The Red Chord is part of a long legacy of great bands to rise to prominence out of Massachusetts. In the early 2000’s bands like Killswitch Engage, Unearth and Shadows Fall led an vibrant and creative metal, thrash and hardcore scene within the Commonwealth. The Red Chord made their mark in the hardcore arena to begin, but have since evolved into a bruising death metal band with melodic interludes and all business! Or should I say, they are all bloodshed?
At first blush, “Fed Through The Teeth Machine” could come across as another death metal band pumping out blast beats and layering in vicious vocals. But after several listens I have started to appreciate the envelope they are pushing. For example, 3/4ths of the way through “Demoralizer” they give the listener an evil melody that fits in perfectly and reminds me a bit of All That Remains with a powerful death metal flare. During “Hymns And Crippled Anthems” there is a dirge where the band slows down the gunfire fest in favor of twinkling string work that slides in nicely. It is a welcomed interlude from the smash mouth, pile driving the listener is assaulted with during 95% of the record.
Let’s be honest, Death Metal is an acquired taste. I like Dying Fetus and Napalm Death, but what is really needed is a band with a big set of nards to push the sounds envelope while keeping it death. The Red Chord has introduced just enough dynamic elements keep it interesting and different, yet appeases the hardcore listeners. “Fed Through The Teeth Machine” is a 2009 Death Metal album. I tend to think they feel like the past is the past, so why not look to the future. I like what I am hearing if the future is in fact- now!
Rating: 8 out of 10, warfare, gore and melody?
Suggested Tracks: “Demoralizer”, “Ingest The Ash”, “One Robot To Another”
Track Listing:
01. Demoralizer
02. Hour Of Rats
03. Hymns And Crippled Anthems
04. Embarrassment Legacy
05. Tales Of Martyrs And Disappearing Acts
06. Floating Through The Vein
07. Ingest The Ash
08. One Robot To Another
09. Mouthful Of Precious Stones
10. The Ugliest Truth
11. Face Area Solution
12. Sleepless Nights In The Compound
ROCKSTAR Energy Drink TASTE OF CHAOS The ONLY WORLDWIDE MUSIC FESTIVAL Announces Its Massive Lineup WITH:
IN FLAMES KILLSWITCH ENGAGE EVERY TIME I DIE MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER DEAD BY APRIL
Rockstar Energy Drink Taste of Chaos is preparing to storm Europe and The UK again after over 330 Worldwide dates in the past 5 years and playing in over 23 countries to over 3 Million fans that have included the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Mexico and many others, the only worldwide lifestyle festival tour, the Rockstar Taste of Chaos is back with another onslaught of international shows.
Europe and Scandinavia will see IN FLAMES close the shows and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE will be the closer in the UK.
Bands performing in the UK,
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE IN FLAMES
EVERY TIME I DIE MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER
Special Guests
Bands performing in Scandinavia include:
IN FLAMES KILLSWITCH ENGAGE DEAD BY APRIL
EVERY TIME I DIE MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER
Special Guests
Belgium and Germany include:
IN FLAMES KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
EVERY TIME I DIE MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER
Special Guests
IN FLAMES is one of the most influential bands in modern metal and a band that keeps growing in popularity and size all the time. The latest album “A Sense Of Purpose” which hit the stores in April 2008, stormed the charts all over the world and keeps going strong. Featuring songs like “The Mirror’s Truth”, “Alias” and “Delight And Angers”. Once again it is time to conquer Europe with the biggest headline dates ever for the band on their home turf!
Killswitch Engage’s latest album, simply titled Killswitch Engage, debuted at #7 on the Billboard Top 200 chart earlier this summer, the same week that their previous album As Daylight Dies achieved Gold certification. Just coming off a highly successful Canadian co-headline run with In Flames, the band will be shooting a video for the song “Take Me Away” in the coming weeks.
