Jordan Red – Hands That Built The World

Album review by; Mike

Set for release on 11th November 2022

Jordan Red are primarily the duo of Dan Baker on guitars and Daniel Leigh of New Device as the front man. Joining them in the studio and live are Conor O’Keefe (Bass) and Dave Fee (Drums) from the band As Lions.

Formed in 2020 the band has released a number of singles throughout lockdown but now bring us their debut album Hands That Built The World, Recorded at Long Wave Studios in Cardiff and Produced, Mixed and Mastered by Romesh Dodangoda (Those Damn Crows, Inglorious, Motorhead, Nova Twins, Don Broco) With that pedigree this is promising to be a banger…

This album is for fans of Alter Bridge, Shinedown, Five Finger Death Punch. Alter Bridge and all things Melodic Hard Rock.

The bands biography describes the album as “fusing melodic elements of 21st-century rock and alternative metal with high energy pulses of modern punk, Jordan Red taps into the human psyche with a collection of songs that subconsciously and unconsciously tackle what it means to simply 'be' in fast, furious, and often difficult times”. Which to be fair is a pretty damn accurate description although I would say the punk is more the subject matter and the way it’s handled in the lyrics than a musical style reference.

The album is a 12-track snapshot of the sh!t-show of a world we live in right now, delivered in a modern hard rock/alt metal style. Great clear vocals to deliver the message with monster riffage, heavy bass lines and solid beats with a real snappy snare.

On first listen through, it’s the fifth single from the album, Freak Show that jumps out at me; I instantly recognised it as a track I had played in the past on my radio show, back in March 2021. For me this has the most full-on energy and anger of all the other tracks and as I said was instantly recognisable.

The opening track Awake sets out the stall for the album starting light with distant distorted vocals building to a crescendo, followed by Spilling My Blood which is probably the most unique track on the album with its Melodic vocals switching to an almost chuggy rap like lyric over a really heavy riff before returning to the melodic vocal for the chorus, I love the dynamics of this track. Beautiful Monsters returns to the straight forward modern heavy rocker which I can see myself head banging and singing along to live.

There is a distinct style to this album, heavy chuggy riffs giving way for the vocals to come through, then the both building throughout the tracks the best example of this is probably my favourite track on the album Way Down, which features heavy down tuned riffs with really effective pinch harmonics.

Other outstanding tracks are the title track Hands That Built The World that really shows Daniel’s vocal versatility. Don’t Let The Heavens Fall again another track that pulls back for the verses and then jumps up and slaps you around the face with the chorus. To be fair the rest of the album continues in much the same vein, until we get to the final track Get Up which is ferocious in pace and attitude and for me is the track that I can imagine being a real crowd pleaser live. Perfect position on the album for this track, an absolute earworm.

Summary – What I have noticed this is an album full of stonking heavy riffs but not much in the way of guitar gymnastics, just good solid tracks. A great debut album, if I would score it out of 10, I would give it an 8. There isn’t a bad track on the album; some of it just feels a little formulaic for me.

Tracklist;

1. Awake 2. Spilling My Blood 3. Beautiful Monsters 4. Way Down 5. Hands That Built The World 6. Don't Let The Heavens Fall 7. Freak Show 8. Before They Burn Us All 9. It Calls My Name 10. We Are Everybody 11. Cast A Flame 12. Get Up

Official Website: https://www.jordan-red.com

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