Review Summary: "Sometimes dead is better." And sometimes releasing an actual album instead of an EP is too.
Red Handed Denial isn't exactly well known... but there's a good reason for that. They're essentially just another band in the cogs of modern "prog". Even calling them prog is a little weird. Despite being obviously talented in terms of instrumentation and having Lauren up front for all the men to stare at... why should anyone invest any time into paying attention to them? That seems to be the problem with a lot of modern bands within the "genre". They're a dime a dozen and even that stock continues to lower. Red Handed Denial surely hasn't done enough to warrant any fame through their main releases but yet an EP somehow makes a bigger impression than the rest of their work? Because they have a cute 5' 1" frontwoman? That approach has been done years ago; doesn't mean wank on the guitars in random sequence and let your frontwoman steal the show. Lauren Babic, although talented, doesn't have the same effect say -- Elize Ryd from
Amaranthe -- might have to save the music. Nor the pipes. Or the legs.
Anyway.
Unfortunately they still somehow find a way to trample on their own feet musically. The frontwoman, Lauren Babic, has grown an insurmountable amount since their first full release. She can actually sing now, which is always good albeit she sounds almost exactly like Claudio Sanchez from
Coheed & Cambria at times. Maybe even Geddy Lee from
Rush which is weird and somehow kind of sexually confusing. Point is -- she's grown vocally since Red Handed Denial's first album. Could be partially because of her works with Cole Rolland, a "famous" YouTuber (quotes extra heavy on the word) that covers a lot of popular songs. Also, she can now "growl" with a little more ferocity than a house cat although she doesn't have the strength behind them to compete with the best female vocalists that can pull it off.
The album starts off with a pretty solid tune named Manipulator. It has some good feels to it although it almost seems like a modern rock song you'd here on the radio. Plus, it sounds like when she sings "the maker, will stay with the weak" she's actually singing "the N-word, will stay with the weak" and it's very uncomfortable to turn up louder than volume level "2" in the hood. But that's fine and all because Patronizer feat. Eric July actually starts out with almost exactly the same riff until they decide it'd be pretty alright to randomly throw in a few finger taps to tail the riff. Then after that's done a couple times, Lauren acts like she's about to sing into the mic but decides to change into a scream because that's never been done before (I'm looking at you,
Emmure). Then of course there's an obligatory slow mid-section because it was too out of place in the first song (don't forget the obligatory F bomb as a slow heavy riff starts because Metallica in '89 wasn't a thing). Eric July eventually comes in and saves the song with a brilliant solo (just kidding, he's actually a vocalist and isn't even noticeable on the entire song). Eric July actually sounds exactly like Lauren Babic which might be the most sexually confusing thing on this album. All jokes aside, this album should've lead with this song and dropped Manipulator and the "Feat" tag. Really catchy.
Widowmaker comes up next and is the most truly confusing song on the entire album. It's mostly wankery and sounds like a confused
Periphery song a la 2010 played backwards until the chorus finally hits. At one point one might get confused that Lacey Sturm from
Flyleaf was making a comeback with flying guitars over her voice. But a casual listener will never hear any of this because of the lengthy clean intro to the song that's about as memorable as the outro to Serenity Painted Death by
Opeth although they were smart enough to put it at the end. And it actually worked. To be fair, Red Handed Denial put a much better than expected piano piece at the end of this one.
Then something changes. Almost like the band understood they were supposed to write an actual coherent song.
Collector. It's no shocker they chose this as their "single" to the EP (singles to an EP are a thing?). It has everything this band needs: sensible wankery; properly timed "growls"; coherence and collusion; an actual brain.
Between the Buried and Me would be proud; the only thing it needs is some keyboards and a circus beat.
Then Wanderer happens as if
Scale the Summit hadn't already perfected it.
Animals As Leaders might've been used but that's a bit too out there.
All in all, it's a pretty good album. Once you get beyond all the sexual confusion and clichés, Red Handed Denial put out their best on an EP. Collector is the gem. Just don't listen and not expect to get sexually, emotionally and irreparably confused by what exactly this is.