John Reese (co-founder) states, “We have succeeded in a six year plan to establish a worldwide rock festival that has played to millions of fans and this year’s lineup is one of the strongest ever.” In Flames and Killswitch are two of my favorite bands”
Mike Kelso Director of Marketing for Rockstar Energy Drink states, “The Rockstar Taste of Chaos has been our marquee musical presentation the world over. You can expect a lot of great surprises on the tour.”
“We are really happy and looking forward to be part of this great tour. With the awesome line up this year, this tour is going to crush!
See you all on the road” – In Flames
“Greetings! Adam D from Killswitch here…just wanted to drop a line on how stoked I am to be going out on the Rockstar Taste of Chaos tour in Europe with our good buddies IN FLAMES real soon. They’re one of my favorite bands, so there’s a good chance you’ll see me lurking and power drinking in the corner of the club every night while they’re on stage. So if ya see me, do me a favor and buy me a beer. To show my gratitude, I’ll flex for you. We’ll be sure to play you guys some new songs as well…SO PLEASE COME CHECK OUT THE SHOW!!! Laters!”
ROCKSTAR Energy Drink will continue to be the title sponsor of the 2009 tour and will be sampling their products, as well as coming up with some great surprises for attendees. Ernie Ball will be a sponsor on the tour as well.
Having already spawned multiple soundtrack CD’s and a live DVD, Rockstar Taste Of Chaos, like its summer sibling the Van’s Warped Tour, it’s only getting bigger and better, offering fans the opportunity to see their favorite bands as well as take part in a number of activities including attending autograph signing sessions and a slew of interactive fan activities that will add to the experience.
Shaun Green is a metal lifer. His most popular past band was Nu-Metal monsters, Soil. His new band went full on Metal. Because this release came out earlier this year I wasn’t going to bother reviewing it. But after my friend Lee Rochester (New Review) sung the albums praises, I started thinking I might. Today I saw that Dirge Within is opening up for Trivium and felt like I needed offer my opinion.
Dirge Within is a simple pretty simple equation. Take Nothingface vocally and musically, combine Lamb Of God also musically and vocally. Plug in some hooky melodies (Killswitch Engage), some really simple pinch harmonics (Machine Head) and viola! That is “Force Fed Lies”.
Is this a half assed review? Yep! Frankly, the problem with the music industry is bands like Dirge Within get their break for basically replicating music that has already been done! The common theme with the bands mentioned above is that you know who they are when you hear them-they have their own sound! Dirge Within replicates all of those bands (not well) and creates a formula to rise to the top. Playing the system! It’s fine to imitate, but not when unknown bands can’t get a shot to tour with Trivium.
If you like the bands mentioned in this review, then you will like parts of Dirge Within. To me it sound rehashed and contrived-I’d rather listen to Nothingface’s “Pacifier” album instead of this- and that record came out more than a decade ago! Like I said, “rehashed”. Force Fed Lies is a fitting title I guess!
Rating: 6.5 out of 10, it gets a 6.5 for being perfectly produced and for having enough musical talent to imitate many of metals staples!
Suggested Tracks: “Spit” because the guitar solo does a pretty fair job ripping Kerry King off! Greatness is often imitated- but never duplicated!
Track Listing:
1. Self Medicate
2. Forever The Martyr
3. Force Fed Lies
4. Confession
5. Spit
6. New Disease
7. Last Goodbye
8. As I Walk
9. Inhuman
10. Saint of Humanity
11. Complacency
12. Eulogy
I was thinking the other day about the fact that some years are great
for heavy music while others aren’t so great. Take 2008 for example.
There were probably 5 new albums that came out that I liked in
2008, with three of them being live Clutch albums ( 1 live album
and 2 bootlegs).
2007 was one of those years where I ended up having more than 10
good albums to choose from for my annual top 10 albums of the year.
Those who didn’t make the cut garnered honorable mention status
because they still deserved a mention. Call me a loser for geeking out
over stuff like this, but I still enjoy picking my top 10 every year and
sending it to my friends. They may not enjoy it as much as I do, but
that’s not the point.
