Ego Likeness is the long running musical project of artist Steven Archer and writer Donna Lynch. ‘When the Wolves Return’ focuses on drama, forging a gothic atmosphere that runs through the album’s imposing rock compositions: chugging guitar sounds are propelled by clinical beats while cinematic synths add layers and depth to the taut sound. It’s a grandiose work with an ambitious sense of scale. Comparisons with Evansessence are perhaps obvious and relevant, but sell Ego Likeness rather short. Referencing ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ era NIN and Stabbing Westward isn’t exactly out of place either, and anyone who’s heard Patricia Morrison’s 1994 solo album, ‘Reflect on This’ will also likely find not only parallels but points of interest.
Over tense and expansive musical backdrops, driven by industrial-strength mechanised dark disco rhythms, sometimes swerving into darkwave and electrogoth, Lynch’s vocals are strong imposing.
The themes of conflict, the pain and anxiety of love, destructive relationships, imbalance, dominance and submission channel through many of the tracks. If the lyrics to at times fall to formula and appropriate the form of Renaissance lyric poetry in the frequent juxtapositions of fire and ice, blessed and cursed, love and hate (and the likeness of ‘Mercy’ to Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ with a stomping dark disco groove notwithstanding), it’s compensated by the fact they’re delivered with a sincerity and passion that’s thoroughly engaging and utterly compelling.
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The sound and production is crisp and strong, accentuating the powerful synergy of the vocal and musical elements, and it all adds up to a strong and compelling album.
Ego Likeness Online
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