Review: “For The Sick – ReWorks” by Red Method

How did we get here? Well… February 2020 saw Red Method, a band born from ashes of The Defiled and Metastasis finally release their long gestating album “For The Sick“, produced by Scott Atkins and features appearances by Mikee Goodman (Sikth) and Jason Mendonca (Akercocke). They’d already played a wealth of shows around the record including a slot on the Fireball Whiskey stage at Tech-Fest 2019 and in the year of the Great Plague the band decided to fuel their creative juices by delving into their electronic influences and re-imagining the songs from debut record, while also giving us a band new track to sink our teeth into.

“2020 has been a year of social unrest, injustice and natural disasters all under the cloud of the COVID-19. Our new single “Slaves to the new world disorder” is our attempt to encapsulate how the world around us collapses to the ground” ~ Jeremy Gomez (Lead Vocals)

“We are generally not a political band but we just had to take a stance and be heard on this one… adds Alex “The AvD” Avdis (Keyboards and Electronics) “We were barely scraping by as it was and for Mr. Sunak to come out and tell an Industry that generates 5 billion pounds a year to go retrain is just not good enough. This song is a big middle finger to these charlatans that have lost all sense of decency and have no regard for what looks bad on them or how they affect the lives of others.”

Starting out the with a cleverly edited speech by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, “Slaves To The New World Disorder” is the one brand new song on this album and it is an absolute ripper of sinister churning riffage and schizophrenically unhinged vocals that touch the void to the Slam end of Deathcore as they sandblast your ears. The technical solo is sublime and there is no doubt that this is the best song that Red Method have created, clearly inspired with a raging fire burning in the bands hearts. Where does that leave us with the rest of the record? Well if you cast your mind back to the depravity of “Suicide Season – Cut Up” by Bring Me The Horizon, you wouldn’t be too far adrift of what this sounds like. “Cycle of Violence” is a rich piano piece with the guitar solo preserved against a backdrop of electronics that stomps along nicely. “Messiah” is more akin to something that you might hear from German Industrial Metallers KMFDM with eerie haunting synth moments buried inside a powerful electric groove. What that serves to do is put greater emphasis on the vocals which come over as being far more potent in this version compared with the original.

“The Narcissist’s Prayer” is given a breakbeat make over with warped speech moments that reminds of the work of bands like Sneaker Pimps before “Split” brings greater darkness as an icy cold piece that chills to the bone. Chaos then takes hold with a tempo shiftingly evil take on “Ideology of the Sick” that is a little bit messy in places as a kind of Frankenstein’s monster that is strange enough to keep you holding on like a white knuckle roller coaster ride. Returning to a more traditional industrial sound for “Adriel” that could easily be part of the soundtrack for the next Resident Evil movie with echoes of voices in the background playing tricks on the mind, it’s smoother run gives it more accessibility and less of an abrasive, jarring nature.

“Euphoria Of Transformation” brings forth a eurhoripic synth parts which is interspliced by some oddly time signatured rhythmic drum patterns to create a slightly unnerving melody before “My Psychosis” builds on it with the kind of distorted and unhinged visions that a shattered mirror creates. Saving their most Evil work until last, “The Absent” which sees the band joined by Mikee Goodman of SikTh fame, sees them embrace the kind of EDM that Skrillex is known for to bring total annihilation on a global scale. ReWorks? Re-imaginings? Remixes? It’s all pretty much the same thing, the difference being that this record is created by the band at their own hand rather than seeing the songs farmed out to people bringing outside influences. Add a brilliant new track to the mix and you’ve got a decent record here that while some may complain about the absence of guitars on, still manages to retain the soul of the machine [7/10]

Track listing

1. Slaves To The New World Disorder
2. Cycle of Violence (ReWork)
3. Messiah (ReWork)
4. The Narcissist’s Prayer (ReWork)
5. Split (ReWork)
6. Ideology Of The Sick (ReWork)
7. Adriel (ReWork)
8. Euphoria Of Transformation (ReWork)
9. My Psychosis (ReWork)
10. The Absent (ReWork)

“For The Sick – ReWorks” by Red Method is out 15th January 2021