Biogenesis - The Mark Bleed
Through (Rowe)
2001
1. "The Mark Bleeds
Through" (5:40)
2. "Fat Man From China" (2:39)
3. "Legal Murder" (7:14)
4. "Inner Child" (7:27)
5. "Russian Roulette" (3:53)
6. "Digging Your Grave" (4:42)
7. "Mental Violence" (4:00)
8. "Crystal Ball" (3:30)
9. "You Are Not" (4:15)
10. "Anti Evolution" (5:01)
11. "I Am The One" (5:17)
12. "Scorning of Wisdom" (3:52)
13. "Father of the New Age" (5:01)
Biogenesis is a bizarre mix of thrash metal and dark, down-tuned gothic metal. Vocalist Chaz Bond mixes hardcore yells with some melodic Savior Machine-like vocals. To be quite honest, while the music is good, it's this mix of vocal styles that really makes the album interesting. The disc starts off with the the mid-paced groove of the title track before leading into one of the album's most memorable and lyrically interesting tracks "Fat Man From China." This song is probably my favorite of the entire album and deals with people's crazy beliefs.. "Legal Madness" continues with the heavy, down-tuned, crunch. This song might have sounded cooler with a tighter guitar crunch, rather than the buzzy, down-tuned, nu-metal sound it has. However, there are lots of dynamics in this track with slow parts picking up into full throttle thrash assaults in an instant. "Inner Child" is a slow, doomy dirge that reminds me a bit of Deliverance or Savior Machine, especially in the acoustic moments. Chaz's vocals have a lot to do with this as he is going for that same David Bowie-style that those bands have adopted. "Russian Roulette" picks the energy level back up with yet another mid-paced groove giving way to a speedy riff. This song, as well as much of the rest of this disc, while being quite energetic and technically proficient lacks much in the way of memorable hooks. In other words, I tend to begin to lose interest as the disc goes on. The lack of any guitar solos is a bit of a let down as well. There are several music breaks within each of the songs that were just screaming for a shredding guitar solo. I suppose I am just a bit too much into the old school when guitar solos were mandatory. That being the case, I almost never listen to this disc all the way through. This email came from a close friend of the band regarding the lack of guitar solos, "the producer they had at the time cut out most of the (guitar) solos. He tried his best to get the band to sound like Disturbed. . ." I really wish this band would have survived to release disc number two. While this disc wasn't something I spent much time listening to I just felt they had so much potential. I imagined their next disc to be oa huge step forward. As it stand, the band broke up with Chaz going on to join Jacob's Dream. Three new songs were recorded and are available on Chaz Bond's myspace page.