Clients

Have you ever had the misfortune to have been shot by a paintball gun? At first you hear a small pop, you see what looks like colored bird shit on your body, and then soon a hard, stinging welt appears on your chest (or your face, if your assailant is a total dickhead). Now imagine that that paintball has a lit firecracker attached to it. The firecracker hits you with the paintball, making the impact hurt just a bit more but the most obvious difference is the loud, deafening sound that rushes across your ears. Now imagine that same situation, but let's say that you're a masochist. You know this is some sort of sickening pain, and it's unexpected, messy and deafening, but you somehow enjoy it. That is your basic summary of The Red Chord's 2005 album Clients.

The Red Chord are one of those bands that have truly trudged above their ilk and earned their personality. I'm sure there's some other band out there that's taken technical death metal sweeping, modern grindcore tempo changes, easy listening sections, breakdowns, and metalcore-style vocals, put them in a blender, and hit frappe, but The Red Chord is definitely the one that's most notable. They truly are an oddity of the modern metal world.

Guy Kozowyk, the vocalist here, switches his style between metalcore shouts and death growls, and uses them about 50/50. (No metalcore screams to be found here.) You can understand most of what he's saying due to the amount of diction that he uses. Sometimes he'll blast his lines out really fast, and it sounds really nice, like an alternation between his vocals and the instruments. The guitarists use harmonies, and the guitarwork is hardly ever on the first string, yet it succeeds in making the songs sufficiently brutal with the sweeps and tremolo riffs. There are quite a few beautiful melodic parts as well; the later half of "Hospice Residence" is what immediately comes to mind, and the entire album closer "He Was Dead When I Got There" is a melancholic instrumental track. The drums are the real element that secures this album's place as half-brutal; the songs "Antman" and "Clients" are almost entirely driven by the drummer here, and the thrashy pre-chorus of "Lay the Tarp", the highlight of that song, is kept catchy by the galloping beat from the drummer. The drummer is usually either performing a blast beat or something equivalent to one, or creating some complex, complementary fill. That aside, the kit has a very nice sound. The bass pedal is a mix between wet and clicky, the cymbals have a very nice "ding" to them, and the snare sounds dry and anthemic - the way it should.

Lyrics on this album are a freakshow. They are allegedly the stories of mentally deranged people, for whom Guy Kozowyk used to drive a bus. These lyrics reflect their stories. And all I have to say is that these lyrics definitely fucking scream "mental person", and maybe not how the band intended. They have no coherence whatsoever: the only one that has any real connection between lines is "Love on the Concrete." Wanna see what I mean? The following is an excerpt from "Upper Decker":

"Dress it up and scent it with disgust.
Shit your pants and run for your life.
As days turn to weeks and the finger starts to numb.
Whose toast is this? Give it to me.
Who fucking cares? Fuck it. It's mine now."

...what the fuck. If these lyrics are anything to go by, every single one of these goddamn "clients" had attention-deficit disorder. There's no connection between anything at all here. But enough about the lyrics.

The songs are a mixed bag, despite the musicianship behind them. "Fixation on Plastics" is one of my top ten heaviest songs of all time. It's probably the least organized song on this album, but it's also the most technical and it's my personal favorite from this album. "Lay the Tarp" is one of my favorites, but only for the chorus I mentioned earlier, as the rest of its material is mediocre because it simply doesn't stand out amongst the rest of the album. "Black Santa" is a song that's just above mediocre due to the songwriting, but it sports some of my favorite lyrics of all time ("the penis was from heaven and it went to hell"; "if your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle"). "Antman" is another favorite of mine here; the chorus is very melodic, yet it still shows unbridled anger. "Clients" is less than a minute long, but it's still just as power-packed as the rest of the album, almost resembling pure hardcore punk. Sadly, at this point in the album, the quality of the songs goes down. "Upper Decker", "Love on the Concrete" and "Hospice Residence" are passable, but "He Was Dead When I Got There" drags itself along like a zombie with no legs for way too long, and the tracks "Blue Line Cretin" and "Dragon Wagon" are frankly terrible, consisting of none of the interesting elements of the other songs and instead consisting of the album's throwaway riffs.

