THE CRIMSON ARMADA brings the gift of brutality with new CD Guardians

September 8, 6:56 PMHeavy Metal ExaminerMark Morton

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image courtesy of Metal Blade Records

It seems like these metalcore/deathcore bands are a dime a dozen in 2009, and in some respects, they are – young bands cropping from seemingly nowhere, slapping sounds together, screeching over the “music”, popping some obligatory grooves in more because of it being required rather than for any kind of creative purpose, and packaging it with some kind of 3rd Grader-concocted phrase that has no real meaning other than, “it sounds cool”, packaging and shipping it as the next big thing in extreme music.

While The Crimson Armada (hailing from Ohio) embodies some of the trappings of the whatever-core style, there is something subtextually about the band that is mindbogglingly interesting. It certainly isn’t the name, which sounds like some Special Forces sub-team on GI Joe. There is an underlying value of musicianship to these guys, and it really shines through most of the tracks on their new album Guardians.

Breaking it down, The Crimson Armada really puts forth a lot of effort into its music. The band sounds like it has 8 vocalists, ranging everywhere from the John Tardy razor-blade throat and Jamie Jasta’s fist-to-the-gut howl, to Broken Hope crypt-ravaging guttural roar, the Tasmanian Devil, Cobra Commander, and even a hint of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The drumming is just unreal – incredibly precise and completely on-point with all the time-changes. Of course, that is something that would just be expected of a band, but if you stripped away all the other components, the drumming alone would be a great listen.

Compositionally, the band tries to do a little bit of everything, with flavors of neo-progressive atmosphere by way of symphonic keyboards, the fretboard quick-step a la Dying Fetus, getting caught in a mosh, and playing the deathcore game with a serious hardcore attitude.

The only real complaint is that there is a bit too much finger-tapping. It used to be a technique sparingly used to highlight a particularly interesting riff or bridge – Death used to do it masterfully, but it seems like everybody relies on tricks these days than actually paying attention to composition, and the “songs” most bands record come across more as a string of unrelated riffs that you’ll forget 15 seconds after hearing it.

That said, it is a great album to listen to if you want to do some street racing. There is definitely a tension-heightening, adrenaline release to the album as a unit.

Ultimately, Guardians seems like an album of exploration, as if the band is trying, through a series of songs, to find its place in the metal world. I think if they utilized the keyboards more into their compositions, they might have something quite infectious on their hands.

I was all aglow when “The Architect” started, because it really sounded like the band was onto something, but then, the keyboards and eerie guitarwork stopped, and they fell back into their comfort zone of screech-n-burn deathcore.

However, it sounds like this band is designed primarily for the stage, and it wouldn’t surprise me if The Crimson Armada put on quite a memorable show. Fingers crossed to see what they do next.