What a waste of time
Red Harvest has been around for a while. From their beginnings in 1987, the band has released eight albums, two E.Ps and a live DVD. One of these discs, ‘Sick Transit Gloria Mundi’ was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy. The band have pedigree, a long discography and critical acclaim to boot, so why is this compilation of material from 1996 to 2007 so utterly tiresome and laborious?
Red harvest specialise in industrial metal, which is always worth a listen as long as the emphasis is on the metal with the metallic, new age samples and FX adding to the power and depth of the music. Unfortunately, ‘The Red Line Archives’ is more industrial trash than actual metal, which sees the tinny guitars lost in a wash of white noise and reverb, and the vocals breathed, shouted or spoken rather than actually sung. But is this traditional Red Harvest? Quite frankly I don’t have a clue and I can only go on this album at face value. It’s a compilation, but is it an actual compilation or a collection of rehashed, remixed and re-imagined material pillaged from their earlier albums? With track titles such as, ‘Abstract Moral • Junction Mix (Internal Punishment Programs • 2004, remix 2008), it’s impossible to work out if the junction mix is the 2008 remix or a 2004 remix, who knows? Who cares? After only two listens my enthusiasm didn’t stretch in trying to resolve the mystery, rather finding more and more reasons to avoid putting the album into my stereo. The blurb on the back didn’t really help, “The Red Line Archives marks the beginning, The Red Line Archives marks the end.” So, that’s cleared that one up.
But for a band who’ve received award nominations for their music it was difficult to imagine the tunes included on ‘The Red Line Archives’ sounding as wishy washy as anything from their original albums. So what’s the idea behind the album? Apparently there was a ghost in the Red Harvest machinery. It’s an album created from within the other albums and projects, or in other words, they’re songs/ideas/mixes that were too toss to include on the actual albums. It certainly isn’t the soundtrack to the apocalypse, as stated in their press release. If it is then I’m sure the worlds population would be praying for end to come a lot quicker. I know I'd be hoping the earth fall into the sun before I had to listen to '4418' again.
This album is devoid of grinding riffs, snarling vocals, clever beats and driving rhythms. It is more akin to a self-indulgent personal project of a musician let loose with some industrial sounds and a whole bank of reverb settings. 'Synthesize My DNA' attempts to inject some life into middle of the album, but it's more of a tuneless din with pointless shouting over the top. ‘Abstract Moral’ sounds like an early, crass sounding Depeche Mode track without the hook or melody. ‘Last Call’ is the best idea on offer, but it’s weak production muffles any impact the riff could’ve had. The album is full of messy ideas that take an age to get going and have little impact when they do.
I’ve probably missed the point, but I like to think I know enough about metal to know that there’s not much on offer here for a metal fan or any kind of music fan come to think of it. I don’t know Red Harvest and had to take the band on face value. Perhaps this wasn’t the best place to start, but on what I’ve heard I will not be frequenting their back catalogue any time soon. Avoid.