Redcoats – Redcoats | EP Review

Review by Helen Brown

Picture yourself wandering through the forest at night, hearing everything go bump and constantly looking over your shoulder. Now, imagine this feeling in the form of an EP.

Melbourne progressive metal artists Redcoats’ self-titled first release epitomises that dark and frantic sense of desperation, as you glance backwards while walking alone after midnight. If you are familiar with their first single ‘Dreamshaker,’ the Redcoats’ four additional tracks emulate this one song, with the same warnings to remain cautious and afraid. A frenzied voice advises us to be careful of the Dreamshaker, that he is not all he seems. The moral

of the story could very well be that things are rarely as they first appear, and to beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Black Sabbath influences are immediately apparent in the frenetic singing and eerily drawling guitars of ‘Kaytrucker,’ a chunky and catchy track. Likewise, ‘Rainbow Lips’ resembles an unsettling soundtrack to a ritual sacrifice being performed in an abandoned clearing.

The EP is not overly melodic, instead is thick with screaming, reverberation of sound and the paradoxical notion of echoes from across a crowded room. The ever-present ominous urge to run away from the noise you are hearing, comes in the form of growling, menacing riffs that will invert the hairs on the back of your neck.

Here are but a few thoughts these tracks may instil: you cannot escape. If you think you are safe, you are not. We will haunt you forever and ever. With spine-shaking sounds that will frighten children and remind them to beware the bogey man, and a lingering haunting guitar fade-out on the EP, the Redcoats are you worst nightmare – in the best possible way, of course.

(My rating: 3 out of 5)

Review by Helen Brown

Redcoats – touring nationally with CALLING ALL CARS | August/September 2011 – Tour Details Here

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