RDCrdc_2014

US band RED DRAGON CARTEL was formed a few years back, and while a new band in the scene it is a unit that has come with many expectations attached, as this is the band that heralds the return of guitarist Jake E. Lee, a fine instrumentalist that made his name as Randy Rhoads replacement in Ozzy Osbourne’s backing band in the early 80’s, and a musician that have been more or less invisible for the last 20 years. The band’s self titled debut albums was released through Italian label Frontiers Music in 2014.

As far as debut albums go, this effort from Red Dragon Cartel is a fairly expressive one. This is not a case at all about a band playing it safe or trying to make music that will appeal towards a certain fan base as I experience it, but the end product of a creative person that doesn’t appear to be all that concerned about how people may respond to his material. I may be mistaken of course, but there is a wildness that runs through this production that is both liberating and challenging, and there’s tons of twisted, unexpected details at hand that gives this entire production an unnerving, dark general atmosphere. Reading up on the back story of Jake E. Lee I can well imagine that this may be the personal soundtrack of a man that have traveled to hell, recuperated after the ordeal and then created music to deal with the multiple traumas. While that is an easy thought to get, I’ll stress that this is mere speculation and not a description based on factual statements given.

Not everything here is twisted though. Opening piece Deceived is more of a hard hitting, in your face vibrant hard rock tune with metal edges, or vice versa, Fall From the Sky a tight and firm ballad, and the concluding instrumental piano piece Exquisite Tenderness a firm and vibrant specimen of the instrumental kind, but just about everything in between is twisted either on a subtle detail level or in a more demented, unnerving kind of way. We have compositions with more of a dark, industrial tinge to them, with associations going to Psalm 69 era  Ministry, the aggressively demented vocals of Paul Di’anno on the song Wasted, with dark, twisted metal tinged instrumentation supporting a vocal performance that won’t be to everyone’s taste, to put it mildly. We have the one-two punch of Salve and Big Mouth, where the instruments in general and the guitar in particular takes a bit more of a back seat, often providing more careful details in key passages, where the vocals are used to create and maintain tension, power and impact in a spectacular manner, and then of course we have War Machine, a creation I found truly charming in how it borrowed details here and there from various Black Sabbath songs and then added an unexpected recurring backing vocal effect to a key sequence. I guess fans may discuss for many years whether that song is a charming homage or a blatant rip off. Personally I don’t care if it is one or the other, as the song itself is an entertaining, well developed piece that I’m fully able to enjoy in full.

Apart from the aptly named song Wasted, which I just don’t manage to make heads or tails of, I find this debut album by Red Dragon Cartel to be a vital and expressive production. The many and unexpected dark, twisted details may well alienate quite a few within the metal environment, which have always been a gathering where the majority have fairly conservative views on just how music should be made and how it should sound, but if you like hard rock and metal, have a liberal and open mind to music of a more expressive and challenging nature, then Red Dragon Cartel is a production that might just happen to intrigue.

My rating: 80/100