Enter Ascension of the Watchers, a project some eight years in the making, and a vehicle for Bell's distinctly less abrasive interests. Claiming to draw influence from luminary names like Fields of the Nephilim and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, it soon becomes painfully clear that Burton and his new crew lack both the dynamic sensibilities of Carl McCoy and Cave's knack for penning interesting, engaging narratives. Indeed, for a project that's been stuck in the throes of gestation for as long as this, _Numinosum_ is every bit as bloated and confused as it might have been had it been pieced together in the space of a week. Virtually as a rule, songs drag ass like a flea-infested Labrador on its last legs -- never more so than on the painful two-part odyssey that forms the intro and the album's first song proper, "Evading". That track ironically formed part of the band's 2002 demo, _Iconoclast_, and sounded significantly more promising than its latter-day, OAP-friendly counterpart.

Meanwhile, Burton's ham-fisted attempts at love balladry on "Canon for My Beloved" and "Moonshine" sound every bit as bile-inducing as their titles would suggest. In fact, it's only on the disarmingly atmospheric "Residual Presence" and an emotive reworking of a Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" that Ascension of the Watchers ever truly "works". Had someone pointed that out to Burton at some point during this disc's recording, _Numinosum_ could have been an entirely more captivating offering.