Red Handed This is supposed to be the band's debut full length but considering almost half of the album consists of the band's self titled 7", which I also wrote a review for. Also the album features two covers; Black Flag's "Room 13" and VOID's "My Rules" (which was also on the 7"). Essentially the first half of the album consists of 6 new songs and the Black Flag cover, the second half of the album is all 6 songs from the 7", and they even go in the same order as they do on the 7".
These San Francisco Bay Area natives have an affinity for the raw and aggressive sounds of early 80's West Coast punk hardcore. You know Black Flag, Poison Idea, Nerve Agents, etc,. It's a sound that isn't all that emulated, or at least noticed because the bands tend to stay under the radar. Well, that won't be a problem for these guys because Rivalry Records does a great job of getting their bands out there.
I won't bother even explaining the last half of this album because you can just go read my previous review for that album if you'd like because nothing has changed much. Like I had just mentioned, the first half of the album is all new material (at least to my knowledge) and it shows the band growing a bit from their previous material. The most notable difference in their sound is the vocals, the vocalist has definitely improved a bit, his voice is getting stronger. The one that hasn't changed, I doubt ever will, is the length of the songs. Of the 14 songs only one song breaks out of the 1 minute mark. I would say one thing that would help these guys are some tempo changes but that wouldn't make too much sense I suppose, I mean that would kind counteract the style they are playing now.
The album was recorded at Castle Ultimate and sounds spot on. It's gritty but still maintains a good sound quality. The only real problem I had was that the drums seemed a little weird, they seemed a little thin. As I had mentioned in my previous review, the bass tone is very good and has good presence. The guitar tone works extremely well with the bass and helps fill out the mix nicely. The vocals have good placement and have no effects, so it's nice and raw.
Very vicious album artwork makes this album very eye catching, this one just jumps right out at you with it's color scheme of black/purple/green. The artwork by Alan Forbes revolves around a ghastly night landscape with a fiendish looking vulture dominating the scene. The booklet itself is printed on the quality vinyl gloss that Rivalry loves to use and is four panels. The panels are used effectively to display the lyrics over the purple sky backdrop in an extremely easy to read format. Pure quality.
Rating: 3.5/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: Wounds Remain, Other Side and Crashing Down
Synopsis: If you like the West Coast sounds of the 80's then there is no reason why you can't get down with this. Even though this isn't a "true" full length it'll be good for anyone who doesn't like vinyl, and even for those who already own the 7", this is still worth having because the new songs definitely show improvement, just from the stronger vocals alone.
I suggest that you head over to the band's MySpace page to see for yourself by checking out some songs. If you like what you hear, as always go out and show support to small labels and band's, don't be an asshole and rip the album. Let the major labels suffer, not the indies!