The Red Shore - Unconsecrated
Unconsecrated is The Red Shore’s debut album release. This album was recorded back in the deathcore days of The Red Shore’s career and it could possibly be the best deathcore album that has come out of Australia. The tension built up by the anticipation of this album in 2008 was tremendous, with a couple of pre-production demos , EPs and a three year wait, everyone thought that they would be getting some pure deathcore. But holy hell, no one was expecting this.
This debut album from The Red Shore has reshaped the way people will see deathcore, when it comes to brutality and technicality, these guys are a level above everyone else back. Not many bands have managed to do what these legends of deathcore have done, and surprising this album has been relatively unknown for quite a while. For some reason, The Avarice of Man seems to have stolen the show. Not many people have seen this side of the Red Shore and it’s about time that people have. Now if I compared this album even today, they are not even close to being generic or average in anyway. No band has even come close to producing this level of technicality and originality in their music. What really makes these guys stand out is how they construct their music. Unlike many other chugging technical deathcore bands out there, the music here seems to be extremely filling, it doesn’t sound like it starts and stops all the damn time. Also, these guys don’t make breakdowns the centre of their music. This is really rare because usually bands think that breakdowns equals good deathcore, but this has shown totally the opposite.
As mentioned before, the styles on this album is very unique. What makes this especially special is where they get their inspiration from music wise. I think that they receive more inspiration from technical death metal than run of the mill deathcore. The evidence does lie within how fast they play or how technical they are but in their song structure. Their unconventional style seems to fit in with technical death more than deathcore. With that being said, technical death metal isn’t the only thing that seems to be apparent in this band’s music. Like I said before, they have an extremely strong deathcore vibe to their music. It’s not just the technicality, brutality or the way the music is played. There is a strong atmosphere or vibe that is present throughout the whole album, a certain vibe that is only present in deathcore. It’s the type you would normally find from bands such as Whitechapel and Annotations Of An Autopsy. Unsurprising, all this together has created some of the best deathcore cross technical death metal around, even today.
Now compared to their older EPs and demos, they are almost completely different to this. I don’t think anyone really expected anything like this to be following them. I bet people were expecting generic, straight up deathcore music. But, were we ever surprised. Think it’s mainly because of the song Knives and Wolves, which I think was responsible for all of this madness before the release of this album (which was also included in the re-release of this album). The Pre-Production EP before this did raise expectations. I have to say, this was very unexpected to get something like this to follow these hypes because usually you can get a really good indication of what an album is going to be like just be looking back at the previous EPs and Demos that lead up.
Now the real highlight of this album is the song writing. It is essentially what makes this album so good. The Red Shore has really put some thought into creating their music and it has definitely paid them off tenfold. The song writing is seemingly perfect, the music flows very well, the music is filling and satisfying and finally, with all of its technicality and speed the music still makes sense which is really important. I think it’s the flow that really makes them so successful, there is no starting and stopping and they haven’t tried to cram a breakdown every five seconds in an attempt to make it as brutal or heavy as possible. Also, the music is almost perfectly balanced, nothing is overpowering and nothing is being over powered. Not even the drumming.
Musically, these guys are legends of the deathcore genre. They all have sufficient skill to play at the level of complexity which they have set out to achieve. The music is incredibly tight and extremely technical, way more technical than your average deathcore band. Also, the music has some kind of structure to it. They don’t just strum guitar strings, bang on the drums and scream their lungs out.
The vocals in this album are great. The vocalist sings at the perfect pace to match the speed of the music and not sound like he is rapping. In fact, he doesn’t even sing that fast, the music seems to carry the words more than how he sings them. He utilizes his growls in the majority of the album but he can and does scream as well. In comparison, his vocals sound relatively soft compared to other bands. They don’t sound as rough or as harsh as other vocalists. Also, his highs aren’t really that high and his lows aren’t that low. This might be a bad thing in most cases but I think they are absolutely perfect for the style he is using them for. I think it promotes an even spread of music which lets the music do all the work for him. Now the guitars, there is a crap load of shredding throughout the whole album. The guitars are either being played dead slow or at 100 miles an hour, now what is good about them is that the guitars are very tight with the music, they are not overpowering and I cannot pick up any off beats at all. The guitarists should be extremely proud of what they have managed to achieve in this album. Now, the real highlight when it comes to the music has got to be the drumming. It is epic, they are perfect for their style. The drumming cannot just be described as being fast, but he literally takes it into overkill. It is intense all the way through the album, there isn’t one second where he slows down to take a break. Not only can he drum and do his doubles quick, but he also keeps a good beat. He doesn’t just sit on the stool and plays some incoherent beats.
Unfortunately there is one downside to this album. And that is as soon as you hear one track, you have practically heard them all. The opening track is The Garden Of Impurity, really sets the stage for the rest of the album. The sheer speed and technicality hits you like a fully loaded truck on steroids. It is incredibly tight and technical. The vocals are nice and calm and the guitars are of a very good pace. It would also have to be the best track on the entire album, so yes, they have decided to start the album off with a bang. Now unfortunately, this is where the variety ends. Everything from here on in is basically all the same.
Overall, this is still a very good release. The music is tight, technical, fast and indeed brutal. The level of musician ship is almost unmatched by other bands out there. These guys should be quite proud of themselves of what they have achieved with this released because there are not many deathcore bands out there that can do what these guys have just done. The only but major downside to their music is the sheer repetitiveness of the album, everything and I mean everything is the same all the way through. There is no doubt that each track individually displays some really good song writing but the album as a whole seems to repeat itself with literally only a few seconds of difference between them. This really is annoying because I really thought that this could have been the perfect deathcore album. This did leave me disappointed for a little bit, but then I realised what these guys have actually done. I recommend this album to any deathcore and technical death metal fan out there, this album could definitely be the ice breaker for technical death metal fans who are too afraid to cross over into deathcore or at least give it a fair go. I would also recommend the track The Garden Of Impurity because it is a great example of what the whole album is about. If you like that track, you are bound to enjoy the whole album. As far a replayability goes, it has little of it. It’s more of a you have to try this once kind of album.
Overall, this album is one of best debut releases from one of the best deathcore bands out there today that has come out of Australia. This band has influenced many Aussie core bands today and will continue to do so well into the future. Initially The Red Shore’s Unconsecrated could have been an 18 or a 19 but unfortunately with all its little glitches, today it gets a 15/20.