Being the completist I am, I ordered the Deluxe Edition of this CD without even having heard The Red Chord beforehand (actually, if I remember correctly, the deluxe edition was actually a bit cheaper than the regular album), so I might as well fill the reader in about that, since no other reviewer has. If you don't care, you can go now: my review of the regular album is over. Anyway, it's honestly nothing special; two never-before heard "songs", two demo songs, and the rest is a bunch of live performances. One of the "songs" is simply the band screaming in a recording session, then the track is reversed, then put back forward. Completely useless. "Bread Pants" is simply an a cappella song that resembles your typical scat song. It's funny, I guess, but we don't listen to The Red Chord for scat songs, we listen to them for crushing deathgrind. The live tracks have a bit more to offer. The first set of live songs is the band playing at Sounds of the Underground, but the audio quality is pretty goddamn butchered, and when you're talking about a band where every note needs to be heard to get the full effect, hearing parts of it interrupted by a wall of noise doesn't help. The Tokyo show, however, is a lot more interesting. The band plays three songs, two of which are off of their album Fused Together in Revolving Doors. Every song they play at this show is played just a bit faster, and it really pumps you up and almost makes the song trip over its own momentum. "That Certain Special Ugly", in particular, sounds amazing, as the already-eerie bridge to the song sped-up is simply amazing. One thing I must complain about though, throughout the live songs, is Guy's voice. He sounds like a rabid dog growling at a mailman; whether or not I should be blaming this on the audio quality or Kozowyk's own crappy performance is beyond me. You also get two demo tracks out of the mix, but you can barely hear the vocals, as they're drowned by the overly loud garage-style guitars. And finally, in typical Red Chord-style, you get two tracks of stupid antics they performed live. One is an intentionally stupid song titled "Pile Up" that was admittedly hilarious; the other was titled ""Yeah, We Did It!"" and, according to the booklet, was an event they planned on one of their tours. Not as funny, but still worth a listen.

Overall, The Red Chord have worked hard to create a worthwhile album that is quite unique, and although it's not for everyone, it is truthfully awesome. As for the deluxe edition, if get it you must, buy it for the awesome alternative artwork, the Tokyo live tracks, and the fact that in an act of dumbfuckery by amazon.com, it was actually cheaper than the normal album.

I first picked this up after I attended sounds of the underground in 2005, and after I seen them live, I really had to hear more from the band, so I went to my local Music World location and I bought it, which was drastically reduced, thus the album not being very popular compared to the mainstream music that they had advertised everywhere. When I popped this into my CD tray, I was blown away by hearing the first track titled "Fixation on plastics", it started off with a quiet intro than went into a loud, unsettling combination of drums, guitar and rasped vocals, as the song progressed, it then went into a barrage of blast beats and pinch harmonic riffs, which is how death metal should sound. The producing was also done very well.

As I was listening to the music, I heard another good song titled "Black Santa". Now, the riffs on this song are amazing, the guitar is so well done and so technical, and as it went into the chorus, the riffing went really heavy and the vocals went into a bunch of loud screaming and growling, which is common in most death metal and hardcore. After the screaming was over, the guitarists went into a melodic riff that sounded more mellower. Overall, the music on this is very experimental, with usual distorted guitars, fast blast beats and death growling, but it also has soft and mellow jazz elements, the outro from Fixation on Plastics and the clean riff in Upper Decker being examples. If you listen to track five titled "Clients" you can hear a piccolo trumpet solo in the middle of the song, not very well played, but still very experimental as I explained before.

If you are into tons of pinch harmonic riffs and blast beats to go along with harsh vocals, than this album is definitely for you, as music like this appeals to both death metal and hardcore fans.

