheless has expression and can be plaintive, but also the potential to be irritating is there. Great as it can be, it makes suitable accompaniment to the unpleasing “The Game”, which appropriately ends in agonising tones. Much better in my view was “C.R.E.A.M”, which the sleeve notes tell us stands for “Corrupt Religious Elite Amoral Motherf*ckers”. It strikes me that sometimes the desire to be bizarre and add enriching sounds takes over, but whilst this one shares this attribute, it is interesting and surprisingly fluid. Strange electronic sounds precede a pumping bass-assisted rhythm. At one point I was expecting fairground music. These are unusual songs with unusual riffs. There’s good melody and harmonies here. Guitar solos and funky sounds add to the layers. It twists and turns. Then it sounds like the Martians have landed. “Cums a Round” follows. It is fresh from the madhouse. There’s a pumping deep beat as the singer blazes on insanely. Not to be outdone, the synthesiser has a quick jam to add to the mixture of sounds. This track is swinging, bouncy, dark and most certainly oddball, descending into absurdity to end. It’s not easy to work out so it’s best not to. It’s not clear whether “Up Sailing” is supposed to be creepy and disturbed, but at least the guitar work has a certain imagination. “The Answer” is just disharmonious and aimless. The album ends in kaleidoscopic fashion with “The Time It Takes to Die”.
“Another Mark is Drawn” is bizarre but it does have ideas and imagination. It can be funky but whilst parts of it were very enjoyable, the sheer weight of input made it difficult for me to really like.
(5 /10 Andrew Doherty)
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