Fused Together In Revolving Doors hit me like an uppercut to the balls, rendering me in pain on the ground only able to lay motionless while the heavy breathing and bristling of this band snarled in my ear. Imagine Converge as a death metal band and that’s approximately the feeling I get from The Red Chord. Intelligent, thought out metal, where the technicality and heavy factor are set on “10” without the cheesy stigmas of death metal. A breakdown will show up every now and then, but the true power of this band relies in their original licks and speed.

“Like a Train Through a Pigeon” is blastbeat into hyper-thrash into blastbeat with a couple breakdowns thrown in that are easily Hatebreed’s Harvard graduate of a cousin in execution. Especially on the track “Catalepsy,” the listener is sucker-punched in the face with a sickening breakdown around the 1:20 mark – their missing front teeth serves as evidence. Production is a perfect compliment to the style. The bass drums actually have bass, and aren’t just little pussy “click-click” sounds. And it actually sounds as if the drummer is playing his kit; not the ultra-triggered sound common with death metal these days. The natural sound is a nice realistic glimpse into the actual drumming and, if anything, makes the song that much more pummeling. The guitars are crunchy with low end, but it’s not a bunch of over done open “E” chords; the brutality is executed with taste.

Another unique aspect of The Red Chord is their vocal department. The spectrum is entirely covered when it comes to extreme metal: the death-like grunt, high-pitched scream, slightly decipherable yell/shout. It’s all here and then some. Within the first 10 seconds, track eight, “Dreaming In Dog Years,” will make Dillinger Escape Plan fans do a double take. The technical guitar and drum interplay is rabidly furious and nano-second sensitive on the timing scale, and it’s also 10 times heavier. An added bonus is that this band came pretty much out of nowhere, which adds to my shock and amazement as to why more people raving aren’t about this band? If bands like Botch and The Dillinger Escape Plan are the thinking man’s metal for the indie-metal/hardcore kids, then The Red Chord will represent intelligence in death metal. Thankfully the painful stigmas that come along with having “death metal” associated with The Red Chord isn’t present on Fused Together In Revolving Doors.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments