Get
this: Primary Slave was founded in 1998 by Paul Allender who soon left to join
Cradle Of Filth. The band signed to Visible Noise in 2000 and released the album
'Data Plague' which received good reviews. Then, tragically,
singer and guitarist Mark
Giltrow dies in a road accident in the middle of the recording of material
for the second album.
That would seem to be the end of it, wouldn't it? No, not quite! Before
departing from this life, Mark had put a fairly big amount of material for the new album down on
disc,
and a team consisting of the producer of the band's first album, Horace Martin,
Fifth Amendment guitarist Neale Dunham as well as Perfect Distortion guitarist
Chris Dunham dedicated time and effort on putting out Primary Slave's last album
(Chris Dunham apparently salvaged Giltrow's recordings from an ailing hard
disc).
And here it is, six years after Mark Giltrow passed away, his last album is
unleashed upon the world. The thing is: It's not quite fair to ask me to review
this. The promo material includes paper clippings about Mark, his wife is
mentioned, and the CD booklet contains touching notes from his mates and fellow
musicians. I really, really wanted to like this CD - before even listening to
it, just because I feel so sorry for this guy and his family and mates.
The thing is that I'm not entirely enthusiastic about 'Another Mark Is Drawn'.
To me, it has a late nineties sound to it, and it reminds me a lot of Korn in
many instances, only without the downtuning, and perhaps a touch of Mordred (if
anyone apart from me can still remember them?). There are good parts, yes, and a
song like C.R.E.A.M. is entertaining and diverse. On the whole, however, Mark's
voice is a bit too shrill for my taste and despite there's obviously musical
talent at large, the songs don't eventually cut it in my world.
I think you should give it a go if you like modern sounding metal with a Nu
twist and visit the band's site where you can download the album. And, also,
lots of respect to Mark's mates for pulling this through.
