Your reviewer wasn't overly impressed by Stateside quintet VENDETTA RED'S "Cut Your Noose" Ep as it tried far too hard to emulate all the obvious US emo-core staples and seemed to have little fresh to offer.
So it's a pleasant surprise to find my perception shifting positively (at least to a degree) after living with their debut album "Between The Never And The Now" for a little while.
Not that it shines up the face of the future of rock'n'roll or anything, but over the course of these 12 tracks, Vendetta Red do make better sense, and while their sound is hardly revolutionary - usually falling somewhere between Nirvana's quiet/ loud patent and Fugazi's tight'n'edgy 'core with some big-haired Emo-isms to make up the numbers - they've got enough melodic suss and killer choruses to pull most of this gear off.
Although "There Only Is" is a pretty average opener, a slew of decent songs flood through in the slipstream. "Stay Home" marries a horrific child abuse lyric with an unfeasibly catchy chorus; "Opiate Summer" overcomes its' wordy aspirations to pull off a similar trick and "Shatterday" (very funny) is an unlikely, but driving call to arms.
They hit the target again with both the genuinely moving, faith-questioning "Suicide Party" and "Lipstick Torniquet". This latter especially shows off Vendetta Red's versatility, veering from tight'n'staccato to monstrous'n'proggy (in a Mars Volta kind way) to gentle'n'tender and back again. Indeed, sonically "Between The Never And The Now" is never less than impressive, with spot-on production from Jerry Finn and the LA studio setting enhancing the atmosherics in songs like the slow-burning "Ambulance Chaser."
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A couple of elements still turn me off Vendetta Red. Although I'm sure they'd be monstrous moshpit favourites, songs like "Caught You Like A Cold" and "There Only Is" are far too shouty and generic by half on record, while singer Zach Davidson's impossibly verbose lyrical content (e.g: "In fiscal flight from the ravenous, cavernous orifice asphyxiated form" - from "Ambulance Chaser" - like, uh?) intensely irritates. I've absolutely no problem with rock's vocabulary being above average, but this is ridiculous, especially when he's capable of making concise emotional points like he does on "Stay Home" or "Suicide Party."
Nonetheless, "Between The Never And The Now" is a largely splendiferous US post-hardcore rock'n'roll album with far more to recommend it that I originally thought likely. If they can get past this old curmudgeon, they're definitely doing something right.
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