Redimoni are a couple of things. They are a 4-piece thrash act from Barcelona, the heart of the Catalonian region of Spain, an area which is rife with unrest and simmering tensions, something which seems to help create a good thrash act or at least the inspiration behind some of its material. They are also a band who have some rather extravagant stage names which you wouldn’t be surprised to find in a game of Dungeons & Dragons or a ‘High Fantasy’ setting novel… Or a Monty Python Film. So, with that being said, this mystical inspired four piece cite some of the big names in European Thrash as influences and the press release also says that if you like those, you should enjoy this bunch of hardy adventurers, so onwards!

2020 single “As The Soul Leaves The Body” is the opening number of the EP and it does serve as a good advertisement for the intrepid adventurous thrashers from the southern reaches of Western Europe. It opens up with some tight and heavy groove style thrash riffs with some very subtle keyboard/synth augmentation in the background, giving it a real big presence. This changes when the 1:27 point of the track hits, and a torrent of Teutonic styled thrash comes sweeping forth. With piercing vocal shrieks reminiscent of Overkill meets Destruction, the music is delivered with some real power and bite. It’s a straight up riff-driven thrash track and a good way to open the release.

From here, the tracks get a little more diverse. “Death Shall Come To Us All” is a darker and muddier sounding track, almost like the band have tried to incorporate the ‘blackened’ styles into their playing. The more raw and unrestrained guitar tone works well, the vocal shrieks don’t quite fit but they still have quite a bite to them and there’s a sweet sounding, heavy breakdown section loaded with thrash grooves which sits just right before the obligatory wailing fret wankery this brand of thrash is usually associated with. “Der Tag Der Rache” serves as the halfway point of this EP and it just feels like a bit of a repeat of the previous track, only this time the vocal shrieking doesn’t quite fit and it serves as more of a distraction than something meaningful. Other than that, it is again just predominantly riff based with a slightly darker edge to the sound.

“Ancient Buried Secrets” is a game changer in terms of sound. The vocals lose the shrieked delivery and instead take on a more aggressive rawness loaded with shouts rather than the screams. These vocals sound rather impressive and would probably have made the previous track a lot more interesting to listen to! The harsh shouts combined with the surging paced riffs works quite well and pulls the enjoyability back up a little, but final track, “Axes” basically serves a role which is similar to ‘Der Tag…’. It goes on with a similar style to the track before it and again, whilst individual components of the sound are good, together it sounds passable but lacks that spot which really grabs the attention.

Maybe this EP is just a taste of what is to come in the future from Redimoni as they journey to a new album? Maybe it was just getting ideas down and committed to disc so they had a foundation to work from or they could start with a clean slate for their next release? Who knows? All I know is that this sounds good in places, but it finds itself falling short when it comes to substance.

(5/10 Fraggle)

https://www.facebook.com/ReDimoni-41895181680

https://redimoni.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-brink-of-existence