Appropriately enough for a band named after a slang term for a slit throat, The Red Chord specialise in short sharp attacks of condensed grindcore metal. Prey For Eyes is their third full-length album, and contains fourteen of these finely honed assaults on the senses.
The Red Chord are obviously great fans of velocity. Prey For Eyes erupts instantly into the first song, “Film Critiques And Militia Men”, which with no preamble at all comes barrelling out of your speakers like a runaway train with a cargo of double-kick drumming, furious guitar and intricate basslines.
“Film Critiques …” lasts little over a minute, but the scene is set; The Red Chord stick to the basic template of compressed brutality all the way through, spicing individual pieces with variations and embellishments of various types: “It Runs In The Family” closes with a surprisingly melodic (albeit ridiculously fast) guitar solo, while “Send The Death Storm” owes its basic structural shape to New York hardcore pumped full of steroids … and other things even less legal.
The Red Chord’s music is serious stuff; this is metal taken to a logical end-point in the direction of aggression and intensity, and it demonstrates a degree of musical expertise that cannot be argued with. It’s not an easy listen, though – Prey For Eyes is an album made for enthusiasts of extreme guitar music, and makes no concessions to such niceties as broad appeal and accessibility.
And why should it? Although I’m not sure The Red Chord take themselves quite as seriously as their music – for every seemingly serious song title on Prey For Eyes (like “Tread On The Necks of Kings” or “Bone Needle”), there’s a tongue-in-cheek one - “Open Eyed Beast Attack”, anyone?
Digging deeper past the guttural howls and bellows of the vocal delivery, the lyrics on Prey For Eyes reveal further levels of humour. “Responsibles” closes with the lines:
“Don’t make me take off my pants / give me a cigarette / I’m having a heart attack / where’s my f*cking barbeque? / I know you have it!”
That has to be an example of wilfully random surrealism – the alternative is simply too alarming to contemplate.
Like a lot of the heaviest bands in the business, The Red Chord understand instinctively that taking the aesthetics as seriously as the music is a recipe for failure. Prey For Eyes balances uncompromising musical intensity with dead-pan daftness behind the mask; if you can make it past the savage surface, there’s some rewarding material waiting for you.
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