Review Summary: Simple and straight forward, but it's enjoyable to say the least.
Red is a band that has been around in the alternative scene for quite awhile, ever since 2006. Red in my opinion are one of those bands that have always tickled my fancy when it came to listening to rock music in general. Their vocalist Micheal is a fantastic singer, and his screams are just nice and raw. Their drummer is very talented and keeps a good beat, nice fills into the music. The guitars are very gritty and smooth at the same time, same with the bass. (Fun fact: Their old guitarist, Jasen Rauch, is currently in one of my other favorite bands, Breaking Benjamin). But enough with the chit-chat, lets get into the review of this album shall we?
"End Of Silence" is Red's first full length release back in 2006, making this their cornerstone release. The reason why I am reviewing The 10th anniversary edition is because I planned on buying the original copy, but later founded out that this came out, so I got it. Just for you guys wondering, the 10th anniversary edition includes a full remaster of the album, plus some limited edition acoustics towards the end (With a sneak peak instrumental on their next album). I popped this baby in and listened to the whole thing, and I got to say that I was blown away at how good the quality was, despite the fact that this came out in 2006. This game me huge déjÃ* vu because I remember listening to this band awhile back in high school. I am going to go over track by track to give you my thoughts on the album, so maybe you can go give it a listen, because trust me, it is.
1. Intro & Breathe into me: A nice intro with radio wave interference and light piano with very melodic string elements, along with a very faint scream, this gives me chills. The intro fades into "Breathe into me". This song is one of Red's landmark releases and I can understand why. Very catchy guitar riffs and vocals are put into this song. The chorus is one of my favorite of all time, very powerful.
2. "Let Go" & "Already Over": "Let Go" is an amazing track on this album. This song has a lot of raw and powerful screams from not only the lead vocals, but backup as well. There is one point in the song where there is a scream that lasts a long time, probably 10 seconds, but hey it sounds amazing. "Already Over" gets the mood to calm down a bit and starts to get into some more piano and orchestral elements. Very nice song and really is a good example of what their sound is like if you never heard them yet.
3."Lost" & "Pieces": "Lost" is a very hard hitting song with a very catchy chorus, and it gets somewhat softer in the end with the singing that goes into the next track perfectly, "Pieces". "Pieces" is one of the first songs that I heard from these guys, this got me hooked on them. A very soft and beautiful song with very clean acoustics; I don't know if I should call it a ballad or not, it's whatever you take it as.
4."Break Me Down" & "Wasting Time": I am going to give my unbiased opinion of this album, especially with these two songs. This is there the album is kind of dull because a lot of the sound I am hearing is very similar to songs I just listened to awhile ago. "Break Me Down" has a very similar drum pattern that I heard in "Already Over". "Wasting Time" is okay I guess, the chorus is kind of catchy. Being that this is an alternative band, I will cut them some slack, but there isn't much creativity, a lot of redundant chord progression is on this album, so if you are into the tech stuff (like me), you might not be that fond of it, it's up to you to decide.
5."Gave It All Away" & "Hide": This is where the album picks up a bit and gets a nice and heavy sound. "Gave It All Away" is a very nice song and the vocal range is simply phenomenal, this song really shows Micheal's talent. "Hide" is technically the last song off the album and it is my favorite song out off all the others on this album. The chorus is extremely catchy and like I said previously, vocals are prime. I can't really explain how I feel about the song though, it just is so good I can't explain it, but it's whatever.
The ending of the album ends with a revisit to the intro sound that fades off into the end.
Since I said previously that I had the 10th anniversary edition, there are 4 tracks included:
-Breathe Into Me (Remix Acustica)
-Already Over (Acoustic Version)
-Lost (Acoustic Version)
-Hide (Acoustic Version)
A very good inclusion to go with the album, produced very well (Thanks to Sony).
This is a really good album in my opinion, simple and straight forward alternative. This album clocks in at over and hour so if you are into long albums, this is definitely for you. I like Red a lot and I have listened to some of their more recent stuff, and it sounds a bit different, but still good. I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes alternative (Nu metal) or whatever the *** you call it idc.
