Therapy? - Infernal Love
Line up for this album :
Andrew James Cairns : Guitar and Vocals
Fyfe Ewing : Drums, Percussion and backing vocals
Michael McKeegan : Bass, backing vocals and guitar on 'Bowels of Love'
Additional Musicians :
Martin McCarrick : Cellos (Later to become an official member)
Simon Clarke : Saxophone
Al Clay : Backing Vocals
David Holmes : Insanity (It's in the booklet like this :p)
Released in : 1995, A&M Records.
For more information about the band, check out my other 'Therapy?' review or the biography that I wrote.
Infernal Love, Therapy?'s Third full length. It turned out to be a very fitting title, very fitting indeed.
On this album Therapy? and especially Cairns, I'm guessing, Try something different. There are still some songs that might have fitted on 'Troublegum'. But overall they choose to utilise a different approach. Less metal and more alternative, softer rock. This does not mean that is a bad album though, it's still great. However, this one is very dark and depressing, even more than 'Troublegum' ever was. Atmosphere plays a great role here, and a great production enhances that purpose.
This album is more varied than its predecessors, definitely, as they use more instruments, more variations of heaviness et cetera. As usual nothing too technical, but decent musicianship. Lyrically, very pessimistic, but very good nonetheless.
It also proved itself useful in a totally different way, anecdote : Before I figured out how to rip cd's, I tried to download
'moment of clarity' of off Kazaa, but accidentally downloaded a
Death song with the same title, which was essential in my extreme metal evolution.
The songs :
Tracklist :
1. Epilepsy - 3:50
2. Stories - 3 :11
3. A Moment of Clarity - 6:01
4. Jude the Obscene - 3:32
5. Bowels of Love - 2:53
6. Misery - 3:40
7. Bad Mother - 5:45
8. Me Vs. You - 6:23
9. Loose - 2:59
10. Diane - 4:59 (Hüsker Dü Cover)
11. 30 Seconds - 5:26
1. Epilepsy - 3:50
This is perhaps one of the more technical songs on the album, a nice metal riff here. The lyrics contain 'Infernal Love' which might have just been the cause of the album title. I'm just guessing here, though. The song is very forth going, fast pace, a sloppy guitar solo here, a nice bass interlude there. Drums Clatter in my headphones, I like this song.
2. Stories - 3 :11
The intro of this song sounds like someone is tuning between two radio channels, one is playing the first track of the album, namely 'Epilepsy' and the other one is playing 'Stories', very well done, and original intro. A sharp, muted riff is played here, I like it a lot.
In come the drums with some very catchy drumming, got your head nodding in an instant. Then the specialty about this song, for a while I thought the next 'riff' was a guitar with a very strange effect on it, but it turns out that it's a saxophone, never thought saxophones could sound so heavy. The verse is very good, Cairns' singing is awesome, melodic and clear. The chorus is very pounding and repeats
'Happy People have no stories'. The lyrics are very nihilistic, but I like them a lot. Then there's a solo, nothing very technical, but very good. This is an awesome song, the saxophones fit the song amazingly. One of the best on the album.
3. A Moment of Clarity - 6:01
With this next song, we get cooled off majorly with a piano, playing in a dreamy atmosphere. There's some kind of knocking and silence appears. The silence is broken by a clean Em chord. Cairns sings the verse, supported only the guitar, he sounds sad, it seems to me that he's singing about a so called
'Femme Fatale'. Then the distortion and the other instruments kick in violently. At this point, it feels like you're being kicked out of the crashing plane into a dark ocean of despair. The interlude is wordless. I strongly recommend not to listen to this song when depressed. The verse has distorted chords the second time, the lyrics contain something that hit me with a feeling of estrangement :
"Your lips like bruised vulva and your ass like Jesus' feet, worth kissing, give yourself to me".
Cairns is performing at his best, vocally, I'm loving it.
The song slows down at a certain moment and ends with the lyrics
"Kiss me once then I am leaving, kiss me once then Kiss yourself ... Goodbye".
Amazing song for me, one of the best on the album.
4. Jude the Obscene - 3:32
This is one of these songs that could have been on 'Troublegum', nice riffs, catchy melodies. Very nice solo. The song sounds very sad again though, nothing more to say about this song, good song.
5. Bowels of Love - 2:53
This song is started with some simple chords that seem to surround you in a way. After a while the cello comes to support the team. Cairns sounds more pessimistic than ever, which is very much reflected in the lyrics : "and you rammed Eros' maggots down my throat, until I chocked.", For example. After a while you just wanna go give Cairns a hug and cry along with him, with a face like ':('.
6. Misery - 3:40
With a title like this, I wasn't really expecting a happy song. I was right, but I expected worse though. It's not a slow song, but one of their heavier songs like on previous albums. It starts with a 'One' like intro, with gunshots and helicopters. The drumming is very good on this one, good riffage as well. Catchy as usual. Sad as usual, good song.
7. Bad Mother - 5:45
I like the guitar on this song a lot, it has some weird effect, it seems to be rocking me back and forth. This is a sad song in disguise, it seems to sound happy in the beginning, he even sings "It's a beautiful day", but, followed by "But I don't see it that way". It ends with some electronic outro. Good song.
8. Me Vs. You - 6:23
Introduced by a clean guitar riff and cellos. Cairns uses his infamous bass vocals on this one, combined with the low cello it makes my little stereo tremble. And I'm not being figurative there. In the chorus sings high in contrast to the verses. Sounds very doomy. Sadness. And while the chorus and the verse is sad, the album reaches a depth of depression in this song in the interlude. The cello and the guitar play something really dark and Cairns whispers "Watch the grass grow over me"
Then there's a solo, a nice one.
Great song.
Outro : some electronics with a slight tribal beat.
9. Loose - 2:59
After a depth, you gotta go back up indeed. " Let me try on your dress" are the first words. This is a happy song.
Very catchy, if you haven't killed yourself by now, this is a very enjoyable song.
10. Diane - 4:59
Ok, so now they must have thought : "Enough happy songs ! Let's make a really sad one now."
So they did. This is a Hüsker Dü cover, but, in my opinion, it completely blows away the original. They decided to cover this one with only strings and vocals. A splendid choice indeed. I'm guessing McCarrick used 3 or 4 cellos in this song and he did brilliant work. The sound of strings sounds so gloomy and the song slides along slowly, this is a song that you could call 'beautiful'. Cairns' vocals are excellent and the lyrics fit this kind of music much more than the original, I think. It's a shocking song at times :"We could cruise down Robbert Street all night long, but I think I'll just rape you and kill you instead".
In the last verse Cairns Just sounds so despairing, as if he doesn't want to kill her, but he has to, just like the lyrics suggest. First he sings
"You're the cutest girl I've ever seen in my life" , and then shouts, with his voice cracking slightly
"But it's over now and with my knife".
Amazing song.
11. 30 Seconds - 5:26
The last track, with galloping drums and quickly picked riffs. Surprisingly, there's a positive message in this song
"There's one thing that I should remember : There is a light at the end of the tunnel", I'm guessing it might be sarcastic though, because the rest of the lyrics aren't really positive. The last 3 minutes of the song he just keeps repeating "There is a light at the end of the tunnel", which does get kinda annoying in the end.
Not a bad song at all though.
In the end I must conclude that I like every song on this album and although the content might be too depressing for some people, I don't mind. I think it's another Brilliant album by the Irish rockers.
I think it deserves at least a 4.5/5 or I would give it 5/5 myself, but I'm slightly biased.
But it is an awesome album and that's for sure. :thumb:
5/5
