Labels: none
Review by: Joe Caithness
Once upon a time I went to a (irrelevantly disastrous) show in my (not so) native Nottingham and spoke to a chap with a beard at the bar about some bands or something and a year and a bit later the very same bearded man passed me a copy of his bands demo. The band in discussion is Red County War Ensemble. This demo contains 4 songs of noisy rock n roll hardcore punk, not a lot to say about the artwork really, but I don’t expect much from a demo but the raw goods. The material itself seems to be pretty old (recorded in September 2005), but don’t worry, this isn’t some jam like early version of a band, this is really strong material. Refreshingly original in sound too, pretty varied influences from what I have read, but for all the right reasons, it’s a chaotic mix of 80s hardcore punk scrappy energy and modern weighty guitar sounds. John’s vocals are pleasantly snotty and snarled in a way that reminds me of Void, a huge compliment. At times the guitar work reminds me of that Majority Rule stuff on the Pg99 split or mid (aka good) Planes Mistaken For Stars in the way it clashes completely chaotically but makes perfect sense. All in all a great effort for a demo, good enough for vinyl if you ask me! Although a lyric sheet would be nice.