Vendetta Red Albums (3)
'Sisters of the Red Death'
Release Date 7/26/2005
Tracks 12
Label Control Group/TCG
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What The Critics Say
Banshees, serenades, silhouettes; the body and the blood. Vendetta Red's sophomore major-label effort really amplifies the grandiosity, dropping lines like "My bold bulimic belly dancer/Narcissistic necromancer" over the churning guitars and sporting a thematic framework that has something to do with cults and gorgons. But Sisters of the Red Death is really about Vendetta trying to find Radiohead inside My Chemical Romance's anxious racket. Zach Davidson does an uncanny channeling of Thom Yorke on "Shiver," "Run," and "Great Castration," and the songs shift abruptly from meandering lilts and treated elements into tense, screechy guitar climaxes, fits of metal-derived chording, and choruses that stick like pins. In other words, it's three cheers for sweet paranoid androids. Of course, amid its ambition and scraping for a broader sound, the band can still light into Between the Never and the Now-style Weezer approximations. "Vendetta Red Cried Rape on Their Date with Destiny" is suggestive of that album's "Shatterday" with its surging chorus (not to mention Fall Out Boy with that lengthy, self-referential title), and "Banshee Ballet" is a martial pop-emo rush. It's possible Vendetta Red's getting too epic too soon. Parts of Sisters of the Red Death feel too calculated or needlessly wordy, and the band occasionally gets lost inside the ultra-slick production. But it's still a promising step. Grandly ambitious is better than standing pat with simple songs to pogo to. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
'Between the Never and the Now'
Release Date 6/24/2003
Tracks 12
Label Epic
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What The Critics Say
Seattle-by-way-of-California combo Vendetta Red's Epic debut is a solid, even graceful collection of post-grunge guitar heroics, driving mid-tempo rhythms, and concurrently soaring/searing vocal workouts, the latter courtesy of Roger Daltrey-haired frontman Zach Davidson. The boys are quite convincing on Between the Never and the Now, whether they're channeling the yearning of emo during the child-abuse ballad "Stay Home," boiling down hardcore's aggression and speed to the essentials of a shout-along chorus and shredding chord progression in "Opiate Summer," or turning the trad rock of Travis on its ear with "Seconds Away" and "There Only Is." (Davidson shares more than a little vocal similarity with that band's Fran Healy). Vendetta Red's fabulously triumphant single "Shatterday" is also the best Sunny Day Real Estate rewrite to come along in quite a while. Complete with enormous, guitar-heavy dynamics and a gang vocal breakdown, the track is sure to spark a few lighters at summer 2003's Warped Tour, if the kids still do that kind of thing. "Shatterday" is actually just one of seven songs appearing here that were originally part of White Knuckled Substance, the band's 2001 LP on Seattle indie Loveless. Though the production and mixing of Jerry Finn (Green Day, Sum 41) refuels them with a sick bottom end and plenty of thick six-string mud slinging and clarifies the alternating screech and tear-jerking croon of Davidson's vocals to startling effect, the songs are still basically the same. This is important, because it proves that Vendetta Red had the goods long before Epic and the allure of unlimited studio hours ever came a-calling. Between the Never's new songs aren't too shabby, either. "Lipstick Tourniquets" stands on a patch of ground between arching, angular post-punk and 1950s doo wop, sounding like a Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers side intercut with an old Jesus Lizard noise experiment. Meanwhile, "Caught You Like a Cold"'s roiling lead riff nods to the ax-heavy history of Vendetta Red's adopted hometown. Vendetta Red isn't doing anything spectacularly new with its Epic debut. But strong songwriting, compelling emotion, and the effortless regenerational abilities of youth make Between the Never and the Now a consistently rewarding revisionist rock document. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
'White Knuckled Substance'
Release Date 10/30/2001
Tracks 12
Label Loveless
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What The Critics Say
Seattle's Vendetta Red seems to realize that a memorable chorus can rescue just about anything from the awful land of rehashed musical ideas, and on their debut disc they create a few moments that do bring their emo-rocking, At the Drive-In-loving sound to a credible level. Zach Davidson's vocals are impressively powerful in a Jeremy Enigk sort of fashion, and he is just as commendable when he strips things down to his pretty tough-sounding scream. The "written to be a hit single" singalong rock of "Shatterday" is a particularly telling moment where the band is aiming to find their niche, and based on a tremendously lucrative deal that came to the band shortly after this record's release, it seems they have fit in just fine. The disc sometimes wastes its breath on mopey emo listlessness or piano-based tracks that are a bit less effective, but when they do bring it all back to full speed -- on tracks like the charged-up "All Cried Out" -- they at least make a more credible attempt at rocking and occasionally serve to really impress. Vendetta Red occasionally sounds contrived, but at other points they overflow with the kind of hardcore honesty that really makes a band powerful. This probably isn't the best of its kind out there, but it's also doubtful that this is the best they have in them. ~ Peter J. D'Angelo, All Music Guide