This album, to me, is at LEAST on par with Fused Together. It's more cohesive, but retains all of the insanity of the first album and even adds in some new flavors.

Now, I've never understood the "metalcore" label that's tagged to these guys. It just doesn't make sense. There's no one genre they comfortably fit into, it's more an amalgamation of death metal, grind, and hardcore.

The breakdowns aren't very...normal. And they don't call themselves out and get predictable, which is the problem with breakdowns in general. These manage to avoid being dull and actually contribute to the song in a meaningful way.

The lyrics are...interesting, to say the least. "Who's toast in this? Give it to me, who fucking cares! Fuck him, it's mine now!" Each song is based around various people with mental disorders/handicaps/etc whom the frontman Guy used to deal with in his line of work. They're abstract, intriguing, amusing, and ridiculous at the same time.

Which brings me to the great thing about this band. They don't take themselves TOO seriously. They're definitely not a joke band, but they have fun with metal, kind of like bands such as SYL do. The music really has no boundaries, so it doesn't get predictable.

Doing a track-by-track really isn't necessary because this album is all killer no filler. I can't think of one song I would omit from this release. The closer is especially unique, being a wonderful and gritty metal instrumental.

I would recommend this album to anybody looking for unique and quality modern metal. It takes a few listens to sink in, but I guarantee you won't have heard anything like it. Also check out their debut, Fused Together, which is slightly different but just as good.

For every one good review of Clients, there seem to be ten bad ones. They're right, to an extent- the brutal-yet-catchy grind we found on Fused Together In Revolving Doors has, for the most part, been abandoned- but this record is by no means bad. It's just very different.

To those who are new to The Red Chord, the band can be described as a mix of crossover grind reminiscent of later era Napalm Death, metalcore a la Ion Dissonance and The Dillinger Escape plan, and progressive elements reminiscnent of Meshuggah's earlier work. Vocalist Guy Kozowyk abandoned the high screams found on their first record in favor of a throatier, more powerful "growl-yell" that sounds very, very similar to Barney Greenway of Napalm Death. On the bright side, his lyrics are much more understandable, and he has a unique sound, but it doesn't sound as brutal as Fused Together, which was more growled, albeit in a unique style. The vocals are excellent, though, and work perfectly together with the music.

The large change in TRC's sound might be attributed to the hiring of a new guitarist, Jonny Fay. Mike "Gunface" McKenzie is still onboard from the last album, but the inclusion of Fay seems to make the music lean more towards technicality than brutality. Having seen the band live twice, the stark contrast between McKenzie and Fay is undeniable- one goes for brutal, catchy riffs, and the other is more into sweep picking, runs, and the like. It brings something new to the band, and I love it. The guitars are often harmonized, but without sounding melodic in the least- one thing TRC has always excelled in. The drumming on this record is just kind of "there," but it follows the structure of the songs exceptionally, and everything is done tastefully.

Most old school TRC fans have problems with the structure of Clients. Whereas Fused Together was a frantic mix of time signature changes and brutal breakdowns, Clients is geared more towards the "breakdown crowd" of metalcore; that is, the songs are more rhythmically oriented, structurally simplistic, etc. However, interestingly, there are very few actual breakdowns to be found on the album, which is both a minus and a plus. They were overused on Fused Together, but are nowhere to be seen here. Most of these tracks are verse-chorus-verse in style, which works well for the brevity of the album, but doesn't do justice to TRC's talent. The first album was chaotic but just structured enough to make sense, and this goes unfortunately overboard. Still, it's hard to notice when you're enjoying the music so much.

TRC is an "album band," so to speak. They take a lot of time to make sure that all their records are a monument in their catalogue. The lyrics, art direction, and everything are very organized with TRC, and Clients is no exception. It's mainly about "characters" that vocalist Guy Kozowyk met during his tenure at a drug store, most of them insane or needing heavy medication...or both. So, the lyrics are incredibly twisted, and the album artwork is as well. Unfortunately, after "Hospice Residence," the album takes a downward spiral in terms of lyrical content and songwriting. Dragon Wagon, notably, is pretty lame. Love On the Concrete is alright, but the album thankfully picks back up with the wonderful Blue Line Cretin before lulling you to sleep with the instrumental He Was Dead When I Got There.

