Wednesday 26 November 2008

Music Review : The Red Shore - Unconsecrated

The Red Shore Deliver A Promising Debut album


After the tragic crash which ended the life of vocalist Damien Morris and Merchandiser Andy Milner, Many expected The Red Shore to call it a day. But the Australian quintet have done more than just continue the band, they have managed to bounce back.

 

While The Red Shore secured the majority of their fan base with an EP that was negatively received by the metal community, “Unconsecrated” Is an impressive Death metal affair with technical flourishes. The Hardcore traces from the EP are almost completely absent on “Unconsecrated”. Although there are easily heard flickers of the current Deathcore fad. Make no mistake, although this album contains breakdowns, it is not a deathcore album.

 



On 'Unconsecrated', The Red Shore have created an album that combines the sounds of The Black Dahlia Murder, “Genesis” era Job for a Cowboy and fellow Australians Thy Art Is Murder. Instrumentally the album is well executed. Both guitarists provide riffs which rarely stray from the chugging, dissonant style which have been heard before by different bands. This is disappointing, as when they do experiment the result is much more interesting and could come straight out of a Psycroptic Or Beneath The Massacre album (Opening riff of “Slain By The Serpent” or 00:50 seconds on “The Architects Of Repulsion”).

 

The Bass guitar can be well heard throughout the album, which although refreshing, has no real impact on the album as bassist Jon Green doesn’t show any real creativity and relies heavily on the Guitarists for his parts.

 

Drummer Jake Green is an extremely talented drummer, but If you hear past the wall of double kicking and blast beats nothing is done which hasn’t been heard before (Admittedly it is hard to break new drumming ground in death metal) and similar to many other bands, his kit is more triggered than the U.S. Army. Although this Is necessary in a live setting every thing seems a bit artificial on record.

 

Many people contribute vocals to “Unconsecrated”. These include lead vocalist (Former Bassist) Jamie Hope on 6 tracks, and recently deceased Damien Morris on the other 4. One can only assume these were included as a tribute to him. Both vocalists have a similar style of delivery, although Damien Morris is slightly superior in both Low growls and High shrieks. Many guest vocalists appear on this album,(Vocalists of All Shall Perish, Bring Me The Horizon, Zao and Bleeding Through) most of which are barely discernable from the full time vocalist. The one exception however is Brandon Schieppati’s (Bleeding Through) contribution on “The Architects Of Repulsion” as his instantly recognizable scream can be heard amongst the distorted riffs.

 

While The Red Shore bring nothing new to the table, their fusion of Death Metal with a tinge of hardcore is thoroughly enjoyable over the 34 minutes. Although they have many flaws, they have proved to be ahead of the pack and exceeded my expectations with this album, and for that I give this a 7/10.

No comments: