The Judas Factor - Ballads In Blue China - CD (1999)

Labels: Revelation
Review by: Andy Malcolm

Argh! Hear me scream hoarsely! And yell loudly! Feel my pain! Watch us careen around the stage, bumping into each other!

Do you like bands like this? I do. So therefore I like the Judas Factor. I was a bit scared when I saw they were on Revelation, I thought they would be the labels latest attempt to convince themselves that Texas Is The Reason are still alive, and not just playing drums in Jets to Brazil, writing stuff, singing in New Rising Sons, or doing whatever the other guy is doing. But upon further listening I have no reason to be scared, except of Rob Fish’s tortured yells.

Basically this is hard as nails, fast ‘n’ heavy emo hardcore with a dash of melody sprinkled amidst the splintering riffs and head crushing heavy (metal?) bits. Rob has a lot to get off his chest, just read the notes that come on the CD-ROM portion. And he’s not averse to getting hyper emo about things, just listen to the stark indie rock mellowness (celloness?) of “Will You Wait Up For Me?” or the acoustic leanings of “Stealing Away”. These two tracks make for neat variation, nestling amidst some of the more brutal efforts, such as the face smashing “As I Lie Down To Die” and the frantic Torches to Rome feel of my favourite, “Essay”.

Knocks? Well, they threw this together pretty quickly, so it doesn’t quite flow properly, it sounds like whoever was responsible for editing the thing together made a couple of mistakes between songs, leaving gaps where things should have flowed seamlessly. And I personally could do without the slower, grindy tracks. But ‘part from that, ‘s cool. I betcha Rev signed them though on the basis of a demo of that indie emo song, I can just picture the folks sitting around a stereo going “Hey, it’s kinda like TITR, lets sign ’em up”.

12 tunes in 29 minutes. Tear it up!