No, Clients isn't as good as Fused Together In Revolving Doors, but it's still an excellent record. It stands on its own, and if you're looking to get into The Red Chord, try this album first, then pick up Fused Together to compare. The huge number of bad reviews on this site is undeserved for the most part. Buy it.

If you have heard anything from these guys in the past, you already know that The Red Chord is both highly creative and undeniably heavy.

On "Clients", their first offering for Metal Blade, you'll hear a fantastic array of influences from this talented quintet. Disjointed rhythms that sound like Voivod on crack meet weighty grooves, stuttering polyrhythms and torrid blasts as this band proves themselves to be among the masterminds of metal melding on the scene.

Powerhouse percussionist Brad Fickeisen propels the band with a standout performance on "Clients", throwing in plenty of rolls across the rack and kick drum bursts that fuel the entire operation of merciless orchestration. His technique is nothing short of brilliant on the grinding title track, ending the affair with an insane flurry.

Both Kevin Rampelberg and Mike McKenzie are highly skilled axe wielders with an affinity for crafting dramatic guitar passages the takes The Red Chord's music in unexpected directions the harmonic tones in "Hospice Residence" squeal as the band's rhythm section tears through a ripping beat. "Lay The Tarp" delivers a straight ahead metal bashing before falling into a completely out of control onslaught. The shocking speed of the instrumental technicality on 'Black Santa' is markedly relentless and the unrestrained ferocity of "Upper Decker' will leave you on the floor, wondering what hit you. The stop action work in this track's chorus is very progressive for this style of metal, showing that the axemen are very thoughtful in their songwriting.

The slam-inducing "Love On The Concrete" is anchored by Gregory Weeks' rapid strikes on the four string, the song includes a rest where his skills are placed center stage. You can attribute much of the impact of "Clients" to studio wizard Zeuss who turns in a commendable job of knob turning, bring out the sheer fury behind the band's songs consistently throughout the record. As one of the most schizophrenic acts which combine metal styles,

The Red Chord score big with this violent slab of musical destruction. Unabashedly aggressive, brilliantly textured and determinedly stimulating, this is certainly one of the most notable metal releases of 2005.

Every other review so far for this album says the following:

"Their first record was amazing, but now they're a metalcore band and this one sucks! It's pretty much the best metalcore album ever, but I want them to play technical death metal again! Change is bad."

I beg to differ with that review. I'd heard "Fused Together" once or twice before hearing this album, and it was good, but didn't really make a strong impression with me, especially considering the hype it had received. This one, however, hit me like a sledgehammer to the face. The vocals are not generic metalcore or generic death metal - the vocalist has created his own throaty yell that sounds pretty unique and recognizable to me. The riffs and drumming strike a good balance between technicality and catchy metalcore-inspired stuff. I think breakdowns can be effective as long as they're not used as a crutch in every song: this album really shows how they can work to help a song progress instead of being the predictable shit hardcore has been passing off for a decade or two. Technicality has a place here - it is used for a purpose, not just for endless pointless tech noodling a la Beneath the Massacre.

The first six songs on this album ("Fixation on Plastics," "Lay the Tarp," "Black Santa," "Antman," "Clients," and "Upper Decker") are damn near perfect. They really combine elements of grindcore with elements of metalcore, which for some reason seems to alienate fans of both. But c'mon guys, just listen to how effective this stuff is! The later songs ("Hospice Residence," "Dragon Wagon," "Love on the Concrete," and "Blue Line Cretin") are also good, but they tend to blend together a bit in my head, which is the main weakness of this album. The last track ("He Was Dead When I Got There") is a long instrumental that closes the album on a pretty powerful note. The guitar harmonies in this track are spot-on and it's a perfect end for an overall impressive album.

