Red – End of Silence

First let me say that Red is an absolutely horrible band name. It sucks. There’s nothing to it at all; it’s forgettable, boring and unimaginative. It’s almost on par with The End, in fact, when someone was asking me what I thought about Red I responded with my thoughts on The End because both names are generic and bland. Musically however, Red is far from bland; although they are slightly generic.

Once you get past the boring and pointless introduction (it really is useless, you’ll never listen to it and it doesn’t introduce you to the album at all) you get Breathe Into Me, the first single and a song to show you what’s to come. You immediately think of BEC / Tooth & Nail Records artists like Thousand Foot Krutch and Kutless – and this was all before I even realized that Red was also a Christian rock band. Putting aside the lyrical content, the sound and structures between the bands are also very similar to one another. The vocals are strong, on the edge of screaming with slight distortion and a radio friendly rock feel to them. The sound is smooth and well polished, with everything mixed together and nothing really sticking out on itself. There’s the heavy breakdowns and more melodic bridges throughout and even though the pattern is sometimes predictable, Red are able to do it well enough to keep your interest for the most of the album.

But the one thing that really makes End Of Silence stick out is the beautiful string arrangements on all but three of the tracks. It is the strings that are really able to elevate the band’s sound to a new level. With multiple violinists, cellists and viola players on the album, the songs on End Of Silence are able to take a step higher than the common Christian rock sound. They help make the songs stronger and more momentous, nearly hitting the soaring capacity of Muse; and it is that little spark that makes Red a bit more memorable despite the moniker. However, that does bring up yet another question. Since none of the band members themselves actually play any of the strings on the album, how would they reproduce the sound live? I guess that’s just a problem the band themselves will have to solve because without the strings, Red just falls in line with the plethora of other radio-friendly rock bands.

Despite that they could easily do without the five minute closer, Already Over Pt. 2, and the boring introduction, Red did make a solid album here. Even if you’re not Christian, the lyrics aren’t overly preachy and could just as easily be interpreted as love songs for a girlfriend instead of for God. The only obstacle the band has is to capture the emotion of the strings and reproduce it live, because without that element, they’ll be pretty forgettable just like their name.