Sulpher – No one will ever know

British band Sulpher was formed in 2000 by Rob Holliday and Steve Monti who had previously played together in the band Curve in the 1990s. In 2002 they released their debut album, “Spray” and followed that up by touring in support of bands such as Sisters of Mercy, The 69 eyes and Marilyn Manson. Since then the band has been largely silent – on hiatus for much of the time as Rob Halliday toured the world playing guitar for The Prodigy and marilyn Manson, while Steve Monti worked with Gary Numan, The Jesus and Mary chain, Wilco Johnson and Pop will eat itself.

In 2012 they got back together and started work on the songs for their second album, but it’s only now, six years later, that the album is finally due for release. After such a long gap since the debut album, the band are effectively starting again from scratch in building a fan base as I’m sure most fans of the original album have long since forgotten them.

The album has some very good parts – check out the video for the title track to get an idea of what to expect.

With this album there’s plenty of the hard industrial sound such as in “Take a long hard look”, but there’s also soft melancholy stuff (e.g. “Tomorrow”). Personally I prefer the heavier songs. Certainly the album would benefit from the removal of “Didn’t ever” which just feels like a ridiculously long intro – at over four minutes long, it’s dull and adds nothing for most of it, with just the last 45 seconds building up as though it will lead into a heavy track, but instead it’s followed by a slow start for “Nothing at all”.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this album – it’s got some great stuff on it, but it’s certainly not a case of “all killer, no filler” – instead it just feels like a typical pop album – a few great bits padded out to make an album. Overall it’s a disappointing comeback from Sulpher.

“No one will ever know” will be released on 31st August 2018

Track listing:

1. No one will ever know
2. Follow you down
3. Used
4. You threw it all away
5. Take a long hard look
6. Didn’t ever
7. Nothing at all
8. Tomorrow
9. I fell through
10. Feels like the end