Blood Red
Hostage
Initial
Wow! What a curious record for Initial Records! Blood Red formed from the remnants of the great Inside and Silent Majority, and the result is an absolutely refreshing breath of air in our current world of same-y music. Blood Red really take things back to the olden days of post-punk, citing obvious influences from Husker Du, Embrace, and even a bit of Bad Religion.
The songs on Hostage are highly emotionally charged, but the emotion here is sincere and heartfelt, without even a tinge of pretension. The songs jump off of the disc and pull at the soul of the listener, in a way I haven’t been affected in quite some time. “City Mouse” is so incredibly urgent that it inspired me to start running blindly through the streets, simply to experience the physical exhilaration that my mind went through when listening to that song! From “Peeping Tom” to “Conscience Calling,” the songs are absolutely fascinating, in the same way that is a new friend, with whom you have a lot in common.
Hostage, sadly, is not perfect, though. For one thing, the lead singer is not a “good singer;” he is a good emotional screamer, but he tries to sing from time to time, and the results are hideous. I don’t know if anyone outside of the Toledo, OH area has ever heard of Colossus of the Fall/ Omaha, but the lead singer of Blood Red sounds exactly like Dirk Hemsath, the singer for the two aforementioned bands (D.H. also sang for Majority of One, but his voice wasn’t as intolerable then). Another problem, again with the vocals, is that they were mixed to be much louder than the guitars, drums, and basses, for some reason, which sucks because the band is incredible.
I must recommend Blood Red, though, simply for its sincerity and sheer, unadulterated power. This band is about a million times better than Silent Majoirty was, and they were a decent band. This is the first full length for Blood Red (I think), so this is only the beginning; if these guys can get things cleaned up a little bit, this could be the next big band of indie rock.
Initial Records: http://www.initialrecords.com
