Scarlet

Something to Lust About (2003)

Jim

I'd heard of Richmond, VA's Scarlet a few years ago from a friend of mine. He was really into their first release "Breaking the Dead Stare", but when I heard it I was less than amazed. Then they broke up, and I basically forgot they ever existed in the first place. But two weeks ago I found this EP (or MCD as the cool kids are calling them these days) in my mailbox and I decided to give Scarlet another chance.

Sometimes I'll hear a band and automatically say "Hey, they belong on (label here)!"
Scarlet really sounds like a Ferret band, and of course, they're on Ferret. "Something to Lust About" is a six song EP (or MCD, whichever you prefer) and a teaser for their upcoming full-length album "Cult Classic". This is a part of the new Ferret Limited Series, meaning that this can only be picked up from the Ferret webstore or from the band, so if you're interested in getting this I suggest you get it as soon as possible. This sort of reminds me of Converge or maybe As I Lay Dying, but less varied than those bands. That's the main drawback to this release; the songs really seem to run together. Hopefully there will be more variation on their upcoming album, because this really held the EP back from becoming what it could've been. Scarlet plays that style of violent, off-kilter metalcore that is sure to make for an incredible live show, but I'm not sure how well this is translates onto this disc.

As is true with a lot of bands in this genre, the lyrics are somewhat abstract. Take the first song, "Revolver" for example: "we are the morbid and abstract, we are the bleeding mammals with bad backs, our messiah on the cover of magazines has a black lung and an i.v. of nicotine." I'm not sure what it all means, but hey, even they know that their lyrics are abstract. The title track really surprised me by starting off with the line "I am the savior of rock n roll", and here I was thinking it was the Hives.

If you like the bands I mentioned earlier, or maybe even a band like Torn Apart then you might like Scarlet. Since this is limited you should really get this soon if you plan on getting it at all. If the full-length album is more varied than this teaser it's going to be very, very good.