EP Review - RED MEAT: HOMO VULGARIS

Witness one hell of a debut entrance from Rhys of ded.pixel with his new project RED MEAT. It is gritty, heavy, and full of symbolism and meaning. How wonderful it is to be vulgar! Releases; 30/7/21

Warning: Adult language to follow

Yes, it's brutal. It's a big fat sweaty queer screaming songs from an angry place. The same place in fact that's endured decades of bullshit, having my sexuality gatekept, not being part of the brochure that pretends we're all tolerant of the rainbow society. Half the people singing that script have never existed in working class society and it fucking shows. Homo vulgaris is deliberately in your face because some of us still have to fight to exist and it's there because some of you fucking pricks are STILL uncomfortable that we do exist. This is absolutely a statement of intent that being queer INCLUDES bi/pan/and trans communities and anyone who believes otherwise belongs in a bin. It's bad enough getting grief from straights for being queer, never mind getting shit from a community we belong to. - RED MEAT

Review

I'm more than just a sucker for aggressive and distorted vocals set to fast paced dark dance beats, more often than not, it's what I live for! In the same way metal heads find peace and an outlet for negative emotions through the pounding drums, riffs, and belching choruses - I find peace and vindication through visceral vocals and, stomp demanding beats. Such is my love for industrial leanings towards Hell-Ektro and Aggrotech.

So when an album opens up with a boot smashing, throat punching, dark rave power trip of a track, consider me instantly satisfied. 'EAT ME BEAT ME' is just such a track. It is intense from start to finish and somewhere between a sci-fi slaughter scene and a fetish orgy. This is the Goth music Christian folks complain about and it's great! The DIRTY K RMX version of the track adds a much more 90's street violence feel to it with its almost punk like edge; Ripping a new tone throughout the song like a chainsaw purring away at the chaos it's rending.

'HARDER DEEPER DARKER DADDY' is a far more reserved track more towards the direction of an ambient 3TEETH. It feels like the soundtrack to a Terminator or SAW film as the tension ebbs and flows like an aural game of cat and mouse.

Next up we have a real sense of passion for music that only one who has experience the scene a long time could possibly produce.

'THREE TENETS' is quite similar in this regards towards the more ambient and experimental setting of music.

'WRAPPED IN LEATHER' walks a beautifully fine line between industrial and more traditional Gothic music. It's like the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's got mixed up in to a single track and just rolled with it. The vocal structure makes me think of multiple influences and not just from industrial but from even more places you wouldn't expect like the tracks 'You don't impress me much' to 'I like the way you move'. It's a real 'mood setter' of a track.

The Grendel remix for this track adds more vibrance and clarity to the vocals and a faster tempo that turns this into another decent dance addition to the release.

Tracklist

EAT ME BEAT ME

HARDER DEEPER DARKER DADDY

EAT ME BEAT ME (DIRTY K REMIX)

WRAPPED IN LEATHER

THREE TENETS

WRAPPED IN LEATHER (GRENDEL REMIX)

Conclusion

Vulgar indeed but in the best kind of way. There is a huge amount of potential being teased with this EP. The industrial scenes is starting to lack current day dark raving artists.

With this release RED MEAT unleashes something dark and undeniable, like a prelude to a storm of violence to come or the foretelling of an ancient beast rising a-new to swallow everything in its wake. HOMO VULGARIS is a self destructive, filthy romp through the underbelly of the dark Gothic world and it is most welcome indeed.

Scores

Technicality: 7 /10

Dance factor: 7 /10

Energy: 8 /10

Vocals/Samples: 7 /10

Re-play value: 8 /10

Overall score: 7.4 / 10

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