Featured review by:
UG Team, on august 08, 2007
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Sound: You take a good dose of Napalm Death, throw in some of the classic early death bands like Cynic and Death, and the outcome should be a band like The Red Chord. The sound and production of the album leaves a bit to be desired. It's an OK production, but it doesn't raise any eyebrows. It's not as meaty and thick as most other metal albums coming out these days (see albums produced by Andy Sneap for meaty and thick productions). Of course this may, or may not have been intentional, but the production still doesn't impress me. // 5
Lyrics and Singing: In terms of lyrics, it's pretty solid. You have fairly stock topics, but that's to be expected in this day and age. There are only so many things you can write about, and just about all topics have been covered by now. It's aggressive as hell, so expect no Warrant-themed lyrics. For a more elaborate discussion and analysis of the lyrics, a sheet with the lyrics sure would've been swell. // 6
Impression: This album suffers from one of the reoccurring problems of albums these days, it's too padded. You have 14 tracks, but it would've been better had you axed 3 or 4 tracks from it (such as the opener and the trippy, but utterly pointless instrumental). You do get some nice shifts in timesignatures, tempos and a few good riffs. Sadly, complexity and a few good riffs do not a good album make. The early barrage of "Dread Prevailed" and "Send the Death Storm" gets the album going well, but then around the middle it starts to drag. However, the album ends very well with two fine tracks, "Bone Needle" and "Seminar". Somewhere along the line, the coherence seems to be a bit lost. There're bands that can use that vibe to make their material enjoyable as hell (such as Cynic and Atheist), but that vibe doesn't help this album at all. In fact, it more or less sinks it. // 5
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