The Red Chord Fed Through the Teeth Machine
by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer
Having lost a band member to the continuing global recession, The Red Chord are emerging out of this predicament revitalised, with a record which perfectly mixes fury and cunning, instrumental virtuosity and abstraction, tradition and innovation. You could, of course, apply the old grindcore label to the band’s new opus Fed Through the Teeth Machine, but this gem of an album proves to be much more than any attempt at its classification can tell you about.
One way to describe it is to call these perfectly conceived and flawlessly executed tracks “mini-symphonies”, if you could only disassociate the word “symphony” from hedonistic self-indulgence this musical form often gets bad rap for. Yes, these brutal tracks are symphonies, but distilled to the bare-boned minimum – few of them run over 3 minutes. There are high concepts and a great deal of sophistication behind them, but be warned – they are by no means a throwback to earlier forms. On the contrary – this is the cutting edge of metal which is as vigorous as it is complex.
And complexity on this record is not only in the composition, but in sounds and textures it continually juxtaposes against each other. Throughout the album the cool-headed fury of the rhythm section gallops through a variety of tempos and time signatures with stunning ease, supporting each element the proceedings perfectly: singer Guy Kozowyk’s heavily processed growling, slow ostinato death-meets-doom passages, and airy slow-mo breathers where guitarist Mike McKenzie dives head-on into sprawling solos some of which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Guns’n’Roses record.
Given that those tracks rarely go over 3 minutes, the end result is at times nothing else but schematic blueprints for endless possibilities this band could really explore but chooses not to, leaving it up to the listeners’ imagination to unravel the code and imagine for themselves what it could all be like. Standout “Mouthful of Precious Stones” could be anything if only the band chose to follow up on the possibilities it sketches – an orgy of quick deathcore thrills, an experiment in prog-metal, a pop-metal chart-topper, or a death metal slow-burner. Not to mention a trip down the sonic avant-garde route they briefly denote and then abruptly abandon.
Each track on this album is different, but what coheres them into one whole is the unity of the band’s vision, their intelligence, ingenuity, and a great deal of humour which gives an extra layer of meaning to their amazing chops. Here we see The Red Chord opening up to their full potential, which goes to show how well true creative independence can serve an artist. Even if you are not a metal fan and even if you are going to buy just one record this year, make it this one because after 9 years The Red Chord are now going places. Not to the mainstream charts or the mainstream radio, or the cover of Rolling Stone, but places within oneself where all original talent sooner or later finds itself at. This is the place where you get a sense of having let yourself grow and having communicated something which is makes your listener think.
Label: Metal Blade
Track Listing:
1. Demoralizer
2. Hour of Rats
3. Hymns and Crippled Anthems
4. Embarrassment Legacy
5. Tales of Martyrs and Disappearing Acts
6. Floating through the Vien
7. Ingest the Ash
8. Mouthful of Precious Stones
9. The Ugliest Truth
10. Face Area Solution
11. Sleepless Nights in the Compound
Hardrock Haven rating: 9/10