BLOODSIMPLE 'Red Harvest' (Reprise/Bullygoat) RATING: 8/10

By JEFF MAKI

Bloodsimple rose from the ashes of the vocalist Tim Williams and guitarist Mike Kennedy's popular hardcore band Vision of Disorder. The band initially signed to Mudvayne vocalist Chad Grey's label, Bullygoat Records, for the release of their debut album, A Cruel World. The album was received well but endured some criticism due to its nu-metal tendencies and lack of originality. With their sophomore release, Red Harvest, the band continues in a similar vein but begins to distance itself from nu-metal and offers a record that is heavier, yet catchier and full of variety.

Red Harvest opens strangely with the spoken words of “Ride With Me,” almost Jim Morrison-like poetry when Williams starts talking about snakes (what else?): “The other night I was riding in a friend's car/And out there on the side of the road/There was a snake/The snake had eyes of fire and fangs from another world.” This opening had me somewhat worried, but things quickly turn the corner with the title track. Sure, it's remarkably similar to any Coal Chamber material with its downtuned guitars and manically screamed vocals, but it does well to set the tone. The monster of a song here is “Dark Helmet,” with the memorable lyric “Turn the fuck around and get your fuckin' face split” and a fist-pumping, adrenaline-filled chorus. The main riff of “Dead Man Walking” is out of Judas Priest's playbook and the song's chorus makes you want to stomp. “Death from Above” channels the spirit of Pantera and is an all-out thrasher. There's also a ballad here titled “Truth (Thicker Than Water)” featuring great guitar soloing and actual melodic singing by Williams; it turns out he's not that bad of a singer, and he almost sounds fit to front an '80s hair band. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but it's actually quite good.

Lyrically, Red Harvest draws inspiration from the 1929 Dashiell Hammett detective novel of the same name (the same novel that coined the term "blood-simple," which, according to Wikipedia, "describes the addled, fearful mindset people are in after a prolonged immersion in violent situations"). This helps the band avoid the usual topics associated with metal. There's not an overload of blood and guts here, and no, it doesn't appear the members of bloodsimple led terrible childhoods and now have it out for their parents. I'm not quite sure what the album or the book is about, so some research might be in order. The subject of “the afterlife” is brought up on more than a few occasions.

There are many bands to which you can compare bloodsimple: Coal Chamber, Drowning Pool, Spineshank, Pantera and Korn, to name a few. Originality is still a problem with this band, but the material packs enough muscle that it becomes less of an issue with this release. Their debut was solid, but it wasn't anything that would stick in your CD player for more than a day. Hell, if you want to get technical, bloodsimple's music is still simplistic at its core even now. However, Red Harvest sees the band finding its niche with influences melding into a strong, recognizable sound, something missing from most hard rock and metal today.