The Red Shore

Unconsecrated (re-release)

Written by: PP on 14/10/2009 18:30:49

Ahoy, deathcore fans, look this way. All others can rest assured stop reading right now, because The Red Shore's "Unconsecrated" is immensely similar to what BL refers to as 'Sturgiscore' - brootal deathcore in the vein of Job For A Cowboy where production has been tightened more than a middle aged woman's skin at a plastic surgery clinic in order to give the record an ultra modern and in-your-face sound. Trendy it is, that's for sure. Now I remember this record being released way back in 2008 on some label, and it caught the attention of some big labels as it is now being re-released on Rise Records in the US and Listenable Records here in Europe. Usually I'm not a big fan of re-releases because they come across as little more than cash grabs, but this time I have to give the band and the labels credit: the original ten track deathcore effort has been supplemented with NINE bonus tracks as well as a bonus DVD. They could've easily released the bonus tracks as a new album, but instead chose to give new fans some serious value for money. Thumbs up.

If bands like Job For A Cowboy, Oceano, Whitechapel, Suicide Silence, Carnifex, The Boy Will Drown, or Molotov Solution appeal to you, then "Unconsecrated" should be right up your alley, as it deviates very little from the core sound of those bands. The vocals vary from piq squeals and growls to the occasional black metal style shrieks to give some much needed variety, the drumming is mostly rather mechanical machine gun-like rapid fire pummeling, and the guitars jump between intense beatdowns and ridiculously technical riffs in all songs. Yeah, so pretty much your ordinary deathcore with no rabbits in its hat. As always, musicianship is top notch though, so you can't really point a finger at these guys and say that they can't play, but really, haven't we heard this exact type of sound a thousand times before?

Still, The Red Shore play their style convincingly enough to keep me quite interested throughout the record - just like all the other bands mentioned in this review. Their only problem is originality. Should you play me a random mix of all these bands with a blindfold on, and ask me which song is by which band, I'd be at a loss of words and could probably only point out a Suicide Silence and/or a Job For A Cowboy track - if I'm lucky. That being said, almost all releases of this type are still solid - albeit unoriginal - and consist of the type of stuff you shouldn't mind putting on at any point, even if you wouldn't explicitly seek it out on your playlist.

7

Download: The Garden of Impurity, Vehemence The Phoenix
For the fans of: Job For A Cowboy, Oceano, The Boy Will Drown, Whitechapel
Listen: Myspace

Release date 19.10.2009
Listenable Records

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