Red
End of Silence
Essential Records

The band Red is a part of the changing face of Essential Records.  Their label debut, “End of Silence,” packs a powerful punch with a fervent guitar-driven baseline and melodic vocals that occasionally rise to near screams.  To boot, the production includes a subtle mix of strings that finely enhance the overall sound.  Most notable, the lyrics are straight-out gospel orientated.  Having just seen them live, I can say that the band is much harder on stage than could ever be captured on a CD.

Considering that the rock market is being flooded right now with new bands, and because so much of it is so similar, you can either look for what trips your trigger musically, or you can look for spiritual content.  For me this album does both.  However, I can’t really come up with specific words to distinguish it from lets say, their label mates Day of Fire.  Both are hard rock with a strong gospel focus and both have well produced CD’s.  Fortunately, for the listener, there is the web.  It is a rare occasion today where a band doesn’t have a decent website with audio samples and lots of other cool stuff.  So for free, it is at least worth checking out.  Besides, the band Red touts a rather large following on MySpace.com and I don’t think they would mind a few more friends request.

- Ken W.