When a press release includes a quote claiming the associated album to be one of the best of the year, it places a lot of pressure on the band in question to live up to the expectations. With ‘On The Twelve Thrones’, OFFICERS (now minus the ‘The’ precursor) have somewhat clumsily stumbled into a unique musical territory; delivering an album coming close to excellence, yet falling a short distance shy of ‘album of the year’ quality due to some basic miscalculations.
‘On The Twelve Thrones’ consists of twelve electronic rock tracks reminiscent of early nineties Nine Inch Nails or Depeche Mode, significantly supported by the choice of final mixing in the form of David Bascombe; notable for working with the likes of Tears for Fears and Depeche Mode. Unfortunately for OFFICERS the uneven balance of musical styles throughout the debut LP distracts from what is in essence, a well-crafted and original electronic composition. Opening track ‘Counting My Guns’ suggests an album filled with dark and doom-influenced mechanical sounds, which is immediately counteracted by the increase of indie-tinged guitar riffs on the following two numbers. Normally variety is refreshing to the listener; however OFFICERS fail to prolong any apparent musical cohesion and in turn, fail to allow the audience to really engage in the record. Six minute long ‘All The Ghosts Away’ and the almost eight minute epic ‘Another Long Year’ could easily do with a couple of minutes substituted for an engaging change to the rhythm and tempo.
It is not all doom and gloom on the album (although the band have deliberately attempted to create that atmosphere). Ignoring some basic discrepancies in regards to the structure, ‘On The Twelve Thrones’ is filled with a significant number of tracks that indicate at the originality of the Leeds based outfit. Lead single ‘Co-Education’ has enough dirty electronics to rival the likes of Trent Reznor in the industrial department, while the opening bars of ‘Disarm‘ could be likened to Kasiabian at their most underground. ‘On The Twelve Thrones’ boasts a number of uniquely dark electronic-indie numbers which are unfortunately let down by a poor album structure. That said, OFFICERS have managed to create a soundtrack fitting for a dimly lit, subterranean industrial warehouse party open to industrial and indie fanatics alike.
BEN TIPPLE