Built on solid foundations of driving riffs, fat bass lines and raw vocals, ‘The Concerns Of Mortal Man’ sees the band bridging the gap between rock/metal and other genres, subtly incorporating influences from hip-hop and technical inspiration from electronic music to deliver a varied yet substantial body of work.
“Are you listening? Are you listening to me, my love?’ Si Stechler growls threateningly on ‘Lie’ before the guitars crash in like a tidal wave. It doesn’t sound like an amiable chat so much as the flashpoint before things turn ugly. So far, so much metal-edged aggro.
There are some chunky, chugging guitars, but Stechler’s vocals, bellowed as much from the chest as the throat often evoke the glut of post-grunge acts that saturated the ‘alternative’ scene in the mid to late 90s. ‘Russian Doll’ sees the Brightonians steer into hoary retro rock territory and it’s as lumbering and predictable as it is generic. The screamy backing vocals add only additional layers of irritation. ‘Witness’, which features guest vocals form Roots Manuva sounds like Motorhead playing hip-hop and it’s every bit as horrific as you’d expect.
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To be clear, this is by no means a bad album: it’s just not as eclectic as the band would like to believe, and when they do venture from what they do best, it proves to be ill advised. Meanwhile, while I’ve nothing against juggernaut hard rock, ‘The Concerns of Mortal Man’ brings nothing new to the table and is rather lacking not only in originality but personality. And, with the download version featuring 3 bonus tracks on top of the CD’s standard 11, it makes for 14 tracks that all bludgeon away at the same rock face. The end result it that it winds up feeling overlong and too much like hard work. Therefore, by definition, it’s merely ok.
By Definition Online
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