Left for Dead

Ominous guitar tones pour out of the speakers on "Today I Die," hardcore punk meets Black Sabbath on the Red Tops 12-song Left for Dead CD. The problem is that in 2006 it isn't enough to come up with an energetic onslaught that sounds like so much that came before. Anthem "Wage My War" has the attitude while "Blood and Greed" has enough thumpa thumpa head banging to emerge as one of the better tracks, but a steady diet of the chord progressions and monotone vocal can get grating, and not in a good way. The Sabbath elements find their way in and out of the material (as they do on labelmates Geography's debut, L1fe 1n B1nary, though Geography are better at disguising it), but Sabbath at its best had Ozzy's subtle humor and suspense. Red Tops pull back the arrow fine but when they let it fly it just keeps missing the mark. You want "Drawn" to be a Venom comic book come to life, but it just can't get over the bar. The best punk makes a statement by getting the juices pumped while hardcore that is effective blends that statement with solid punctuation. You've heard "Stand by Us" many times before by many different bands. It's got its '60s vocals and plenty of angst, but where a group like Red Tops has the ability to knock the walls down in glory, the music on this debut seems to be bouncing off the four corners without sticking in your head. "Vengeance" has all the elements, and could fit into the European metal realm labels like Lion Music in Finland are busy issuing, but the finesse found overseas is missing here. A few spins of this CD will have you running for your copies of "Holiday in Cambodia" and/or "Sex Bomb." Decades after those classics were put to tape one would think the kids today could come up with something to rival or better them. Left for Dead proves that those classics were no flukes, for many are called but few are chosen.