The Red Chord-Prey for eyes

Metal Blade
2007


The new offering from The Red Chord is not easy to take in at first. My initial impression was that is was largely death metal due to the vocals. Yet upon further examination, I was beginning to hear some classic speed metal riffs spiraling around here and there. Flashes of prime Slayer, New Jersey's Whiplash and even Exodus came to mind at moments. However, there are also passages that may lend themselves to a more hardcore approach as well. The songs are relatively short, but the majority are very busy and occasionally become rather frantic in style. I think that approach is one of the major pluses for this band. The odd riffs and slightly bizarre pacing is what made this album interesting. It took a few tracks for me to realize what they were doing though, but then I began to settle in and appreciate it. I still feel a little unsettled when an album like this has strong production values. I guess that's because I grew up in a time when speed and death metal albums normally had a fuzzier sound to the production. That's not a complaint, but just something that I am aware of. Although the music drew me in, the vocals were far more standard for this type of music. They may have been slightly more distinct, but nothing special. The only other negative is that oftentimes their song structures seem to begin to build towards something greater, but they never quite manage to complete this and the songs end. Now that could just be me having a different sense of where they should be going. Yet I couldn't shake the feeling that if some of the songs were slightly longer that these guys could have even gotten more out of their music. The Red Chord seem to have some genuine potential and I hope they keep pushing and growing beyond this album.