Maybe I'm just growing old and jaded, but to this reviewer, the vogue for all things "Emo" seems hopelessly hackneyed when measured against the power of the American "Straight Edge" bands (the Emo forerunner, basically) led by FUGAZI and their ilk who powered their way through in the space just prior to Grunge.
VENDETTA RED are the latest, vaguely geeky chaps (broadly) in this image to break from the traps Stateside. Admittedly in singer Zach Davidson they have the requisite post-AT THE DRIVE-IN hair bear look and - at least based on this EP's lead track, "Three Chord Valentine" - they sound like they might do the business. For one thing, it's actually got a half decent tune and with Davidson letting loose lippy lyrics like: "So cutting edge, I slit my wrists" (very funny), they do create a presence of sorts.
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But that's where the charisma ends. Both "Por Vida" (bog-standard staccato riffing and screaming) and the chunkier "All Cried Out" are a best B-list stuff and "The White Nightmare" is merely average Soppycore acousticism.
Stacked up against their current peers like Rival Schools and Jimmy Eat World, Vendetta Red hold their own, but compared with the cream of this genre's blueprint (i.e the best of the Dischord and SST stables), this is feeble and largely forgettable.
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