Corpus Delicti - Corpus Delicti Mp3

The dramatic orchestrations of "Firelight" start the ball rolling. Darkly filmic, it heralds the deep bassy drums of a mainstream Gothic Rock track. Usual flat vocals, simple bassline and punctuatingly aggressive guitar. In some ways the chord structure remind me of THE CURE circa "Faith". "Twilight" has a slightly Middle Eastern accent to the thin guitar - effective in the thick, muscular rhythms of drum & bass. The vocals are a little lighter (ok - shouted) than yer average Goth track. A hooky composition well performed. This is probably as light hearted as our Dark kin dare to go. "Haunting Picture" establishes they owe as much to early Eighties New Wave as anything else. "Staring" is pretty much average - a fast, energetic piece, again brighter than most - a nice clean sound without in any way wimping out. "Dust And Fire" sounds not unlike THE CRANBERRIES' "Zombie" without the blistering guitar, but with ROBERT SMITH at the vocals. "Lorelei" starts a little like DEAD KENNEDY's "California Über Alles" before rocketing once again into the black land of Goth. If I were to pick a single from this album, this track would probably be it, although it's chartability is moot. "Mirror Wall" starts like "Sin In Your Eyes" off the SIOUXSIE "Juju" album - and keeps very much to the theme of that release. "This Side Of The Moon" opens to an organ solo which reminds me of the 'ghost walking' music from the film "Ghostbreakers". Apart from the heavy kick drum and a few subtle appearances from guitar & keyboards, it remains just the organ and vocalist - and all the more effective it is for that! "Absent Friend" nods towards BOWIE in much the way that many Goth tracks do. "Poisonned Dead Flowers" is a slow ponderous piece set at around the pace of the beginning of "New Town" by THE SLITS with guitar spitting wire thin spars in all directions. And like the aforementioned track it gradually picks up to running speed, the vocalist singing like a tormented banshee. It follows this formula twice and threatens a third, an effective track, the build towards crescendo actually quite adrenaline-pushing. "Last Light" concludes the album like a coda to the last track.
Well, I've never been radically into Gothic Rock, as you may have guessed from some of my reviews, and this album has done nothing to convince me otherwise. It's too good to remain on biodegradable ferrous tape forever, but probably wouldn't justify a large and expensive pressing on CD. Now CDR - that's another story!

Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.