The Red Light Commandos
Self-Titled
Self-Released
Street: 06.02
The Red Light Commandos = Incubus + The Mars Volta
I am incredibly torn on how to represent this album. With heavy, blues-influenced progressive rock, soft and soothing vocal stylings sound both forced and discordant. For moments in every song, you can hear the vocalist singing in a nearly full voice, but the majority of the time you feel like he’s holding back. An attempt to write cryptic lyrics ends up coming off as pretentious. On the other hand, dexterous, heady guitar riffs paired with cymbal-heavy and slightly complicated drum patterns give the music an interesting feel. You can tell all four members of the band are musically inclined. Transitions between different sections of the song have an awkward disconnect. “Hoover Flag” has more direction than the other three songs and is definitely more listenable. Chaos can be a very good thing when it comes to progressive rock, but not if you’re also trying to be so controlled that you can’t tell where the music’s focus lies. –LeAundra Jeffs