East meets Rock
eastern european prog band truly rocks to native tribal fusion

"Village", by Red Cloud
Genre: Alternative Rock / World Fusion
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Review by NickP

Red Cloud is a group of five musicians located in Eastern Europe, trained and practiced in a variety of musical styles. Red Cloud, named after a famed Native American tribe leader, consists of vocalist Damir, guitarists Pik and Nenad, Bassits Chaz, and drummer (slash web designer) Robert. The band was formed in 2000 and intends to bring the spirit of the seventies together with characteristic modern rock sounds. They play original songs with dynamite vocals, which from what I see is where the "modern" comes from. Take this, along with some awesome instrumental work (like their killer guitar riffs), and this is where the 70's comes from. They are ample at doing both.

"Village", the song up for review, is a clash of rock symphony; all of which form together to make one extreme euphony that can have anyone singing along. The song starts off with a guitar line that really almost sounds tribal in itself. This track brings to mind some of the bands to come out of Seattle in the past ten years, with a strong chorus and a great pre-verse breakdown to take us back into the tune. This track has also got an awesome bridge and "outro" that's definitely worth mentioning.

The music in this song is simply awesome. The singing starts off and Damir takes over with his unique and heavy voice. Between the distortion-driven guitar lines and Seattle Sound vocals, the music and singing tie into a hellacious song. During the high points of the song, the backup vocals will kick in and it sounds wonderful; the tracks really tie together to form an even stronger voice. With the extensive feeling the singers and instrument players put into this track, "Village" was a rare experience and a winner for me.

There were some times when the vocals became muddled and hard to understand, and its always nice to be able to understand what the people are saying. I feel if they could have brought the words out better in the mix it would of been a overall better song, but it didnt happen here. I also couldn't find more information about the band. From what I could gather, the lyrics for "Village" are something like a warrior's song put to some awesome guitar licks.

I would suggest that anyone into alternative rock or maybe 70s rock (think Queensryche and Stone Temple Pilots for this tune) give a listen to this tune now. You can find this track for download at the band's website, where they have other songs available on their site worth checking out, as well. With a great set of players covering an extensive musical background and great vocals this song will never get old and never get off my playlist.

 - NickP
   BandFreaks Band Reviewer