Until We Have Muffins

Red (the band, not the primary color) are a four piece band out of Nashville, Tennessee who play an energetic style of alt-metal with string sections and screams all mixed together for one fantastic audio experience.

I've never been disappointed by this band, but Until We Have Faces, their third studio album, is in my opinion their best work to date. I loved End Of Silence, and Innocence And Instinct was definitely a solid sophomore release, but this album is Red at their finest. Everything is fine tuned, resulting in an album that sounds like the band members poured every ounce of themselves into it.

The album opens up with "Feed The Machine", which follows a formula that those familiar with the band will recognize from the hit single off their debut ("Breathe Into Me"), but done even better. Michael Barnes is at the top of his game vocally, with his cleans sounding even more melodious and his screams having enough force behind them to drive home any point he wants. Anthony Armstrong's guitar work is just as high quality as the previous albums, the bass is manned expertly by Randy Armstrong (who also helps out on backing vocals with the other Armstrong), and the drums are once again helmed by Joe Rickard. "Faceless" is up next with a driving guitar and drum attack, with some nice string accompaniment interspersed throughout. Track three, "Lie To Me (Denial)", has a slow, electronic build as the full force of the intro kicks in before pulling back for the verse. Mr. Barnes vocals flow perfectly with the energy of the song and will have you singing along to the anthemic chorus before long. "Let It Burn" is a ballad - plain and simple. Slow beat, electronic and string elements, harmonized vocals, and a layered chorus; this song has it all. Though the next song keeps the pace in line with this slightly more melancholy beat, "Buried Beneath" is definitely not a ballad. Driving guitars and drum work focusing on the low end and the toms give it a nice heavy feel. "Not Alone" brings us to the halfway mark of the album and is an even more moving ballad than "Let It Burn" was.

"Watch You Crawl" kickstarts the second half of this masterpiece with a wicked little guitar riff. You can tell that track eight, "The Outside", is gonna be heavy as soon as it starts. The vocals start out a little muted and the screams fit nicely in with the tone of the song. "Who We Are" follows it up with a straightforward modern rock-styled feel that changes things up a little. Red slows things down again with "Best Is Yet To Come". I can't help but think of The Diary Of Jane era Breaking Benjamin on this song, which is far from a complaint. The clean guitars, the vocals, the drums, and the transitions just bring that band to mind. The final track on the standard edition is "Hymn For The Missing". It opens with a slow piano piece with Barnes singing along. Strings are added and some atmospheric female vocals add even more depth to this track. It is the perfect ending to the album.

If you were lucky enough to have pre-ordered the album on iTunes, you were also gifted with a twelfth track: "Until We Have Faces". Does anyone else find it strange that the title track is a bonus? Anyway, it slowly builds with a choir and some haunting piano before it decides to kick you in the teeth with a heavy guitar/drum onslaught that layers some strings into the mix. Then Barnes lets loose some truly metal growls with a breakdown that would get any metalhead off his feet and into a pit. Then all of a sudden it stops. It caught me so off guard. I felt like it ended too soon, like it was building and leading into something, but it just cut out. This was my only complaint throughout the whole album, but it left me hanging.

These Tennessee boys have a gift for some good old alt-metal, and they perform it perfectly. Brilliant songwriting, skillful musicianship, and a passion that shows through on every song make Until We Have Faces well worth a purchase.

Muffin Rivers Flow

Who likes thrash metal? Go on, raise your hand. It’s ok. I like it, too. It’s not just for old guys who can remember when Metallica had just released their first album. I promise.

The Wisconsin four-piece Lazarus A.D. gives us a nice thrash record for the new year. The follow-up to 2009's The Onslaught, “Black Rivers Flow” is long overdue, in my opinion. I loved their debut, and was hungry for more right off the bat. Now, they’ve finally released their sophomore Metal Blade Records album, and it was absolutely worth the wait.

