Cog - Sharing Space (2008)

By William Barker

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When I was young and unrelaxed, one of my favourite bands was Tool. They managed to combine powerful but sombre guitar riffs and rhythmic percussion with political messages and it was impressively original at the time. 

And still is.

Having listened to Australian alt rock band Cog's second album, "Sharing Space", it wouldn't be a stretch to suggest that this new album fills a similar space to Tool's Ænima album.

With a unique sound that's somtimes experimental, Cog is a three piece progressive rock band that has already had success with two of the singles from the album, the radio-friendly Bird of Feather and the excellent What If.

The lesser known tracks from the album range from between very good and average, but overall it's a strong second showing from the Sydney outfit that has the potential to bust out in major international markets.

The band has a couple of epics in there that extend beyond six minutes, and there's some politics in there too particularly in track two, Are You Interested?

The song starts out with a bit of healthy paranoia about modern Western democracies: "Yes they're making lists of people interested in this; and they're scanning all the databases hunting terrorists."

As well as the anti establishment themes - how about "And anyone who speaks their mind is labelled anarchist" or "I don't listen at all to the government - they're getting in the way, they gotta go" - the songs are actually pretty catchy too.

I get a sense there's a touch of inspiration from British group The Music creeping into their work, with some psychadelic rock infusions here and there thanks to the use of varied instruments and audio effects, but more obvious influences would be Tool, Soundgarden, Audio Slave and Helmet.

If you like this kind of music, get yourself this album.

If nothing else, Cog has developed some really different elements to their music, and track three, The Movies Over, begins with what can only be described as pseudo scat. Flynn Gower's vocals are distinctive and sharp, and for the most part impressive.

The intriguing intro to track three is impressive for its creativity, but the rest of the song isn't so good.

Thankfully that can only be said of a handful of tracks on Cog's second album. For the most part this is an interesting journey through progressive and sometimes experimental rock. 

Track 9, How Long, is quite mellow and there are a couple of low intensity songs on there which breaks things up and adds variety. The first track, No Other Way, is one of the best tunes on the album and comes across as one as inspired in my opinion. Sure, the song goes for almost 10 minutes, but it's a worthy opus. 

The finale of track 11, Bitter Pills, is one of the coolest of Cog's forays into the experimental, and I would have liked to have heard more of this sort of moody synthesised stuff on the album.

By the third listen through the album "Sharing Space", I was well and truly engaged by a number of tracks, and there's an earnest aspect to a lot of the songs, particularly the the way the lyrics move around the melodies. Sometimes the songs work, sometimes they don't, but Cog can't be accused of conforming to any one style.

There are some aspects of this album that don't work, but by and large it's a pretty good package. Cog has put together a good variety of alt rock songs that will no doubt be highly sought after on the live stage.

Well worth checking out.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

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