Reviews

In the Red hail from California, but the roots are from the unlikely music bastion of the United States: Gainesville, FL.  Like other bands from the area, Hot Water Music and Against Me! as well as The Fest, it’s easy to see the influence of the area on this band.  They remind me of a softer Hot Water Music, but with the same intensity as Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard.  Volume 2 begins quiet, but the volume isn’t in the music, it’s in the delivery.  

While it is possible that the mixing of the album lead to this dulled ferocity, it doesn’t really matter.  The lyrics shine through all the songs and the instrumentals are amazing.  I hope that I can see them live at some point.  In many of the songs a disconnection happens in the way the instruments play under the lyrics.  I don’t mean they act like antagonists to each other, but on occasion the music sounds more prominent than the lyrics.

Considering it takes a lot for me to learn the lyrics of a song and I prefer to listen to music with vocals as an instrument, not the focus of the music, In the Red had me following various lines of songs and almost every chorus.  

I enjoyed the nature of the songs, how they seemed to idle like an engine at certain points while the intensity showing itself even when the song falls in the audio.  In the Red is a worthy brother to other bands from Gainesville.  It’s possible that all the bands feed off each other, and in the best way possible.

Go out, buy In the Red Volume 2, broaden your music horizons and discover every other band from Florida, north of Orlando.