Knife Behind the Smile

Red Sky is what happens when you cross the evil-sounding metalcore of (pre-album) Abnegation with truckloads of thrash and death metal. There is a slight NYHC influence too (i.e., bands like Confusion and Merauder). It is a heady mix. The great thing about "Knife Behind the Smile" is how extreme it sounds. There are no lazy moments here. Everything sounds busy, brimming with well-timed blast-beats and wild solos. Employing two vocalists (i.e., screaming and growling) was still relatively uncommon when this album came out in 1998, and the vocal overlap adds to the intensity and craziness. That craziness is what makes this album so appealing.

The beginning of opener "Regeneration" encapsulates what this record is about; some blasting underneath a twirly Possessed-style death metal riff, followed by some NYHC thuggery when the vocals arrive. Songs like "Embodied" and "In Throes of Disappointment" dial up the Slayer influence as far as possible, but Red Sky homage Slayer rather than ripping them off. "Vault" is an interesting way to close the album. This is the creepiest song of all, and the use of pinch harmonics reminds me of Deadguy. It sounds great, and shows that Red Sky had more tricks up their sleeve than first appears.

The thing that separates these guys from every other lame Slayer-core band is the drumming. There are no grooving/bopping metalcore tempos here. This guy is from the thrash/death metal school. He has all the fills and sounds like he could compete with any thrash drummer outside of the top tier (i.e., Lombardo, Benante, and the likes). The album has one odd and unexpected weakness; the chugs are not very chuggy. The guitar tone works well for all those melodies and Slayer riffs, but it lacks any chugging power. Maybe the guitarists were using cheap equipment or something? This doesn’t impede the album too much because everything else is so good, and because there are many other things happening around the chugs.

"Knife Behind the Smile" is the rare death/thrash/hardcore record that should appeal to fans of all three genres. I would recommend it to anyone who likes the extreme end of thrash (e.g., Morbid Saint), the steamroller style of American death metal (e.g., Deicide), and the harsher side of NYHC. I’ve made plenty of reference points here, but that underlies how well Red Sky managed to blend everything together into a ruthless fusion. In short, there are a lot of people who would benefit from listening to this 28-minute blitzkrieg.