Raise the red lantern

At a loss
2009

It figures right after I make up my top albums of 2009 list I discover others that I might have put on the list had I heard them a few weeks earlier. As I made my way through the stack of discs piled on my desk to review I saw this dark covered disc and rescued it from the pit. I don't know what drew me to it this time around because I don't even remmber taking it out of a package, but I know that I to have done it. Still I stuck it in not knowing what to expect. Even after one whole I still was not exactly sure I now had it my hands however I knew it had far exceeded expectations and that I needed to play it again. The second convinced me even more that this was indeed something special, but still hard to pin down. Raise the red lantern draw on a variety of styles. They also use these styles in an unexpected approach as you never know when they jab at you with steady, fuzzed out pounding then start knocking you around with some thundering noise before finally knocking you out with some old style thrash bursts. They regularly reach into their trick bag and pull out doom, hardcore, grindcore, thrash and other styles without flinching or giving up any ground. They can mix and twist styles easily and still keep the pace tromping forward. The production is fittingly spectacular and works bringing all of the sound too and above the surface as needed. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I sure got more than I bargained for which turned out to be a good thing this time around.