Melody. Ilenkus may need to look into this as, while their work is not as random as the offering of a Hardcore band, they still need proper structure in individual songs. While the greatest albums always have variety in spades, great songs can usually stick to a central idea in their notes. But if the band did tighten up their act a small bit, then we’d be onto something amazing. The good influences do show here.

“The Jig” holds steady and firm but after working out most of its anger holds its head in despair only to get worked up against the world once more. “Kleptocracy” keeps the high notes high while not being afraid to tear it all down and keeps things shouty. “Dr.Jekyl” has a backbone that zigzags down the bars of music sheets as the vocals start to remind me of a certain Goth Rock band called The Drowning Season. “Phoenix” take a turn with some Noise as an opener, then flows into a low, steady notes with a few Bauhaus chords thrown in as it builds up in anticipation and then really lets its hair down.

“Pompeii (The Butcher)” (I thought Pompeii was a Roman city buried by a volcano eruption) does swing round the monkey bars, even if it ends rather abruptly as if it’s supposed to flow in to the next track, but “Cerebral Anomaly” is it’s own creature entirely. It gets off on an excellent semi-acoustic track with soothing vocals that reminds me of a few of the more obscure bands I’ve heard, but then gets back into formation and then gives us more metal antics, but not entirely forgetting what it started with. “Mayhem” is where the band gets their Hardcore on, and I’m not sure if their Hardcore really suits them. They need more control and melody and here they just cast it aside like dirty trousers. “Great Divide” sounds like two songs combined like two people connected conjoint twin style (Thanks to surgery carried out by office supplies) but then after a few minutes of silence we move into a “hidden track” that channels the spirit of the 1980’s incarnation of Skinny Puppy. Blew me away when I heard it as I wasn’t expecting anything like this from the band.