By Jim Rowland
In the 19th century, London’s West End area known as Seven Dials was notoriously dangerous and disreputable – a very dangerous place to be after dark. This darkness and danger provided the perfect inspiration for the dusky, foreboding sounds created by the new musical union known as Sevendials. Whilst Sevendials may be a new name, the names of those that make up this new three-piece ‘alt rock supergroup’ will be much more familiar…
Sevendials is made up of guitarist Mark Gemini Thwaite, drummer Big Paul Ferguson and vocalist Chris Connelly, who between them have served time with an illustrious list of top acts like Killing Joke, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, The Mission, Murder Inc, Mob Research and Peter Murphy amongst others. What’s more, this debut album ‘A Crash Course In Catastrophe’ is released via Creationyouth, the newly formed record label by legendary Killing Joke bassist and producer Martin ‘Youth’ Glover and Creation Records guru and industry icon Alan McGee.
The likes of ‘Wolves’, ‘Knives Without Asking’, ‘Corrupted Verse’ and ‘Too High To Live’ are heavy, big, bold statements of dark intensity with a hint of later-era Bowie in the vocal delivery, ‘Zodiac Morals’ plays that dark intensity with a slightly straighter rock edge, and ‘Whispering Wand’ provides an unlikely combination of Industrial and Country/Blues, but works a treat.
Elsewhere, the Michael Des Barres-penned ‘Obsession’, featuring guest vocals from Ashley Bad, has a lighter synth-pop edge to it, ‘Before You Make Your Distance’ boasts more subtle atmospherics, and ‘Weathervane Days’ closes the album in quirky, dark and downbeat fashion.
Strangely, the album opens with a cover of the Sparks classic ‘Number One Song In Heaven’. Whilst paying homage to the greatness of Sparks is always to be commended, other than treating it with a heavier guitar approach and a different voice, it doesn’t veer too far from the original arrangement and perhaps could have been a bit more of a radical departure than it ended up being.
That minor gripe aside, ‘A Crash Course In Catastrophe’ is an accomplished, diverse, dark, powerful and intense piece of work, worthy of the reputations of each individual band member, and highly recommended if you’re a fan of any of their previous work.
- ‘A Crash Course In Catastrophe‘ will be released on Friday (11 April).
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