Decent if unremarkable metal onslaught
‘Blueprint For A Brighter Future’ is RSJ’s first release since last year’s debut EP ‘The Day After’, and follows their American tour as support for metalcore heavyweights Unearth. The EP is adorned with some truly terrible artwork, with a Darwin-baiting diagram showing the evolution of man (you know that one that starts with an ape on all fours, and progressively ends up with a man walking upright) in reverse. I can only assume that they’re suggesting a return to our animalistic roots, with this raw primeval intensity providing both the key to our ‘Brighter Future’ and the emotional inspiration for their music. The problem is that if this music was indeed representative of our future, then it’d be the kind of bleak neo-noir futurescape featured in such films as Blade Runner, where the light is a sombre grey and the polluted streets are perpetually lashed with driving rain – it may look pretty on the screen, but the reality would be somewhat less appealing methinks.
Perhaps they should’ve gone for a less ambitious goal, because whilst ‘Blueprint…’ may not serve as an adequate basis for our prospective society, there certainly isn’t anything wrong with the music. Rich Hardy’s sledgehammer bass hits stanchion crunchy guitar work that is so downtuned you get the idea that it’s just sheer willpower that’s holding it together. This isn’t just music that you listen to, it’s music that you feel – with the metallic grind reverberating deep in the pit of your stomach, and Dan’s agonized screams tearing through your skull.
This certainly isn’t anything new however; resting just on the formulaic side of metal, but it is well executed, and there are plenty of bands out there who don’t quite reach the same level of intensity as RSJ, so for this reason alone they are worth a listen.
The CD is also laden with some enhanced multimedia content, that includes a low budget video for ‘Reborn’ where the band are stereotypically seen ‘rocking out’ in a dimly lit room – you’ll be embarrassed about that one in a few years time…