“American Dreams” starts us off with a nice fade in to a speedy little guitar riff before the full force kicks you in the chest as the rest of the band joins in. Jeff Paulick’s vocals have greatly improved from the half growled, half spoken style he sported on The Onslaught. Another welcome improvement is the meshing of growls and clean vocals to give them a little edge of melody. Track two, “The Ultimate Sacrifice”, is one of the album’s standouts. A chugging intro that sports a plethora of palm muted guitars and pounding drums with a wicked little solo leads into the verse. The chorus makes full use of the clean vocals of lead guitarist Dan Gaipen’s gritty style. Picking up the pace, “The Strong Prevail” adds elements of speed metal to the ever present thrashiness.

The title track, “Black Rivers Flow”, slows things down with a clean guitar intro that switches gears to distorted about halfway through it. As the verse starts to come in, the guitars gain steam with a faster, heavier riff that’s backed up with the brutality of Ryan Shutler’s drumming. “Black Rivers Flow” is another standout song on this album, combining everything Lazarus A.D. seems to do best. “Casting Forward”, “Light A City (Up In Smoke)”, and “Through Your Eyes” keep the thrash coming before we reach the epic “Beneath The Waves Of Hatred”. A devilishly technical lead intro builds momentum for the crushing weight of the verse and chorus to hammer home. This is the best song on the album. This is Lazarus A.D. at its finest. Superb guitar work, heavy vocals combining grit and melody, and driving drums will have you out of your seat within the first minute.

They close this album up with “Eternal Vengeance”, which is the mandatory and absolutely necessary thrash ballad. Clean guitars and vocals give us a lead into things before the distortion kicks back in as Paulick screams “waiting for the day I die!” As you may have guessed, the ballad is over and the heavy is back. They interlude with one last face melting solo before finishing things up with a final rendition chorus that slowly fades out.

Giving thrash metal new life, Lazarus A.D. are building up a great name for themselves. I can’t wait to hear what they bring us next.

Going Down With The Muffin

Anyone familiar with Across Five Aprils will immediately recognize the moniker of A Tragedy In Progress, a throwback to their first album. That’s right, boys and girls, the original members of AFA are back in action. Now, many of you are probably wondering why they didn’t just pick back up Across Five Aprils, as they have since broken up. Frontman Steve Taylor stated that he believed that AFA had continued to build itself into something new after he left, and felt that it deserved to have that. So, under the tribute to their old band, the first lineup of Across Five Aprils adopted the name A Tragedy In Progress and have released their first EP titled “Going Down With The Ship” through Indianola Records.

With only four songs, this release clocks in at about 16 minutes or so, which is a shame, especially after listening to it. “The Loudest Silence” kicks things off with Taylor’s wicked screams, which he pairs with some impressive clean vocals. The guitar work and drumming, while very reminiscent of Across Five Aprils, show a little more polish, though the energy is as high as ever. “Battle Scars” follows up with a little slower, melodic effort, focusing on clean vocals more than the screams. Track three, dubbed “Radio Flyer” (a re-recorded version of Across Five Aprils’ “Around The World On A Radio Flyer”), opens with some catchy melodic guitar work that leads into some wicked metalcore drumming and again pairs the clean and screamed vocals together nicely. ATIP close things out with “Same Faces, Different Places”. With an atmospheric vocal intro, they bring in a poppy but heavy intro that leads into a catchy verse which (surprise-surprise) switches back and forth between the cleans and screams, with perfect guitar work and drums providing a great background for them.

Two other aspects worth mentioning are the production and songwriting. Production is spectacular on this album, and nothing is lost in the mix. Guitars, drums, bass, and vocals all find a perfect layering on this EP. The songwriting is equally as amazing. Across Five Aprils, in my opinion, had an incredible gift for songwriting, and ATIP continues to show it.

Overall, “Going Down With The Ship” is a magnificent sneak peek into the potential A Tragedy In Progress has, but it really is only a sneak peek. It is tragically (see what I did there?) short, and leaves me wanting more every time I listen to it. However, this only makes me more excited for when they finally put out a full length. Definitely pick this one up.