“Christian Rock” is an interesting genre. Its bands and fans exist almost exclusively outside of mainstream music circles — there are many huge Christian Rock bands that you and I have probably never heard of. Simply by associating your band with the genre, you drastically limit your fanbase. Being accepted by mainstream fans is almost unheard of; to crossover, you had better be damn good.

Red is damn good.

Breathe Into Me, the first single from Red’s End of Silence, shows the band’s strongest side right up front. Tight vocals, dirty guitars, and an obvious pop sensibility with a big, singable chorus make the song memorable. Falling somewhere between a “less-rappy Linkin Park” and a “slightly heavier Creed,” the track is better than it sounds on paper.

Song structures flop between heavyish but radio-friendly rock and softer ballads. Along with the first single, tracks such as Let Go, Wasting Time, and Break Me Down all deliver distorted-laden hooks. Some of the tracks have backing orchestrial tracks that thicken the band’s sound, and a few of the tracks are flat out ballads. It’s an eclectic range that shows an extreme range of talent. I suspect fans of the band’s heavier tracks won’t care for the ballads as much, and vice versa. By the third spin I was already skipping most of the ballads — a sure sign that they’re destined for the top 40.

The production on End of Silence is impeccable. The disc punches and sounds terrific. Kudos to whoever mastered this. If you are a producer, even if Red isn’t your bag you should hang on to a copy of this disc and use it as a benchmark for your own recordings. Hot, punchy, dynamic. Great work.

If you’ve ever caught yourself tapping your foot to a Creed song (it’s okay if you don’t want to admit it publicly; I wouldn’t) or dig the rock/piano mixture of Evanescence, you should definitely check out End of Silence.

01. Intro
02. Breathe Into Me
03. Let Go
04. Already Over
05. Lost In You
06. Pieces
07. Break Me Down
08. Wasting Time
09. Gave It All Away
10. Hide
11. Already Over – Part 2

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.