Redline "Portrait of a Mirror Image" CD
[Gangstyle]
I wasn't that big on these guys' material from their split with Born From Pain, but the amazingly well performed and recorded acoustic intro here really got my hopes up. Sadly, though... this isn't that good. It's okay. It does have its moments. It's a lot better than their older material. But it's still fairly derivative, and there are some weaknesses in the recording that can be problematic at times. I think the guitar tone is strong, but the drums are too rigid, and the bass needs more of a consistent presence. The guitars could probably stand to be fuller and more dominant across the mix as well, just to try and fill in the gaps. I wouldn't mind the recording if I liked the songs, but the writing still needs more work. These cats need to stick to the brutal mosh stuff with a little bit of obscure melody and leave it at that. Toss the fucking weedle-deedle harmonic riffs, get rid of the generic Swedish tremolo picking crap, and don't bother with the faux chaotic hammer-on/pull-off runs. Just throw down the power chords, chug that shit up, and let it roll. As soon as they cut the shit with a breakdown I find myself at least nodding my head and saying, "Ahhh, there we go, that ain't so bad." But then they throw in too many generic contemporary metalcore influences that just bore me. They've got a good mix of tempos going on, they just need to really hone their writing to take advantage of their strengths. At the very least the songs are all less than three minutes, so they've got that working in their favor. I do like the layout, though. Pretty much the entire thing is done with handwritten text, some of which is collaged over faint typed text, but it looks very cool. I'm not into the lyrics (surprise), because they jut do nothing for me. The title track gets especially weak: "Live your haunted fate, Through hell's gate, Live your haunted fate, Suffer, hell awaits, karma kills, Suffer, hell awaits, die a slow death..." No fucking thank you. Terrible content. Just awful. Ignoring the lyrics, there is some potency to some of this music. "Ten Years Passed" and "Self-Titled" are damn good songs, warts and all, and were they to reach that level with everything herein they could be a solid band, despite their penchant for stereotypical influences. I don't know. I'm not thrilled about this record, but those two song are fucking good. (5/10)
Running time - 26:50, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Ten Years Passed, Self-Titled]
Gangstyle Records - http://www.gsrmusic.com

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