Released
1998

Label
Dead City Recordings

Reviewed by
S. Glitsos

Contact
Bend

Visit
Dead City Recordings

Visit
Bend

Last Edit/Update
01 October, 1999

Bend

Trying to Find Function

Track Listing

1. Remedy
2. Transmission
3. Sweet Caress
4. Distance
5. Function

After a little while, I had thought that the post-industrial rock craze (or whatever you want to call it. The little fascination with bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Gravity Kills, Filter and whatnot) was over with. This CD, rather crudely, drove it home that it wasn't. Perhaps it's because I'm not an overall fan of this type of music -- simple drums, grinding guitars, angsty lyrics, some synths, etc.

It starts out with "Remedy" -- a song that vaguely reminded me of the Stone Temple Pilots, because it had a similar tone to them, and could easily be played on the radio in the middle of prime time top 40 music, and only be criticised because it's not Hanson. Basic verse - chorus pop structure, nothing special. Nasty sounding distortion on the guitars, though. Very synthetic. Next, a nice little ditty called "Transmission." A little under 40 seconds long. Probably the best song on the track, it's pretty much drone music without the vision or apparent effort. With the next song, "Sweet Caress," it was decided that, instead of a driving angsty radio hit, they should make a sad angsty radio hit. More of the same (ie, verse - chorus). You can pretty much see where this CD is going -- brooding and radio songs.

To their credit, Bend has a nicely laid out webpage. Along with that comes a  simple yet effective album sleeve design.