2009 is shaping up to be a lot like 2007 was, a great year for heavy
music. In my opinion a handful of good albums have been released
already with several more due out over the remaining five months of
2009. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Stoner & doom legend Scott “Wino” Weinrichreleased his first-ever
soloalbum earlier this year. If you’re a fan of his earlier work
in bands such as The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan,
The Hidden Hand, and many others, then you will have no problem
enjoying this album as much as I did. Wino is the type of guy who’s
consistenly good and who doesn’t rest on his laurels; he’s constantly
writing new music. There isn’t a ton of variety between his various
bands, but sometimes it’s better to do what works for you than to
stray from the familiar.
Mastodon put out one of the year’s best albums so far in “Crack
the Skye”. After putting out the bizarre, trippy mindfuck that was
“Blood Mountain”, the Atlanta quartet decided to come back to
earth and put out a better, more focused effort this time around.
“Oblivion” is a great start to the album and it’s followed by the song
of the year (so far), “Divinations”. This hauntingly beautiful song
feels epic as it gets its’ hooks into your brain and won’t let go until
its’ ready. I’m glad they got back to what made them great and
put out a very strong new album.
Lamb of God released “Wrath” earlier this year. Personally, I was not
impressed with this album but it does have it’s moments. With LOG it
seems like every other album is good. “As the Palaces Burn” was
fantastic, then they followed that up with “Ashes of the Wake”, which
wasn’t so fantastic. They followed “Ashes” with “Sacrament”, which was
very good, and they’ve followed “Sacrament” with another clunker.
Just my opinion. I like LOG, but their inconsistency baffles me
sometimes. Hopefully their next album will be better than “Wrath”.
Hatebreedput out a very good covers album earlier this year. I really
enjoyed this album and have had it in constant rotation ever since I got
it. My favorite covers include “Ghosts of War”, “Escape”, “Hatebreeders”,
“Thirsty and Miserable” and “All I Had I Gave”. Whether you like metal,
hardcore or punk, you’ll surely find something enjoyable on this covers
album. The Best Buy version contains a few live tracks, making it even
more desirable for those of us who love Hatebreed. Rumor has it that
Hatebreed had enough covers done to do 2 albums so hopefully they’ll
put together another covers album in the very near future.
Darkest Hour continue their dominant reign with another great
album, “The Eternal Return”. They’re consistent, which is a plus, but
they also try something new each time out. While I still favor the
unrelenting thrash of earlier albums such as “So Sedated, So Secure”
and “The Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation”, I really do like this
album quite a bit, as well as 2007’s “Deliver Us”. While I feel like the
older albums have a bit more personality, I can’t knock DH for
going back to their roots and creating an album that tries to
bludgeon you with every listen.
Killswitch Engage is a band that I used to really love. Now,
not so much. I’m not a big fan of how their sound has progressed
ever since Jesse David Leach left them. I have nothing against
Howard Jones. I think he’s an excellent vocalist, but I think Jesse
was a better fit for them and I feel like they wrote better songs when
he was in the band. While I haven’t spun their new album all that
much, I haven’t heard much that warrants me giving it many more
spins. Sorry, I’m just not feeling it guys. I don’t feel like there are any
songs that fit the ear candy category for me and the album as a whole
seems too bland in my opinion.
I can easily admit that I’m a big homer when it comes to Clutch. In my
opinion they can pretty much do no wrong musically. Their latest,
“Strange Cousins From the West”, is a bit stripped down from previous
albums like “Robot Hive: Exodus” and “From Beale Street to Oblivion”,
but it is very good nonetheless. It sneaks up on you with it’s grooves
and Neil Fallon’s infectious vocal hooks. I wouldn’t say that it’s in the
same class as their self-titled debut or “Beale Street”, but I do think it’s
a very good album and one that’s closer to the top than the bottom.
