5 out of 5

Label: Epic

Produced by: Howard Benson

Setting aside the shockingly repugnant lyrics and how they do or don’t effectively tell the album’s “story” about a post-nuclear war born harpy who ravages the planet and falls in love (? – taken from wiki), ‘Sisters of the Red Death’ takes all of the promise inherent in V.Red’s prior disc, Between the Never and the Now, switches out one big name producer for another, and becomes the pinnacle achievement of the glossy screamo / emo movement.  And those repugnant lyrics are sort of part of the package: lead Zach Davidson’s screams about cumming candy and licking an amputee’s stumps (both references from concluding track ‘Joyless Euphoria’) are so impassioned and invested in the narrative that you’re swept up in a story you don’t really understand, similar to how A Serbian Film chose a particularly grisly way to tell an ugly story, but did it with respectable conviction.  Your appreciation of that may vary, of course, but that’s why the music on its own is impressive as a saving grace; Never and the Now sort of fell back on Davidson’s throat-shredding as its hook.  Producer Jerry Finn, knowing what makes a hit, probably recognized this and maybe helped the grouped structure their sound around it, resulting in an album that is grabbing when you first hear it, but shows its weaknesses once the shock has worn off, of a group somewhat listing around for direction, coasting on general menace and energy.  Producer Benson has certainly done the hard rock scene, but I tend to think of his sound more overblown in a production sense versus Jerry’s – though certainly glossily produced – more fist-pumping sensibilities.  A bullshit comparison / descriptor; nonetheless, it’s at play (in my mind) in the difference between the discs, as Sisters reaches for the sky at every moment, embracing the group’s punkier / poppier sensibilities and letting the hardcore blend in as needed.  It’s much stronger, song by song, and makes for much more complete, distinct, and memorable tracks, none of which blatantly stick out as singles because they alternately could all be singles and all belong together.

The curse of the pinnacle achievement, of course, is that there’s no place to go from there.  So while it would’ve been interesting to see what Vendetta Red would follow this with – notwithstanding their reunion and singles a few years later, and anything pending in the future, of course – it’s sort of a good thing that this album stands on its own.  Singing about anything besides smiling at broken bodies and rapey teachers while your group – bass, guitar, drums – fires on all cylinders, would seem like a step back down to earth.