After ripping my face off with 2009’s Unconsecrated Australia’s The Red Shore return with a new label, a new vocalist and a new drummer ― yet none of those changes stop The Avarice of Man being as completely devastating as the band’s debut.

Despite the fact the band will be lumped in with the current trend of bands blurring the line between technical death metal and deathcore―or dropping deathcore elements (As You Drown, Oceano, Annotations of an Autopsy)―The Red Shore, as with their debut, to these ears, display nothing short of pure brutality. Regardless of how you view them.

In my opinion, The Red Shore still have hints of Decapitated (if you don’t believe me, listen to the title track and “Awakening”) and Nile swirling and lurking amid their more modern, burly exterior, and appear to have even upped the complexity a little making the, at times oppressive heft, even more impressive.

And while some may feel the album’s often relentless pace blends a little too much, personally, the sheer bulldozing nature of the album leaves me breathless with adrenalin sapping ferocity. The total and pure domination of the album’s pace and gait is simply a testament to everything brutal, eschewing anything remotely trendy, scene based or even core leanings.

After the rather needless intro of “Creation”, “Seeds of Annihilation” sets the tone for the next 11 tracks (there is a brief respite for interlude “The Union”) of pure unadulterated sonic savagery. There are so many slabs of neck slapping, spine shattering complexity and monstrous, heaving girth, it can be pretty overwhelming. It’s not a clean, noodly, proggy complexity a la Decrepit Birth either (although “The First and Last Things” tries), but a much fiercer, steroid injected, direct and oppressively heavy sense of menacing intricacy, backed by a robust, bottom end delivery. Look no further than the likes of “The Approaching Tempest”, “Reduced to Ruin”, lumbering mid-section of “And Its Own”,  undeniable standout “Inflict Decreation” and closer “The Relapse of Humanity” for total annihilation. Even if they seem somewhat interchangeable, the sonic force of the tracks will beat you into submission.

On the very slight downside, vocally, Chase Butler isn’t doing anything new or creative and I would not have been aware of vocalist change had I not read of it. There’s also some lyrical/thematic ambiguity as to whether the band is Christian or not (not that it matters to me, but it may to some). Whatever, as it doesn’t change the swathe that The Red Shore‘s The Avarice of Man leaves in its wake as one of 2010’s most relentless albums.

[Visit the band's website]

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