When musicians enter into self-indulgent side-project ventures such as this, the problem seems to be that no-one’s around to give them a reality check. When Dave MacPherson, Greg MacPherson and Gazz Marlow, otherwise known as three-fifths of Essex post-grungers InMe, announced they were going to proceed with Centiment, a genre-fusing clusterfuck of a band, people (probably) told them “THAT SOUNDS AMAZING, YOU GENIUSES! LOL!”, when it may have been better to advise them that djent dynamics, 8-bit video game samples, flourishes of EDM and power-metal so Gorgonzola-scented that Dragonforce turned it down doesn’t make a particularly palatable mix for anyone who possesses working eardrums. In fact, I feel even the deaf would have a little trouble stomaching this one.
The main question consumption of this record raises is “What’s the point?” – if Centiment feel they’re original by putting all the noises they heard watching Scott Pilgrim Vs The World over heavy music, they’re dead wrong. Nintendocore already happened and Lord knows the world doesn’t need another HORSE The Band. Okay, so they’re bringing it “up-to-date” by using the tropes of djent, but this is so belligerently pandering to a “nerd” audience, I don’t think even djent nerds would find this acceptable. While it’s understandable one might get bored after nearly 20 years as members of InMe (yes everyone, they ARE still going), blasting all the bad ideas you had at 4am after a night of whacky baccy, beers and a SNES onto one record is not the answer to these frustrations, if only so those poor people that put their hard-earned into helping to make this record happen don’t have to endure such drivel.
While ’Streets Of Rage’ (named for a 1991 beat-‘em-up Mega Drive game) does have the occasional enjoyable moment – final track ‘Zero Tolerance’ sounds like a souped-up version of InMe’s latter-day material with some genuinely impressive technical flair – the rest of the album is so crammed with overfed and overcooked ideas (99.9% of them bad), the remainder fails to leave much of an impact beyond one thinking how silly this all is. 9 tracks encompassing 50 minutes spent sounding like little boys playing with synths in the school music room is a complete misfire from five grown men who should know better.
The good news for InMe fans is that if Dave MacPherson’s voice can still be the shining light amongst such musical tripe, his unique vocal can continue to be a strength on his day job’s upcoming triple(!) album. The better news for everyone else is that I’ve listened to this record so that you don’t have to – while it might be fun to abuse your position of (relative) fame and power to unleash a musical sin like Centiment upon the world, even InMe fans and djent fans alike didn’t do enough to deserve this shambles. Scott Pilgrim has a helluva lot to answer for.
1/5
‘Streets of Rage’ by Centiment is out on the 17th February on Pledge Music.
Centiment links: Facebook|Bandcamp|Twitter
Words by Ollie Connors (@olliexcore)
