Search - Red Harvest :: Sick Transit Gloria Mundi

Corrosive and Maddening GENIUS!

Nephren-Ka | 09/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Red Harvest is basically a mix of Ministry, Jesu, Coroner, Mayhem, Godflesh, and Skinny Puppy. If this sounds scattershot and lacking a sound of its own to you, well, you haven't listened to em yet. Red Harvest is punishing, brutal, efficient, and coldy beautiful, like with the intervals in the first song, AEP.



The songs all have lives of their own yet tie together well, as the best albums in any genre do. Crushing riffs combined with spacey techno/industrial beats and effects, overlaid with Ofu Kahn's relentless vocalizing: he may not have much variety in his somewhat one-note delivery, but I'll be damned if he doesn't fit the music's bleakness perfectly. Think of his vocals as an instrument, and you'll do fine.



The first four songs are a perfect start to the album. They sum it up, in its entirety. AEP is the juggernaut high-octane opener, with a wall of noise for riffs, some bass-driven interludes with female vocalizations, and a chain of riffs near the end that is damn near perfect. Godtech is slower, but still insanely brutal and riff-reliant, the Jesu side of the band (I know Jesu didn't show up till after this record was released, humor me) with some really awesome vocal hooks (strange, innit?) and strange electronic effects. Humanoia= Ministry song with different production. Not a bad thing, not at all, especially considering the catchy lyrics (for once.). Very good shout-along, thrash-around song.



Dead is the Godflesh side of the band, with more vocal effects on Ofu's whisper, and a reliance on industrial beats and sounds. It's very creepy, almost, and definitely disenheartening. Almost like Fear Factory, from their Fear Is the Mindkiller EP, but definitely more desolate and bleak-sounding.



The rest of the album is just as good as those songs, the one possible weak link being 'Dead Men Don't Rape,' but I like that song anyway.



Buy it.



Ta,

Nephren-Ka."