So, for all the people who hate this album - go listen to "Fused Together" if it's so perfect. I think this album is a clear progression for the band and I look forward to their next release.

This album isn’t really what I’d expected from The Red Chord. Now, if this were another band that’s Metalcore, then I’d say that this is very impressive, but this is The Red Chord, and you know what they sound like, if you’d heard their first album “Fused Together in Revolving Doors”. The Technical Grind-influenced Metalcore that we love. This album is just quite calm, compared to their first. Just generic music. You cannot tell when one begins or ends. The album just flows, quite badly. Guy Kozowyk, with the use of his Metalcore vocals, sounds like he’s trying to sound like a combination of Bury Your Dead’s vocalist, Dead To Fall’s vocalist and Hatebreed‘s vocalist, but just with lower vocals. Now, on to the song ratings, even if they might be short…

Fixation on Plastics - The beginning of the song starts to be promising, but then leads onto generic Metalcore. The drum fills, guitar riffs and bass lines just turn into…crap. It adds a soft guitar strum in the end, as if to catch you off guard to the “extremeness” that the song doesn’t achieve.

Lay the Tarp - This song sounds like it’d be made by the Metalcore band Bury Your Dead, to me. I’m not saying that Bury Your Dead are bad, but this is The Red Chord, so it’s not impressive. Blastbeats are made by Brad Fickeisen, but they’re not that big of deal in this song.

Black Santa - Blastbeats galore with other drum fills that are all right. In this song, Guy sounds like he’s trying to not perform death vocals, and tries really hard to keep the Metalcore vocals going. Why?! Just do the death vocals! He also actually talks in this song by saying, “Give a straight answer. Not today--not tomorrow. Come sit down. Tell the boss what‘s on your mind.” I can sure tell “the boss” what’s on my mind…go back to how you’d originally sounded, damn it!

Antman - The first single that was released to the public. They’re trying to be technical. This sounds like something that Hatebreed would make, but a lot more technical. To me, it’s one of the better and worse songs on the album. OK technical playing, but it’s mixed with generic music.

Clients - Now, to me, this song is the most impressive, as it sounds like they’d gone back to their roots, but it’s too damn short. It’s only one minute long…bummer.

Upper Decker - This is also not that bad of a song. The technical music is there, and it sounds like they’d tried to sound like how they used to. The problems with it are the vocals. The length of the song doesn’t bother me. Once again, Guy tries to kind of sound like he’s using death vocals, but stays with the screaming. The interlude in the song is calm. Drum rolls on the tom drums and soft guitar playing. After that ends, a crazy guitar solo starts, but it’s just OK.

Hospice Residence - Generic Metalcore and he talks a little bit, again. It makes me think of how All That Remains would sound, if they were a little technical.

Dragon Wagon - An interesting song title, but the song isn’t. Brad (the drummer), during some of the song, sounds like he’s trying to play like Brann Dailor (drummer for Mastodon). It’s an not great,

Love on the Concrete - Blastbeats, double bass and the use of triplets, as well as a bass guitar solo. A little better job, this time. An ending drum solo, which makes it sound like an ‘80s Rock/Metal song. It’s not a bad song, but it’s just not good, either.

Blue Line Cretin - “THIS IS MY NAME!” You also go on to say that you’ll hate “someone” more than they’ll ever know. Well, I can say the same for you. The song is not special. The lyrics are crappy. This is not his time to shine, either. I think that the light bulb was smashed, when coming up with this.

He was Dead when I got There - The longest song on the album, at a time of 7:29. It’s a cool song, but it sucks, too. It’s too drawn out and slow. So, to me, this song just sounds dead. I shall say that it sounds like a tribute to someone, which is just all right. As I’d said, this song is too long. Also, it has a nice recorded message in the end.

