Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are some things in life that will always seem permanent, the first drops of rain on a British lawn leading to water companies announcing that there will be a hosepipe ban, qualification by any of the home nations to the finals of the World Cup or getting the newspapers going over the top in their assertion that the trophy will be coming home. However, perhaps most welcome of all, the first track of a new Gary Numan album will just be the prelude to a recording so hot that if set out in space would cause the sun to develop blisters.
Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) sees the godfather of Industrial Metal carry on in the fine style his fans have become accustomed too, so much so that there is no discernible join marking the end of the 2011 album Dead Son Rising and this tremendous work of music production. The diligence that surrounds the album and the gravitas of Gary Numan’s voice all combine to once more suggest that the man who first burst into the limelight four decades ago is one of the best examples of keeping a good man fully immersed in the music that he so obviously enjoys performing.
The album opens with mind disintegrating I Am Dust, a trip into the outer reaches of the hardcore industrial movement and led by perhaps one of the coolest men in music, a guide that deserves the recognition for his output. Tracks such as Here In Black, The Calling, Love Hate Bleed and the ravaging dark silhouette of A Shadow Falls On Me all muster together and frame the album as if the bleakness of life is being sucked away by one man’s writing. The songs, whilst black and full of measured despondency urge the listener to keep going, to let the creator of the songs take on the pain the listener feels and what is left is the ray of musical sunlight bursting through the darkest night.
The live performances that Mr. Numan bought to the stage when he released Dead Son Rising were of such a high quality that Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) might have to raise itself to a level that even Olympic pole vaulters would have trouble achieving without the aid of Newton suggesting his theory on gravity was wrong. However the album is a great plus to the ever growing catalogue of music that beats as hard as the heaviest machinery trying to match Gary Numan’s musical output.
Ian D. Hall