Redline
Vice

I'm sitting here with 'Vice' in my ears for the twentieth time and I still don't understand what it is I'm suppose to get out of the album. The cover have a figure that looks very much like a cheap copy on the Iron Maiden mascot Eddie and the music sounds like a cheap copy of a standardized heavy metal merge. It might seem like Redline are nothing but a cheap copy and I have to admit there are a few things suggesting such a thing.

Before we go too deep in to the music I just want to comment on the funny in how two of the string benders here are called Steve. Now, I'm not suggesting that they would be copies of Steve Harris or something like that, neither that they would be related despite the name (Caj hasn't got this with what makes people related, he thinks it's peoples first names). But it's a pretty funny thing. However, the music isn't very funny. First of all we have a problem with the production, which sounds very much like a garage thing. That doesn't necessary mean it sounds cheap (even though it does to some extent) - it's more of a feeling I get when I hear it. I just get a picture of some balding middle aged men in a garage, polishing their precious Harleys that are lined up in there with some classic hard rock echoing out from a small stereo in a corner. One of the songs on this album is even dedicated to a motorcycle race they have on the Island of Man every year - so perhaps they've successfully jcaptured the spirit they were aiming on? Well, if so congratulations, but I'd rather have a sound that brings out the music better because the way it sounds now it disappears a bit in some sort of cloud with everything else.

Most Of 'Vice' feels like a noisy motorcycle album but they've also included a ballad with beautifully played piano and they even have some strings in there as well. It's a track that doesn't really fit with the lot, but that's probably the reason why it feels so much better than the rest. But I'm also guessing they've put some more time and effort in to this one because most of the rest just feel a bit like gliding. Like they're pretty straight to the point and doesn't demand perfection - rock 'n' roll without all kind of "epic", "progressive" thing that some bands try. And it is an album that is a bit uncharacteristic for being released by Escape Music because it's not particularly melodic or very "grown up" - as mor eor less every album they release are. Instead it feels like an album for the men in their 40's and 50's that hasn't really grown up yeat and still play with toys and go home to mommy to get their clothes washed. In other words: bikers.

So, does all of this constant complaining mean this album stinks? No, not really actually. There are some fundamental errors with the album, most of all that it feels too common - like we've heard it before and that nothing really stands out from what feels like a standard formula, except for the ballad Cold Silence I mentioned earlier. Too much of this album feels like things repetitions and that really becomes a problem when you consider how it was repeating other stuff already when the album started. However all these doesn't mean the album is completely shit because even though I've complained about more or less everything so far it still have some positives. Like for once I actually starts to move about the kind of way I normally do when I hear music I like. A few of these songs are actually not bad, it's far from an album that just have a good ballad and nothing else but copied stuff from other bands. It might be partly copied but it's far from "nothing else" that's good on it.

I still don't get the point Redline is trying to make with 'Vice' and despite I feel it's partly good (or decent at least) I can't see myself returning to the album too often after this twentieth time in the speakers. However, I'm sure there are those who will return for both a twenty first and twenty second time and that really gets the album. But I'm also pretty sure that most of them are bikers.

HHHHHHH