Late in 2012 The Mark Of Cain, completed generally by drummer John Stanier, released their sixth full-length album, Songs Of The Third And The Fifth. It was also their first new album since 2001’s This Is This. The Mark Of Cain clearly are not burdened by deadlines, commercial restraints or fans expectations. However, anyone with any relationship with the band knows they are bound by their own professionalism, self-criticism and perfectionist attitude.
“I don’t really worry about expectations,” says John Scott a few days before the record came out. “If I worried about that we would have been done ages ago. I think the main thing is I wanted to get something finished in that decade,” he laughs throatily here, before adding, “and I think I was very aware of people wanting to gear a new record, but this is the hard thing for people to understand; we are not a commercially driven enterprise, we do it when we can and of course it was self financed as well.”
Expectation is one thing but reality is another, and it could be the simple fact that there isn’t another band like The Mark Of Cain currently on the Australian scene, or the fact that Songs Of The Third And The Fifth is actually a great record, but the praise started rolling in immediately.
Rolling Stone gave it four and a half stars claiming it to be “a career high point”. The Age claimed it had “everything a fan could want, from the familiarity of the band’s crushing, minimal sound to the strong songwriting.” For me, it is heavy, melodic and threatening. The melody is something John agrees he worked hard on.
“I definitely was aiming to get back to the earlier melodic stuff of Battlesick and Unclaimed Prize, that was something I strove for. A lot of this was over discussion with John Stanier, talking about music and our favourite bands and he would often come back to say he really enjoyed the vocal melodies that I had on some of those earlier records. We were always talking about doing another album so when it came along every time I sat down to listen to these songs once we recorded them, I mean three or four of them are older songs that we already had vocals for, and some of them are still done in that style of barking commands, whatever you want to call it. I was really trying hard to find melodies in amongst these riffs and how I could make that work. That probably pushed me harder, and I like it, and I really like the feel of this record.”
The Mark Of Cain have created a presence around them over their lengthy existence. Their sparse yet skull-crushingly taut rhythms, Kim’s pounding, pulsating bass lines and John’s riflemen in the bell tower philosophical stance, combined with their 1,000 yard stare stage show, means that they appear unapproachable and aloof. Strangely, nothing could be further form the truth, and the story behind the quasi-military album title backs this up.
“Seriously,” he asks when pushed to explain the title, “it was a bit of a joke. I was saying to Kim, looking at how I write songs, I said to him, ‘Fuck I should call this Songs Of The Third And The Fifth because all I seem to do is write songs on the third and fifth frets!’ And then we decided it sounded semi-military, if people didn’t know better they would assume it was military based, which always works for us.”
If people didn’t know better, that is something always associated with a band with which the larger music population is unfamiliar. The Mark Of Cain are such a band, part driving rock band, part high art concept and equally as important, park John’s way of exorcising his personal demons. There’s a lot to this band, something John acknowledges somewhat begrudgingly.
“Yes, I have to go through the same fucking discussion with people every time around. It sounds like this because it came from this and so on but that’s our cross to bear isn’t it? It doesn’t hold us back but I am often saying, ‘Jesus Christ I have to go through this again?’”
BY JEREMY SHEAFFE