As far as the rest of the year, there are plenty of forthcoming release
that are getting me more excited than Dennys Reyes at an
all-you-can-eat buffet. It begins with thrash legends Slayer and
“World PaintedBlood”. Over the past year or so I’ve quickly become
obsessed with this band. I loved their past 2 albums, “God Hates Us
All” and “Christ Illusion”, along with all of the older material, so I’m
sure that this one will be getting much love from me when it drops in
early November. If you haven’t listened to the title track or
“Psychopathy Red” online you really need to do so. From the sounds
of those 2 tracks, the new album is going to be excellent.
Wino isn’t done for the year as he’s joining Neurosis’ Scott Kelly among
others for a supergroup called Shrinebuilder. I have no idea what this
is going to sound like but I am intrigued. Either way, I have a feeling
that it’s going to be good. I’m thinking it’s going to be doomy and slow
but I guess I’ll just have to wait until this fall when the album drops.
Hardcore heavyweights Hatebreed will be putting out a self-titled
album of new material in late September. If ever there was a band
who fit the definition of the word consistent, Hatebreed would be
it. They always come out with something great. Hopefully Jamey
Jasta has enough anger left to put together another classic album
with this alter ego of his.
Massachusetts thrash kings Shadows Fall have a new album
coming out in September as well. That is something you won’t want
to miss. I’ve heard a few new songs already and I’m very excited for
this one. If it’s anywhere near as good as “Threads of Life” was then
you surely won’t be disappointed. This is my darkhorse contender
for album of the year. Shadows Fall consistenly bring it so there’s no
reason to expect anything less this time around.
And last but certainly not least, Ohio’s Skeletonwitch will also be
releasing a new album this year called “Breathing the Fire”. If you
missed out on “Beyond the Permafrost” then I suggest that you go
and get that record right now. If you love thrash then you’ll love this
record. I bought it on a whim and I’m so glad that I did. It easily one
of the best records I’ve ever heard. I hope their new one is just as loud,
fast and sick as “Permafrost” is. If the cover artwork is any indication
of what the album’s going to be like, it’s going to be a great year for new
music.
This year has already been a good one for heavy music. Let’s hope that
the forthcoming albums push it into great status. I have a feeling that’s
not going to be a problem. All of this is my opinion of course and I
know I’m leaving out a ton of bands but I merely wanted to talk about
bands that I’m into. Feel free to comment or talk about any new albums
that I may have missed.
I found out about the Ascendicate one day when I was looking for video’s of ZZ Top (I wanted to see if they could still pull off a live set at their age). I came across this metal band doing a cover of ZZ Top and thought it was dead on. I then started exploring the band and thought they fit in nicely between Killswitch Engage and old Sevendust. Talent wise, The Ascendicate is a 10. But then I listened closely to the lyrics……
Let me preface this by saying I have no issues with Christian rock. But as a person who is not overly religious, I find lyrical content that is blatant religious propaganda to be a massive turn off. When I read the lyrics to “You And Me” it screamed “you better go confess your sins and love doing it”. Please read:
YOU!
It’s so loud and it’s crowding my eyes
and now I can’t look away.
And right now nothing else is real,
just keep your eyes on me, it won’t
be long until
It’s you and me, (it’s you)
It’s you and me. I wanna tell you
everything, I wanna tell you everything
’cause I am so in love with you,
I wanna fall in love with you.
There’s no where else I’d rather be,
there’s no one here but you and me.
We’ve come so far
the sun is fading,
now I am all of your with you.
This is where I wanna stay,
this is the only thing that’s real
nothing will pull me away.
I won’t let go until
It’s you and me, (it’s you)
It’s you and me. I wanna tell you
everything, I wanna tell you everything
’cause I am so in love with you,
I wanna fall in love with you.
There’s no where else I’d rather be,
there’s no one here but you and me. (x2)
It’s all you! (x2)
Eh! That lost me! More because I don’t understand the need to write about religion in music! To some it is salvation, to me it seems like a lot of work to convert non-believers- and frankly I don’t care one iota what people believe or disbelieve in. It is their lives, so with that perspective here is my musical opinion of the Ascendicate!
