“I know your name so show me your face.“
While it may seem a strange angle to open on, there are perhaps very few bands were a vocalist precedes the wider band than in the case of Red Handed Denial. Vocalist Lauren Babic has become a well known name in the metalcore genre, with many features to her name alongside other projects including CrazyEightyEight. Red Handed Denial have always been a mainstay project of Babic for many a year, with regular releases, that now sees them release latest effort in the form of A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia.
Chugging and djenty riffs welcome in on A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia, with Babic‘s lows shaking the record into force on “Parasite“. It is perhaps here where the early warning signs begin to set in, mainly on the production and mixing side. The clean chorus here sucks the air out of the heaviness of its opening moments, given the sold structure on the verses, seems particularly crowbarred in. Following track “One More Night” presents an overly forceful hook in “Can you stay one more night, I don’t want to live in a world without you“, which is repeated far too often.
What’s present on contrasting tracks “Falling Back To You” and “Smokescreen” highlights the aforementioned issues on the production and mix, one choosing melodic tones and the other taking the route of djent-y heaviness. The issue is is that everything sits too much in the middle, which buries the drums to a point that they lose their impact and the guitars only feel present on the heavy moments. Looking back at previous album I’d Rather Be Asleep, which provides a much more satisfying listen, as kicks and all hit the ear which they don’t on A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia.
The latter half of the record contains “Eat Glass“, which is a blend of hard rock and metal elements, which feels obtuse for Red Handed Denial‘s sound. It also nails in that sense across the record that a lot here has that sense of being heard elsewhere. Earlier tracks sit within that familiarity of the sound that Dayseeker, Bad Omens and Silent Planet have refined over the past few years, that gives A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia an uncanny valley feeling when listening.
The final two tracks in “I Hope You’re Happy” and “Home” is perhaps where the record does shine the most, even if it would have been nice to see once of these drawn back tracks earlier on to break up the record. On both these tracks it’s where Babic‘s vocals are allowed to take centre stage, especially as “Home” enters its closing stages, and many will see this as a shame that A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia couldn’t do Babic‘s vocal ability justice.
A blunt assessment would see A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia as a carbon copy of music that is around a decade old at this point, with an absolute downgrade in terms of its production and mixing. While Babic is evidently a strong vocalist who can carry a record, there is a feeling that perhaps that the lack of strong songwriting and instrumentals is holding them back from propelling them to the highs of their peers.
3/10
A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia is out May 24th via Paid Vacation, and can be pre-ordered here.