This is what the album amounts to: generic Metalcore, but it could be the best Metalcore band ever, if it weren’t that The Red Chord had made the album. Maybe they just had money issues, and had decided to take this route...I don't know...I just hope that their next attempt at an album will be as good as their first.

Wow, what the crap? Okay, this album isn't bad. However, this is The Red Chord here. The guys that made that gem Fused Together In Revolving Doors. Yeah, with this random direction to go in a more melodic-hardcore direction just isn't gonna completely cut it for fans of their first LP.

Though, I must say, there are some awesome things about this album. Fixation on Plastics and Upper Decker kick quite a bit of ass, for metalcore standards. There are some great riffs strung about here and there, and they know how to play melodic metalcore here.

However, I say again, this is The Red Chord. You know for a fact that they can do way better than this. Their riffs, though most good, are not very creative, technical, and brutal as before. A lot of the stuff on this album has turned generic. The vocals are hardly as cool as they were previously. Even the lyrics are crap compared to the masterpiece that is FTiRD. Drums, just plain basic. Almost as good as the previous album, but you get the idea...

This album is a large letdown, and I know they could've done better. However, it does have it's moments (Fixation on Plastics, Upper Decker). He Was Dead When I Got There would've been nice, except that it just drags. A lot of the other songs would've been awesome too if they still kept the classic FTiRD mix intact. I seriously hope that Red Chord doesn't go on making albums that're generic like this. I just know they're capable of it.

Sometime in 2002 a band called The Red Chord released an album, 'Fused Together In Revolving Doors', which was received by all with open arms. Although they primarily toured with hardcore and metalcore bands The Red Chord were far from your run of the mill band. With brutal vocals, speed and technicality they quickly became hyped as the next big thing in metal and fans immediately began to await their next release.

Well it's finally here, only three years later. This is a very interesting album. On one hand its clear they've gone for a more metalcore approach to this album and abandoned some of the brutality that got them so many acclamations. The crazy riffs and blastbeats that filled their past work is no longer present. Instead they go for a more melodic theme, in singing and with instruments. While it is far from bad it isn't The Red Chord we all know and love and it certainly isn't anything to be overly excited over.

The album kicks off with a handful of forgettable songs. It isn't until track six, "Upper Decker", that the album takes a turn for the better. However they soon return back to the formula that made the beginning of this album so uninteresting. The range in vocals is all but gone and that was such a huge selling point for their older work.

There really isn't as much to say about 'Clients'. While it is still a decent album it isn't The Red Chord and it isn't anything that hasn't been done before. While it is much better then your Headbangers Ball metalcore, it still isn't nearly what they're capable of.

Do you know the Red Chord? You know, that band that released "Fused Together In Revolving Doors", an album that mixed metalcore with grindingly technical riffing? That band that used to be pretty brutal and maintain being original?

Well, I'd hate to say it, but that band is no more. I was highly anticipating "Clients" ever since it was announced. I was expecting them to evolve further more. I was clearly disappointed. The sheer technical precision the band was known for is no longer there. The satisfying range of high screams and low growls are gone. The overall original sound of this band is gone. Instead, they really seemed to have become a run of the mill metalcore band. It's a shame, because when listening to their debut, one will know what this band is capable of, and it's all been thrown away.

The album kicks off with a metalcore song, and runs like such the whole way through. There is the odd blastbeat, but it's not very satisfying. Instead of the grinding riffs we got before from the band, we get chunky one note rhythms with a highly registered clashing chord thrown in between; rather predictable in metalcore. The vocals are generally shouted in tough-guy hardcore/metalcore fashion, which are very boring. And that can pretty much sum up everything.

The last track is kind of cool, it ends of with some neat consonant guitar leads, but it doesn't really attribute to anything on the album. If any other metalcore band was to release this, it'd be a fairly good release for them. But this is The Red Chord. And by their standards, this is terrible. This is so far the biggest let down of 2005, and I'm hoping nothing else fails this greatly. Shame on the Red Chord.