The band is ripe with talent. The string work is old Sevendust, while lead throat Eric Marlowe has a fantastically dynamic voice. He doesn’t sound whiney when he pipes out a melodic chorus. Something far too common in modern music! Like crap like “ MOM- I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH CAVIAR” delivered in a high pitched waaah waaah scream! Getting back to Marlowe, he is just simply cranks it out! It’s too bad much of what he is saying is a more subtle version of that obnoxious guy on the street telling you that if you don’t believe you will burn on judgement day!
If you can get past the lyrics, then “We Die As Kings” is a fantastic record! In fact the song writing on “Pride Of The Brutish” is perfect. The execution between a huge chorus and bloodshed blast beats within the bridge is simply stellar. However, if you don’t like being preached at in your music- then keep walking by!
Rating: Musically an 8, lyrically a 2- with a balance going strongly in favor the music. Regis, my answer is 6-final answer!
Recommended Tracks: “Burden”, “Pride Of The Brutish”
Track Listing: 1. Scottish
2. You And Me (The Payoff)
3. Burden
4. Fire That Kid
5. Stay Right Here
6. Pride Of The Brutish
7. We Didn’t Click
8. A Bit Of History
9. Fighting Words
10. I Obviously Can’t Stop
I have attached a video with the lyrics attached to the song.
I felt like making this the first album we review made too much sense. I will never forget the day when Carl Severson (Ferret Style) called me and said the first KsE album was the biggest release his label would be putting out. At the time I was curious. After listening to their first self titled album, I was convinced. Especially with their Overcast roots! So I have been reviewing KsE albums for a very long time.
So what about this new self titled album? I went into the album with high standards. With the addition of highly regarded producer, Brendan O’Brien, I was looking for the band to take a musical leap forward. What I found was an album that is more polished. Better transitions with a more meaty sound. Not that Adam D’s work has been terrible in the past, but this record sounds like a lot of TLC has been put into it!
Musically- it is Killswitch Engage. The tradeoff between viper like screams and remarkable melodies are par for the course. The guitar work is at times much faster than previous work. The guitar work on “Take Me Way” is simple astounding. Get your calculator out because it takes a mathematician to decode this shit! Howard has progressed too! When he first joined KsE from Blood Has Been Shed, he struggled with the notes, that previous lead throat Jesse Leach, could hit! But with this album, he now has the confidence to sing. The massive chorus on the “Reckoning” is belted out with the gusto the song deserves.
One of the things I did take away was the lack of “that one song” that hits you where it counts. On “Alive or Breathing” it was “My Last Serenade”. On “End Of Heartache”, “Rose For Sharyn” stood out. “As Daylight Dies” allowed “My Curse” to shine bright. But on this record, I can’t put a finger on one tune that shines brighter than the rest. Maybe that is a good thing? Maybe it means I enjoy the whole album equally? Or maybe KsE played it safe? You decide!
This record is a solid effort. But don’t go into it looking for the next great song, look at it as a solid album that doesn’t have one hit!
Rating: 8 out of 10
Recommended Tracks: “Take Me Away”, “Reckoning”, “Rose of Sharyn (Live)”
Artist: The Red Chord
layering in vicious vocals. But after several listens I have started to appreciate the envelope they are pushing. For example, 3/4ths of the way through “Demoralizer” they give the listener an evil melody that fits in perfectly and reminds me a bit of All That Remains with a powerful death metal flare. During “Hymns And Crippled Anthems” there is a dirge where the band slows down the gunfire fest in favor of twinkling string work that slides in nicely. It is a welcomed interlude from the smash mouth, pile driving the listener is assaulted with during 95% of the record.
ROCKSTAR Energy Drink TASTE OF CHAOS 
Artist: Dirge Within
Artist: The Ascendicate
Artist: Killswitch Engage
Musically- it is Killswitch Engage. The tradeoff between viper like screams and remarkable melodies are par for the course. The guitar work is at times much faster than previous work. The guitar work on “Take Me Way” is simple astounding. Get your calculator out because it takes a mathematician to decode this shit! Howard has progressed too! When he first joined KsE from 
HitThePitBlog 