Send "The Red Chord " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 Fed Through the Teeth Machin promised a faster, more straight-forward Red Chord. Losing their second guitarist and promising a more streamlined sound could have meant a narrowing of their scope. Less technicality, less personality. More anger, sure, but at what cost? Fans could have been worried. Here's hoping they weren't. Fed Through the Teeth Machine is faster and it is more straightforward, but it's hardly a compromise. Instead, it's their best since Fused Together In Revolving Doors.What stands out on Fed Through the Teeth Machine is The Red Chord's ability to streamline their relatively spastic sound without dumbing it down. The album emphasizes their death metal influence, but it still gives Gunface room to flex his creative, unorthodox playing style. Though they're down to only one guitarist, you'd never know it. That's in part because Greg Weeks' bass playing has never been this prominent. It's not that he's shredding unrelentingly (or at all, really), but you can really feel his bass and it has a presence like never before. It allows Gunface to dynamically interplay with the lower end and, in turn, helps develop a groovy underpinning the band hasn't really had in the past. That's the dynamic that makes Fed Through the Teeth Machine such a promising listen. It's a contrast. The faster, sharper songs hook you in but the interplay between members add subtle nuances really makes it special. There's more to the contrast than just harmonizing, though. While they've streamlined their sound, focusing more on the punch than the technique, their virtuous side still shines through. Brad Fickeisen could have phoned in his performance on the drums. He could have done what most extreme metal drummers do: trigger the shit out of his snare and kicks and blast away. It's not to say that there aren't moments of unrelenting speed, but for the most Fickeisen has flexed his creative muscles in ways not typical to the genre. He's managed to throw fills and patterns into the dissonance. He's sped up without slimming down. Again, that's a narrative that carries throughout. Speedier cuts like “Hour of Rats” (which features some of Fickeisen's best work yet) and “Demoralizer” kick things off, but the album doesn't exactly gallop along at a single pace. While Fed Through the Teeth Machine does display The Red Chord at their fastest, they still make it a point to slow things down when necessary. “Ingest the Ash” revolves around slower, almost sludgy crawls. At times, the song actually sounds like it's melting. But it ends up better for it. “Mouthful of Precious Stones” similarly employs bridges that, in using Gunface's wobbly distorted guitar-playing, sound like a gloomy, sullen take on John Williams' infamous Jaws theme. It also teases the listener with what could have been one of the band's first “legitimate” guitar solos. It doesn't get that far, but the tease is probably better than the reveal and it's that playful style of songwriting that's gotten the Red Chord where they are....full text |
| Bbc |
| The Red Chord are the kind of band that the uneducated might pour scorn on as just another American deathcore act hammering out heaviness with haircuts. But the truth is that the Massachusetts quartet stand a couple of steps above that, and their fourth album is very fair testament to their quality. There’s too much variety and invention within their music to see them lumped in with the rabble-rousing shtick of many of their so-called peers. Guy Kozowyk’s indecipherable roars emanate from the grottiest recesses of his guts but, delivered in such a fashion, the actual content is totally lost until the study of a lyric-covered inlay booklet. What can be said about his performance is that it is consistently brutal. So brutal, indeed, that it deserves a new word to accurately summarise its significant impact on the listener – after all, there are only so many times one can resort to “ferocious”, “inhuman” or this writer’s favourite, “merciless”. Kozowyk’s ability, and this album in general, warrants more. The loss of second guitarist Mike Keller last year has resulted in a greater clarity in their sound, with the dozen songs here feeling sleeker and more dynamic than previous collections as a result. While the traditional method of increasing a band’s heaviness would be to add a guitar, none of The Red Chord’s extreme traits have been lost on this album. This indicates that four-piece have achieved their current state of musical muscularity via simply becoming better at a base songwriting level....full text |
| Heavymetal |
| After the ambitious direction of 2007's Prey For Eyes, The Red Chord takes a more streamlined approach with Fed Through The Teeth Machine. Gone are the multiple guest musicians, keyboard-heavy instrumental and extended intros/outros. Instead, there is an emphasis on brutal grind/death, shorter song lengths, and a tighter cohesion between the band members. The Red Chord cranks out twelve tracks that blur the line between grind, deathcore, and death metal. The album oozes intensity, as every second seems more frantic than the next. Short two to three minute bursts of aggression are commonplace, as "Face Area Solution" and "Tales Of Martyrs And Disappearing Acts" leave an impression equivalent to a 2X4 to the side of the head. This single-minded outlook benefits the band, as they stay focused on creating a sonic melee....full text |
The Red Chord lyrics
|
| |||||||
