Album Review: The Mark Of Cain - Songs Of The Third And Fifth

Eleven years on from This Is This, The Mark Of Cain emerge from semi-hibernation with a typically full-tilt assault on Songs Of The Third And Fifth. Although the band have been around since the mid-1980s, age certainly hasn't wearied them and this record is as tight and brutal as any Australian album released this year, packed full of thunderous guitar grooves and John Scott's clipped, militaristic style of barking out his vocals. Songs Of… sessions originally began in 2006, however, John and brother Kim Scott's (bass) work was restricted due to drummer John Stanier being based in the USA while playing with Battles and Tomahawk. But in between touring with those bands, Stanier found time to team up with the Scott brothers for short spells, and over the course of six years a new TMOC release was born.

Themes of alienation and barely contained rage run through the nine tracks as the band channel this anger into some fierce riffs, starting with opener Barkhammer. There's no sense of release here either, no cathartic guitar solos or anything so trivial, instead these songs are simply tightly coiled. There are plenty of melodies, though, as John Scott gradually builds the tension and neurosis over a super-tight rhythm section, the best examples being the brilliant Separatist and free-flowing, Henry Rollins-assisted Grey 11. Like past albums, the lyrics often seem very concerned with militaristic themes. But songs about the Balkans War in tracks such as Milosevic and snipers in 1000 Yards are maybe – deliberately – a little too uncomfortable. Perhaps that's the point, though. War, dislocation and alienation are uncomfortable topics and this band musically embody the rage that follows.