Album Review: Red Beard - 'Enigma'

Queenland's Gympie is famous for its gold field and a bunch of heritage listed buildings. Sounds pretty exciting hey?! Plus, whoever named it must have hated the place. Gympie has a secret though, a secret that is slowly being revealed across the country...and this secret is, Red Beard.

Red Beard are a five piece rock band from the aforementioned Gympie that perform rock music with add-ons, little nods to other genres and enough of a unique twist upon the whole thing to make their debut EP 'Enigma' worth your time.

Opening with the gentle guitar lines of 'On The Run', the track, and most of the EP, is driven by frontman Tomi Rooney's strong and melodic vocals lines. What starts out as steady and relaxed then explodes into something reminiscent of the 'This Is War' album by Thirty Seconds To Mars, purely because of the gang vocals (We promise there are no other TSTM comparisons).

The inclusion of synthesisers is used better in this rock band than most others. It's not for some gross dance element, it's done in a classy way, like the beginning of second track 'Diary Of A Hitman', which briefly makes you think these guys could have a radio hit on their hands, all brought home by the pounding drum lines and gritty vocals moments, plus a cool little atmospheric electro breakdown. 'Fox Tale' takes the synth idea further, it's like Born Slippy got a little more rock n' roll, the beats are danceable and the vocals lines are extremely catchy. However, the guitars manage to keep things on track, they truly are the backbone of this band, keeping a sense of cohesion while everything else trips out and does whatever it feels like.

The EP closes off with the heavily electronic title track, which combines a slow electro beat with a stomping build up from the real drums, which explodes into a wall of sound and peaking vocals. 'Empty Thoughts' is another soft starter that leads to an outburst, which seems to be a regular theme here, luckily these guys kill it every time.

Red Beard are simply brilliant. Original acts are hard to come by these days and these guys are certainly that. Every track on this EP is exciting and catchy. Thank you Gympie, you did good!

1. On The Run

2. Diary Of A Hitman

3. Fox Tale

4. You Will Never Know

5. Enigma

6. Empty Thoughts