Shenoah - Bleeding in the Red

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RIYL

Spineshank
Pressure 4-5
Trigger Point
Chevelle

Tracklist

1. Age Of The White Dove
2. Ashes To Ashes
3. Bullets And Numbers
4. Telephone Bruises
5. Scent Of A Dead Rose

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Upon initially listening to this five song EP, Bleeding in the Red you might not notice it, but Shenoah manage to cover a lot of rock and metal bases. I’m sure instead, when you first listen to this EP, you’ll probably let your ears go lax, focus on whatever thing you’re doing while listening to it, and inadvertently play these guys off as another wannabe radio friendly metal band. Don’t. Actually listen to them and you’ll find a band that could potentially go in any one of bunch of different directions.

Truth be told the first song is pretty basic. It follows your melodic radio rock template, but in the middle of it, to give the listener something a little different and slightly out of left field, the vocals change from singing to spoken word (much in the vein of MewithoutYou). It’s a bit jarring and doesn’t exactly feel like it fits, but at least they’re trying to do something different, unlike most of their peer group.

“Bullets and Numbers” and “Ashes to Ashes”, crazily enough, have an interesting Spineshank tone to them. Not the speedy, uptempo Spineshank that you’ll initially think of mind you, but instead the more slowed down, yet aggressive Spineshank that only showed up on a couple of songs on each of their releases. The songs have both energy and melody, combined in a natural manner, which comes in stark contrast to the majority of the bands in today’s melodic metal scene. Come to think of it, “Ashes to Ashes” would probably tear up on the radio if given the chance since it’s just that damn catchy and well crafted.

“Scent of a Dead Rose” is easily the most aggressive song on this release with its crunchy and punchy guitars and guttural screams. There’s still plenty of melody in the choruses, which is not a bad thing as a straight up, full on scream fest would feel pretty damn out of place on this record.

The final song “Telephone Bruises” has a punky pace, some hardcore inspired gang vocals, more screams, a lot of melodic vocals, and thick yet smooth guitars. This is the most diverse song of the disc and serves as the perfect closer to the EP. Basically it rolls together all of the elements that were on display throughout the first four songs and crams them into four minutes.

I’d be hard pressed to say that Shenoah are going to break the melodic nu-metal genre wide open again, but I’d also be speaking a complete fallacy if I told you that this isn’t one hell of a fun EP to listen to. In fact, it does exactly what an EP is supposed to do—it makes you want to hear more.

--Rick Gebhardt

Author

Rick Gebhardt
Last updated: 09/29/2009 08:53PM

Comments

oShadowcaster
11/08/2005
12:02PM
Good EP but if a whole album were to be like it it would be boring after a few spins. Is the sound quality any better on the new version?? On the original pressing of this album everything is really low and takes away from the music big time. The demos I had before the album was out had better quality than the CD.

FYI - The former singer now has a new band called This Mourning Memory which sounds more like his band before Shenoah (A Colder Year)

Currently Drooling Over:
Smashing Pumpkins

Rick Gebhardt
11/08/2005
12:23PM
Age: 32
Location
Minnesota
The mastering on this version of the EP is great. It's not mastered really soft like the previous version.

And I'd like to think that on a full release that they'd vary their sound even more. If not, yeah, it would probably get a little taxing.

Find me EVERYWHERE:




red
11/08/2005
01:29PM
good call on the p4-5 comparison. i always liked that band.

and all the stones i've thrown tell me that nothing lasts