Red Animal War / Slowride

Red Animal War/Slowride: split CDsplit CD (2002)
Deep Elm Records

Reviewer Rating: 3.5

Contributed by: maverickScott
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on November 8th 2002This is Deep Elm's second installment of their split CD series, and it took me forever to realize what their first one was - the Appleseed Cast/Planes Mistaken For Stars/Racecar Riot split that came out over three years ago. Kind of a lull in the split CD idea, but Deep Elm seems to be kicking the .

This is Deep Elm's second installment of their split CD series, and it took me forever to realize what their first one was - the Appleseed Cast/Planes Mistaken For Stars/Racecar Riot split that came out over three years ago. Kind of a lull in the split CD idea, but Deep Elm seems to be kicking the program back into gear with this release, as well as a Seven Story/Camber split due out sometime next year. But enough about the history, onto the CD itself.

Both Red Animal War and Slowride reside in Dallas, Texas, which is the theme of this split EP. The artwork, to be honest, gives me the creeps - it's all black and white images from the Kennedy assassination. The CD itself even has a sketch of the supposed "lone gunman" poised with a sniper rifle. Eerie, to say the least. Does the music back up the imagery?

Well, Red Animal War's does, at least. This band's style of hard-driven, rhythmic post-emo [if you will], gets better and better with each song. "77" is an intense tribal beat layered with repetitive guitars and harshly spat out lyrics. This song sounds like it would be a blast to play, or to see live as an audience member. Powerful stuff. Their other two contributions, "The Electric Kings," and "Modus Operandi" are more of the same, yet all three are uniquely different. RAW definitely has a grasp on their sound, and they have honed it with these three tracks.

Slowride, on the other hand, feels out of place on this CD. The layout is so somber, that the band's style of Jawbreaker-esque pop punk seems to contrast the mood set by Red Animal War. "Jesus Candle" is a really catchy song, but following RAW's "77" it just lacks something. The same happens with Slowride's other two songs on the CD - alone, they're pretty good, but since each one follows a RAW track, they pale in comparison.

This split CD, like most split CDs, has a winner and a loser - Red Animal War definitely takes home the trophy in this case. Slowride isn't neccessarily a loser - on the contrary, I'm a big fan of them. Their participation in this split, however, just seems awkward, and I feel like Red Animal War could have been matched with a band more suited to them.

But what do I know, I'm just a reviewer.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Anonymous (January 30, 2003)

p.s. the track MODUS OPERANDI isn't by slowride it's by RED ANIMAL WAR

DEF JUX baby

Anonymous (January 27, 2003)

THIS ISN'T CANADIAN MUSIC

aha...SLOWRIDE gets shown up on this split, their songs aren't bad but RED ANIMAL WAR just outshines them...holy shit these guys are mad hot. MODUS OPERANDI and 77 are just plain good tracks that you'll find yourself rewinding quite a few times

DEF JUX baby

Anonymous (November 14, 2002)

POOP ON A PLATE!!!!!

Anonymous (November 11, 2002)

Red Animal War play in Kansas City the day before my birthday. I wish I could go.