Redeye Caravan - Nostrum Remedium

Redeye Caravan - Remedium Nostrum

4.3

Rating

4.3/5

Flyctory.com Pros

Amazing Dark / Gothic metal album
The "El Muerto" video is massive - and the song is great!
Very good production, very good to listen to

Flyctory.com Cons

Melody is a bit tiring in some songs

I typically do not present reviews of albums, which have been released more than two weeks ago. I just had to make an exception for Redeye Caravan from Greece: as they released their album on 11th January 2020 already and still are not on Amazon Music and Spotify, I felt that I cannot use the material I received from a Greek promoter. I liked the stuff and posted the music video of the title track of Nostrum Remedium in a German country music forum. The feedback was massive – and postive. Time to break my own rules, I guess…

Redeye Caravan – About The Artists

Redeye Caravan is a band from Livadia, a Greek town right in the middle of Athens and Patras. Akis Kosmidis is the band leader, who is not only playing the acoustic guitar and doing the vocals, but is co-writing the songs with Valantis Dafkos (vocals, bass). Apart from them, the band consists of Elini Paraskevopoulou, Stefanos Strogylis, Thanos Giamarelos and Paris Gatsios. Nostrum Remedium is the first publication of the band. The band plays Dark Country (which is also called Gothic Country). The songs have clear country music elements, but especially the lyrics and arrangements show the Gothic part. Nevertheless, they already gained a certain popularity. At the time of writing, the band had 2,700 Facebook followers.

Redeye Caravan – Nostrum Remedium – Track by Track

The album contains ten tracks. The total playtime is forty minutes.

1. The Descent

Ooops, what is that? This album is the first time I ever listened to Dark Country, so I need to get into lyrics like

Bring me some wheat and open your ears
For what i say i have never said ’till now
Deep in the ground an icy lake lies
The waters here go straight down to hell

The song gives a scary atmosophere, but the sounds feel like country music. Instruments like a fiddle are not missing, there are just some dissonant sounds as well.

2. A Gallop From Afar

This track is just a story intermission, where you hear somebody riding on a horse having a quite impressive and intese laugh all the time. It is an introductory track to El Muerto.

3. El Muerto

Okay, this review is about an album, not the music video – but I just have to include this amazing video to the review of Nostrum Remedium. The first single of the album (already released in fall 2019) is not just an amazing track, the video is just splendid! Masterpiece!

4. Good Man Richard

Old dreams die young in the new land
Six feet down without a tombstone
In these lands my dreams are haunting me

I will add quite some lyrics to this review, for two reasons: first of all, El Muerto is the only song you will find on YouTube, secondly, the excerpts illustrate that these guys sing about some different topics compared to Luke Bryan or Carrie Underwood.

Good Man Richard is very intense. In this track, Valantis Dafkos is the main vocal, which leads to a very dark atmosphere.

5. Ozymandias

The melody of Ozymandias is rather monotonous, even a touch of tiring. The track lives from its lyrics and the atmosphere transported the voices. Dafkos, who sings this track as a lead vocal again, does a good job, the harmonica is giving a swaying feeling to the country sound. You may say that the tracks have a very similar structure, but I am just still too amazed by the new-to-me arrangement.

6. At Gallows’ End

Look at me
There’s nothing left to see
This old bag of bones is harmless

Through the years
Deadly sin arrears
The whole world unraveled to me

Of all the things
The only that i missed
Is how the final curtain will fall

At Gallow’s End… Do I need to add something to it? Even if the melody is sometimes a bit thin, the two voices (in this track, it is Kosmidis again) do so much dark atmopshere. Wow.

7. The Road North

The Road North has even some sort of party potential. Is there some sunlight in the darkness of Redeye Caravan maybe? The song is also a bit happier in the lyrics, dealing with going back home.

8. Banshee

This track is close to five minutes and is the first one on the album, in which there is also a significant part of female voices. The track feels a bit too long to me, though.

9. Marie Celeste

Evil lurks during the day
Foolish men hook on a pray
And they lose their soul – and i lost my soul
And they lose their soul – and i lost my soul
Mercy for the ones who fail
Dead men tell no tale
And they lose their soul

The vocals in Marie Celeste (which is, by the way, one of the most famous ghost ships) feel to be extra-dark and dirty to me. The song also speeds up towards the end. Nice track.

10. Old Debt

Old Debt incepts a bit like the music of a good old Western movie. Again, the situation does not feel too fortunate:

Shadows standing still
As he demands my soul in hand
The man in black is coming after me

The song is partially sung in a choir-like arrangement, which makes it even more intense. Nice finish.

11. Celebration (Bonus Track)

Did I say something about Western movies? Celebration is an instrumental bonus track featuring typical saloon piano music. Funny end.

Redeye Caravan – Nostrum Remedium – Listen to The Album

There is unfortunately no Spotify or Amazon coverage of the album yet, but you can listen to the album on Bandcamp.

Redeye Caravan – Nostrum Remedium – My View

Did you ever have your boots and hat on – and dreamed of Cradle of Filth? Then Redeye Caravan is likely exactly the right choice for you. But even if you haven’t yet discovered the dark side in you and just feel a bit of tired about the typical country music topics – girls / boys, alcohol, cars, small town life – and need some hard stuff in the stories, I would highly recommend this Greek massacre. The stories are nicely told, the atmosphere is fantastic and even though the songs could have a bit more of character, the songs are just that kind of scary that I almost enjoyed every moment of the songs. To me, this one is a nice country music alternative – and a Top Pick!

Cover / Band picture: Artist material (photo: John Konstantinopoulos, cover: Dinos Adamopoulos)