Additional Reviews - Godmakers -	The Red Death: External Frames Of Reference Death Metal, Melodic Death, Metalcore Metal Blade Records April 19th, 2005 Frames Of Reference - 3:35 Consciousness Decay - 4:17 Twilight Of The Idols - 3:09 Silent Machines - 3:25 From The Height Of A Thousand Years - 5:44 Before An Empty Throne - 4:42 The Final Sphere - 4:17 Aftertaste Of The Emaciated - 4:07 Synchronized Worlds - 3:36 Instrumental - 1:35 Originally posted on May 27th, 2009
Review In a world filled with band that are of the "deathcore" genre, it's bands like The Red Death that really stand out from the crowd. External Frames Of Reference does not fall into this category. Consider this group a death metal act that enjoys to throw in some metalcore aspects with the music, but not much to ruin the tenacity of the album. External Frames Of Reference is one hell of a blistering assault. The release takes a lot of death metal, as well as death metal elements (most notably being At The Gates) and throws in a little bit of metalcore. tracks, such as "Silent Machines" feature what could be taken as a death metal version of a breakdown, and tracks such as "From The Height Of A Thousand Years" which does have actual breakdowns. Luckily these breakdowns do not slow down the pace of the music, and simply just feel right as the tracks progress. And the guitar solos found on many of the songs here are downright devastating and technical, matching the chaos the band brings in their music perfectly. The guitar work on this album is absolutely amazing, and is where the melodic aspect comes in. One listen to "Twilight Of The Idols", "From The Height Of A Thousand Years", as well as "Before An Empty Throne" and you'll be hooked by the catchy riffs, as well as technical aspects. The only real downfall to the music is that, while these songs sound amazing, many of them would benefit from being faster. A few songs on here, like "Before An Empty Throne" would definitely benefit from faster double bass work. That song also features some gutteral vocals during a breakdown, which is something that would have been nice to add into the mix. While the rhaspy screaming vocals are very well done, it would sound great, even if they were just overlapped at certain points. External Frames Of Reference is one hell of a death metal release that you should pick up if you ever see it. If you're one of those metal fans who feel that breakdowns do not belong in metal, or any kind of "core" aspect for that matter, then you will definitely miss out. The Red Death is definitely one of those bands that came out swinging from nowhere, and hopefully will grow and work on the little tweaks that could have made this album great for future releases.