RED WATER are a Lithuanian band that I first heard in late 2018 after checking out their '
No life left to take' EP and was floored. They play a dark, subterranean screamo/black-metal hybrid that are equal parts
Tentacles and
Hexis, with a few more digestable interludes and general ambiance.
In 2014 they released a single song as an online '
Demo' titled "To never change" which is pretty raw and poorly recorded, but you get the idea of where they're going and it's still an entertaining listen, just don't expect it to sound like their later material as it is much more focused on sludgy, expansive hardcore than black metal or screamo. The following year they released a split cassette with
70 cm³ Of Your Chest that is now sold out and labeled as the '
Red Water' EP. The recording quality and production with this material is much better, with the instrumentals taking a noticeable step in a faster, mathier and more chaotic music, stepping into screamo and black metal territory but without the throat-annihilating screams housed on the 2018 EP, as they are higher pitched and distanced.
There's a chill instrumental opener ("i"), a fuckin' rager ("fall apart"), a rerecorded demo ("to never change"), a European screamo jam ("nebučiuosiu švenčiausios mergelės"), righteous neo-crust/hardcore ("nothing to say") and a closer that resembles New Zealand's
Parents ("bury in flames").
In late 2018 they released their crowning achievement thus far, the unbelievably good '
No life left to take' EP. The band takes the listener deeper into their dark and vicious musical consciousness, with opener "plague" making this blatantly obvious. The song crawls along like some morbid monster occasionally ripping through sections as if they were human flesh. "flicker" is similar but has some excellent swings that add a much appreciated layer of melody to the noise and chaos, most notably at 2:48. This song as well as the rest of the album remind me of
Still,
Minaret,
Thurm,
Hexis,
We Are Among Stars and
['selvə]'s shorter material. "guidance" is devilishly sinister and therefore very
Converge, while "will" builds until 1:51 before unleashing the drums that will trample you to death. Oh, and that close from 4:23 is fucking amazing. Closer "defeat" attempts to contain the explosion that erupts at 3:??, but obviously fails to do so cuz that blast is deadly. A truly devastating release that is gonna make my best of 2018, methinks.
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