Red Eleven – Handled With Chaos

Red Eleven

Handled With Chaos

by Ben Gardiner at 06 July 2021, 1:05 PM

Hailing from Finland, genre bending Metal group RED ELEVEN gifts the world their new full-length album, "Handled With Chaos".  The Fourth album from the group, and their most musically exciting release yet.

"Handled With Chaos" starts very strong with the opening title track. A catchy running synth melody underlined by more tolerable King Diamond-Esque vocal lines. This song starts with a very fun melodic synth line, like "Tubular Bells" if Mike Oldfield released it in the 80s.

Then in comes a deafening wall of noise from the drums and guitar, which are produced amazingly well and blends perfectly with the synth. The only thing I like more than the upbeat melody provided by the pianos is the much darker, fight-song lyrics. ‘Tonight, we’ll set this World on fire.’ This song, with its fun headbanging instrumental, rebellious lyrics, a very strong vocal performance from Kaikkonen, and a blistering guitar solo to end; this song truly sets the tone for the rest of the album, one of the best opening tracks on a release this year.

The second track "Before I Fall" starts very much like a Symphonic Metal song, but this is saved by the heavy slow chorus, Tony’s clean vocals dancing over the bass-heavy instrumental.

I loved the variation of the album, multiple times on my first few listens I had to check my Spotify to make sure I was still on the same album. "Starry Eyes", the first single, is an emotive anthem bordering on country rock, whereas S.N.O.T is "Territorial Pissings" if it was written by SOUNDGARDEN


My favourite piece of songwriting on the album is the staggering metric modulation "Nothing Left To Hide". The drums effortlessly change the pulse and It hits you like a brick wall and is mind-blowing, and like the rest of the album, the groove and pocket of the drums keeps the listener moving.

Sax solo in "Half a Life, Full Circle". Proving their affinity towards straying from the formulaic alt rock. It creates a fantastic finale for the album, finishing as it started, with passion and intensity in a unique way. Also keeping up the Motif of using instruments that should have stayed in rock in the 80s. (But I am a big fan.)

All in all, "Handled With Chaos" is a very interesting release and one I enjoyed thoroughly. It has many emotional ups and downs and kept me engaged throughout with its musicality and stunning vocal performance from Tony Kaikkonen.

Songwriting:9
Musicianship:9
Memorability:7
Production: 8