Time To Panic

I think that Record Companies need to start discovering bands once again. I know what you're thinking. Don't they do that all the time. Maybe some do, but the recent practice seems to be that they sign an independent band that has plugging around the concert scene for perhaps 5 or 10 years, and then when they don't really go on to super-stardom, they break up. It's time to retire they say. Retire, they've only been in the public eye for 2 or 3 years. Yeah, it was the 15 years in obscurity that really took the toll. At least when you discover somebody that just formed, you expect the first record to stink, and you let time work to mature you, and like Petra, you're around for 40 years.

Which brings me to RED. The band came to the attention of The Night Beat right from the start, thanks to internet radio. (If it was up to local CCM radio, nothing harder than the Talley Trio would cross these ears. Talk about a puke-fest).

End Of Silence started things off in 2006. No band could more artfully blend Hard Music and Orchestral Strings. It became RED's trademark. Especially with a song like Breathe Into Me (re done acoustically on the current album) and Already Over. Also, you can't deny, it's one of the most honest titles out there. Could things get better than this?


The answer came three years later. It was all a matter of Innocence & Instinct. The only word to describe this album is "Masterpiece". It should have been the "Fallen Moment" for red, you know, multi platinum stardom. 260,000 sold is a bit short. Still, any rock fan should have this album. Get the deluxe version with DVD if you can.

Until We Have Faces and Faceless appeared two years later. The Hymn for the Missing is hauntingly beautiful. Not as good as the first two, but still, a recognizable RED album.

Now comes Release The Panic , and I want to scream, "WHAT HAPPENED TO RED!!!" Somebody must have kidnapped the band and impersonated them in the recording studio. The Red Sound is gone. Thank god they escaped and took control before the album got released and so they return by track 7, but why keep those first 6 tracks. There wont be any real keepers with this album. It's the first Red Album that wont make the initial pool of the PVA's much less win. Panic Folks, Red seems to be in a tailspin. Maybe we can get a great album next year. This is good, average, okay 3.75 Emeralds. It becometh not Red.