Tony Iommi wrote in his recent biography that nothing is heavy if everything is heavy. This is a lesson from the master - the creator even - of heavy metal that thousands of terrible¹ metalcore bands have failed to learn. A lack of dynamics isn’t crushing, it isn’t powerful, it’s just earache inducing and rather tedious.

It was with some trepidation then that I fired up Red Enemy’s EP. After all, I’m a fan guitar riffs rather than the usual metalcore approach of stabs of guitar noise that could have easily have been triggered by the drummer². Thankfully there are some riffs on the extravagantly named EP “What we are contained in, is what we are worth” though none that memorable. Yet amid the noise and meandering song structures you may even pick out a few melodies from the twin guitar attack of Conor Dockery and Robert Powderly.

The guitarists clearly are a talented pair and interact strongly with Daniel Lang’s drumming. But for every decent riff there’s also a tendency to batter the listener with that drum-triggered guitar sound I mentioned earlier, these boys are better than that. They need to have the bravery to break out the metalcore genre. The better musical moments on the album are when the guitarists aren’t showing off their “djent”³ credentials and are instead offering something more melodic and textural in concert with the excellent bass playing of Jay Doyle. These moments show Red Enemy at their best and should be a part of their sound they explore more.

It’s these changes of pace and sound that I enjoyed the most and I wish that the vocals followed suit. According to the PR blurb Kevin Letford’s vocals are “passionate and cutting”. I assume this is PR speak for shouty and annoying. Kevin does a fine Phil Anselmo impression - the shouty bits at least - but forgets that Phil’s power came not simply from shouting, but from his dynamic range and use of clean singing as a counterpoint to the heavier moments.

Red Enemy are clearly a band who can play their instruments and there are glimpses of musical depth that put them a cut above mere noise merchants. But there’s some work needed if they are to be anything other than one of those bands that appear on Skuzz in a video with fifty kids cramped in a small room jumping up and down. You know the ones, the sort that make you turn over to Kerrang⁴.

Kevin needs to calm down a bit when the guitars do - passion needs contrast. If they can bust out of the metalcore ghetto then the future is bright for Red Enemy - they just need to be brave enough to use their obvious musical abilities in a more dynamic and fearless way. They’ve made a start - there are glimpses of some great progressive metal here - and I look forward to seeing where they’ll go in future. In the meantime we should have a whipround and buy them a copy of Cowboys From Hell.

_{¹Pedantic readers may pull me up here for the redundancy of “terrible” next to “metalcore”. Yes I know Metalcore - or any other “core” - is shite, but not every reader of this humble blog will be so well educated. Hush.
²Perhaps by the means of some device that senses drool.
³Yes hateful word, but you know what I mean.
⁴Kerrang is a UK music channel which plays effeminate pop-rock for girls.}