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The Red Shore

w/ The War, Shinto Katana, Farwell Forever
September 5th, 2009 @ The Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy

Once again, one of Australia’s favourite technical deathcore/death metal bands has embarked an a national tour leaving behind a trail of carnage and chaos as they promote their latest release from May, entitled “Lost Verses”. “Lost Verses” proved to the many legions of devoted fans that The Red Shore are here to stay and that they will overcome any obstacle that comes in their way. The started the national tour with brilliant support slots from the straight edge styling of The War, the metallic hardcore sound of Shinto Katana and at the Melbourne under 18 and over 18 shows, Farewell Forever, featuring ex-members of The Red Shore.

Playing at the Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy, Melbourne, The Red Shore has not managed to sell out today’s underage event as they previously had done so earlier this year. The Evelyn was still filled with enthusiastic fans prepared to have a good time. The fans were of mixed sub-genres with different scenes evident such as the hardcore supporters for The War and Shinto Katana, as well as some death metal fanatics eager to see a technical assault from The Red Shore.

The underage punters attending this afternoon were greeted with a pleasant opening set from the recently formed Farewell Forever. Although not known to most attendees, Farewell Forever played a very fitting and energetic set that allowed them to show off who they were and get some audience participation in response. Farewell Forever features former member of The Red Shore, Richard Johnson, on the drums. Although just recently formed, Farewell Forever have a great blend of epic hardcore metalcore with a few dashes of melodic vocals mixed in. Nothing overwhelmingly original, but no doubt a band to keep an eye on for the future.

The expected sound of the day is at this point sounding like a barrage of metallic hardcore with plenty of breakdowns thrown in for the fans to go crazy over. The next supporting band, Shinto Katana, put on an epic set that fans and attendees who had never heard or seen them before would have loved. The energy from the band themselves was immense and the crowd response was hectic blend of violent dancing and the occasional microphone grab. A set Shinto Katana could only be proud of, with plenty of songs from the highly regarded album “Cold Streets”, Shinto Katana’s performance seemed it would be quite difficult to rival in energy, although this was not the case one the next supporting band had taken the small stage.

The War are a positive, straight edge, energetic and passionate fury of noise, a force to be reckoned with. Whether all the underage attendees understood the values in which they stood for, or didn’t agree with these same values, The War had a sound and a stage attitude that you could only admire. The War members realised that not all those they would be playing for would encourage their pure lifestyle but nonetheless put on a brilliant set, seemingly being the very highlight of the afternoon. The pure chaotic response from the dedicated fans was enough to scare the living daylights out of anyone not ready for a spin-kick to the face. The vast amount of gang vocals with the microphone and the sheer frenzy of flying limbs in movement from the dancing is what made this a show to remember from The War.

Although it seemed a few of the fans had left after The War, most of the audience stayed around for the magnificent sound and aural force that is The Red Shore.

Opening with and old and newly re-recorded favourite, “The Valentines Day Massacre”, The Red Shore play out and set of old favorites that have not been heard for a long time and new songs from their album “Unconsecrated” that have been responsible for rising The Red Shore to the level they are performing at now. Their purely amazing stage presence and the ease in which they seem to play this incredibly technical material is nothing short of astonishing. The set was carried out with not one flaw from the delightfully sounding acoustics of the Evelyn Hotel. The fans responded with a pretty decent amount of violent dancing, microphone grabs and an endless, uncountable amount of stage dives and crowd surfers. Their line-up has once again been altered with a new drummer, Tim Shearman, replacing Jake Green. Tim however has managed to show the fans that he is able to continue playing the songs they love to hear and possible bring a new input into the band in the future.

Vocalist, Jamie Hope, once again delivered a voice so penetrating to the ear that it continuously leaves the audience in awe at how amazing his deep growling style sounds. Guitarists, Roman Koester and Jason Leombruni play with jaw dropping technicality as always on the guitar. Although just a local event from one of Australia’s rising metal bands, this tour once again proves to Australia that The Red Shore are bigger and better than ever, expect them to get new material that is even more terrific than it is now and carry out the legacy of their deceased brothers from 2007.

Reviewed by Thomas Szulik.