Nemesis The Warlock

Shriekback's music was always an appropriate soundtrack for life in the dark, but with the emphasis on the possibilities rather than the dangers. Though often haunting, it was not gothic and harboured strains of pop and dance that rose to the surface from time to time. Still, however accessible they became, Shriekback cultivated an air of mystery that made them hard to pin down. The video for the song "Nemesis" features the 2000 AD character Nemesis the Warlock.

Nemesis

My first and only foray into Shriekback was the single Nemesis. The Arch-Deviant 12” Mix retools their unexpected hit single with mixed results. On the one hand, it blunts the song's attack with an extended intro and plays up one of its weak points; the painfully shrill backing vocals. On the other hand Barry Andrews not only uses the word "parthenogenesis," but rhymes it successfully, and does so in the chorus. Even so the most interesting thing about the 12” version is that it demonstrates the song's thematic connection to Apocalypse Now with a spoken word sample from Marlon Brando.