With a sound rooted in indie rock, Mark Ciani is new to our pages through his latest studio album, The Catacombs.

By Graeme Smith

The Catacombs is a collection that explores the many ways people sabotage their own paths to peace. It’s a road less travelled when it comes to music, and Mark delivers his message in a way that perhaps only he can, combining bombastic rock overtones with folksy undertones.

Opening track Cut Me Up is a perfect case in point, teetering between gentle, introspective verses and hard-hitting choruses. It’s a sound that could only be born from experience and Mark certainly has that. The Catacombs is his eighth album co-producing with Grammy-winning producer and engineer Fernando Lodeiro.

Some Kind of Purgatory provides an early highlight. Raw, visceral and pleading, it feels like organised chaos. Big riffs in the chorus provide an aural balm for its off-kilter verses. Its lyrics perfectly capture the long, lonely dark night of the soul of which they speak.

Other highlights include the moody and intimate Second Chance, the explosive, gospel-infused Catch My Breath, the unhinged, darkly poetic Chernobyl, the gentle folk pop storytelling of Too Wise to Enjoy, and immersive title track and album closer, The Catacombs.

The Catacombs is out now and you can give it a listen below.