New World Rage Music

Red Harvest are a band I've been interested in for quite a while now, I've found them to have the capability to be extremely good, but from the other albums I've heard by them, they're a very inconsistent band. However, on New World Rage Music, an album which is pretty much an EP with a couple of new tracks tacked on the end, Red Harvest show just how devastatingly good they can be when they have quality from start to finish.

The album consists of a few earlier tracks from the EP of the same name, these still hold onto the more thrash/black touches of their earliest material. Sure it's still Red Harvest, so of course it sounds like the earth being invaded by some form of giant robot army, but apart from "Move or Be Moved", which is an extremely electronic instrumental, the industrial side is lesser, and the thrash/black is focussed on. It's the other songs added on the end that bring out the huge electronic bend this band has been on for quite a while, but unlike other albums, this doesn't break the bands crushing apocalyptic sound, it just makes them feel more mechanical.

The most notable thing about the album is that the slower side of the band's music is less developed. It sort of lacks identity, and instead sounds not dissimilar to Fear Factory. Clearly shown in crushing numbers like "Swallow The Sun" and "Pity The Bastard", the later which sounds very much like the Fear factory track "Martyr". Added to general similarities in the music, the vocals also sound quite Burton-esque the whole time, which adds to the slight feeling of familiarity this album has with that band. Of course, the fast songs, such as Ad Noctum are pure Red Harvest, combining industrial touches with black metal and thrash metal. There are even a few melodic breaks here and there, all which work quite well.

The album is one of their most intense, due to it's high volume of high speed and aggressive music, Sick Transit Gloria Mundi crushes it in this regard ("Final Scorn" sounds like it could have fitted on that album with ease), but I prefer this album's melodic streak. In fact, the usual slow paced, heavily industrial/electronic, no attempt at metal tracks don't show up until the last two songs. Which is both a blessing and a curse. It's good that the quality metal assault is uninterrupted, which keeps the flow going (Move or Be Moved functions as very good industrial spacer), But this means that there's 10 minutes of fairly riffless stuff on the end, which doesn't quite hold my attention, It's some of the best industrial/electronic stuff they've done, there's just a little too much of it in a row.

This is, from the three Harvest albums I've heard, the best of the lot. Consistency isn't a problem, this'll remain apocalyptic and intense from start to (almost) finish. There is no jarring difference between the old tracks and the new ones, which just adds to the whole album feeling that much more solid as a whole. This is Red Harvest at their best, and for a much longer period of time than usual. Of course, if you've got the EP, this release will be far less impressive, as the two EP songs are some of the best songs on the album, but many of the best tracks are the new songs, so it's still worthwhile, this is highly recommended.