THE MARK OF CAIN RETALIATES WITH CONTROVERSIAL ( R ) SINGLE & VIDEO _____________________________________________________________________ The Mark Of Cain is set to make an explosive return to the Australian music scene on 12th February with the release of (R) RETALIATE, their first studio single in 4 years.
'RETALIATE' was a term appropriated by Howard Unruh, the world's first "crazy" gunman, who kept a list with the names of his neighbours who he felt had done him wrong. (R) for RETALIATE was written next to the names on his list, to indicate those that he had selected for the ultimate valediction in blood.
Unruh, a distinguished war veteran, finally exploded on September 9th 1949, killing 13 people in as many minutes. Giving himself up to police he said, "I'm no psycho. I have a good mind, but they were picking on me." He was found insane and sentenced to life in a criminal asylum.
The symbol of the Zodiac Killer.
Travis Bickle
English: Graffiti of Travis Bickle ("Taxi Driver")...He later told a psychiatrist, "I'd have killed a thousand if I'd had bullets enough." The Mark Of Cain songwriter and frontman, John Scott, explains the inspiration for (R) RETALIATE comes from his preoccupation with the psychology of the loner, particularly the alienated war veteran, common in film noir of the 1940s.
"My interest in the loner has always extended to the serial killer by default. Unruh's story hit a nerve with me and I can certainly relate to his keeping a list and his explosive anger in knowing when enough is enough," he said.
"Although ultimately misguided, Unruh's cold and harsh military precision impressed me and made me think of another alienated war veteran from film; Travis Bickle - "God's Lonely Man" - in Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Like Unruh, De Niro's Vietnam vet also comes to define himself in peacetime through his...