Black Anthem is Gemini Five’s second album, their debut Babylon Rockets was released in October 2003. My first thought upon hearing this album can be summed up in two words: Marilyn Manson. Once I had made the comparison, I tried to use it as a reference point from which to begin my review but unfortunately I didn’t get much farther.

As far as their sound goes, Gemini Five are very much in the same ilk as MM’s pseudo-Gothic pop – catchy pop tunes with a darker edge. However they are less evil than MM and, to my mind, less interesting.

It seems to me that Black Anthem is nothing more than four young lads trying to make it big by latching onto the teat of the latest cash cow. I guess that’s pretty much how rock n roll began – a quick way out of the gutter and a way to make music for the masses. They could be compared to The Wildhearts or Motley Crue in the sense that some of their music is a sort of punky rock n roll but for the most part it’s very poppy. Certainly don’t expect anything spectacular or out of the ordinary in the instrumentation.
Although it does have some better moments, I found Black Anthem to be much of a muchness.

The ballads, such as Heaven Come Undone and Silent Night are barely able to attract my interest. They didn’t feel as though they were anything more than a change in tempo, an intermission that didn’t pull at my heartstrings at all. The album’s title track offers a little more in the way of interest but is still too bland for my taste.

I think I would have had more respect for this band had they been darker and gone in more of a Gothic or EBM direction. As it is I’m not keen on their pop sound. I’m not keen on Marilyn Manson’s shock tactics which he uses to sell records and I feel Gemini Five are attempting to do the same with thinly veiled allusions to sex in the lyrics and even the track titles, such as Flesh For Fantasy and When The Body Speaks.

I also found the lyricism itself lacking; it has to be said that the band are Swedish writing in English but I always take this into account – in fact sometimes I prefer foreign writing since it can result in unusual phraseology that I find charming.

So I guess if you like Marilyn Manson and bands of that ilk you may like Gemini Five’s Black Anthem. There again, if you like Marilyn Manson why would you want to listen to a poor substitute?

*

Review by Amanda Hyne

Black Anthem is currently available from Wild Kingdom, distributed by Sound Pollution Distribution - Website

Band website