Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
How often are we afforded, granted the opportunity to look upon our work and think that it could be seen in a different light, given a fresh look with modern introspection and a familiarity which gathers pleasure along the way.
Named after the Roman God, Janus regales in that sense of exactness as it showcases re-recorded and revitalised tracks from the period of 1987’s Outland, and 1988’s The Price You Pay, Janus is an album of transition in Time, it doubles down on expectation, it alludes and then insists on a greater sense of purpose as one does when looking back with renewed vigour.
What Kirk Brandon and the band have produced is simply thrilling, a combination of albums that read as a single uninterruptable piece of art, a landscape of poetic ingenuity that thrills and connects with almost unlike anything that will have come the way of many listeners before.
The two albums were already dynamic twins in all but name, a dystopian and lyrically personally forward motion defining back-to-back experience now receives its prominence as a unified persona, one where Janus is almost human like, being pulled by memory and anticipation in equal measure.
The newly recorded offering is full of confidence, a self-assurance delivered with poise and a conviction, and with the latest incarnation of the band, Steve Allan Jones, Phil Martini, Adrian Portas, Craig Adams, along with Clive Osbourne, all exemplifying the reasons and subjects for this renewal, tracks such as Land Of Shame, Never Take Me Alive, Radio Radio, the excellent So In Love With You, Junk Man, March Or Die, Soldier, Soldier, and The Man Who Never Was, all taking their bow with honour and newly refound prestige.
Originality isn’t always found in the new and unexplored, often it comes in the form of the innovative finding structure within the previously released and understanding that it could be viewed differently, like the Spilhaus World Ocean Map which shows just how the waters of our planet are far more in tune with a natural order than viewed through the eyes of stunted objectification.
A superb reconnection of music, a re-healing perhaps where control is strongly taken back by the original creator and given a release of true expression.
Spear of Destiny release Janus on May 23rd via Eastersnow.
Ian D. Hall