Red Animal War
"Black Phantom Crusades"
(Deep Elm)

After last year's release of "Breaking in an Angel", Red Animal War's second
effort has been highly anticipated. In "Black Phantom Crusades", we see the
same sound design that made the first record so unforgettable and the same
unique musical style owned only by R.A.W. The record starts the gradual
crescendo with the first track, "Still", which features a more
straight-forward sound than one might expect for the first track of a Red
Animal War album.

This new record is definitely different than the previous release. In the
song "Straight Lines for Construction Workers", we see the entrance of a
horn section. Even more suprising is that the horns work really well. Along
with experimenting with different instruments, it is clear that Red Animal
War's overall sound has matured and moved past trying to stuff as many
different parts into one song as possible.

Track five "When I Get the Feeling (Back in My Hands)", pays homage to
September 11th spewing vocals like "I'm waking up to the sound of New York
coming down, I never thought we could be so scared", showing how much those
events effected the members.

Overall this is a really well constructed album written by amazing
musicians, however I liked when they tried to stuff as many parts as
possible into a song. It seems like the band is sounding less like Red
Animal War and their music is beginning to become more predictable. While
being predictable is not necessarily a bad thing, not knowing what's coming
next was the great hook for the band. People who are into Braid, or Burning
Airlines will like this, but if you haven't heard Red Animal War yet, you
must hear "Breaking in an Angel" first.

-Mike