Randall Flagg

Slamming the column again, 'Flagg reams you even harder this round. Taking the band's established proto post-death hardcore flair to new heights, Randall Flagg get a little more into crossing genres and enter into a more technical and forward-thinking progression of styles, taking mid-to-late '90s acts Vision of Disorder, Quicksand, Burn it Down and Starkweather's molestations of early experimental metalcore somewhere modern and somewhat commercial while still retaining that underlying metalic pride. I can see where a lot of 'bangers would be reluctant to pick this up. But those of you for whom ballsier metallic post-hardcore meddling is appealing - fans of Tool to Turmoil, Raging Speedhorn to Ringworm, Snapcase to Sense Field - this is all you. Not exactly what you'd expect seeing Divine Rapture and Vile in the "also members of" category, but brutal in a completely dissimilar way. Hell Yea.

11 tracks/47:00.

Ryan Fleming
170 1/2 Manhattan Ave
Jersey City, NJ 07307

www.randallflagg.net
www.myspace.com/randallflagg
joe@randallflagg.net - Meatl Maniacs Magazine

Metal Maniacs Review
Firing Squad (demo reviews: the best (and the rest) of the unsigned)
by Dave Brenner

Randall Flagg. Randall Flagg Is Coming. When Divine Rapture
is the only previous band noted in their member bios, one might
expect Randall Flagg to be some iniquitous death metal band.... and one might be very wrong. Randall Flagg is more akin to the knife-in-the-gut riff-churning spasms of Botch, early Drowningman and Keelhaul meshed with the early ‘90s, post-hardcore stylings of Snapcase, Quicksand, Refused and even Helmet. Crystal-goddamn-clear production and perfectly sequenced time changes revolve around the record’s constant groove. The promo comes in a kickass, comic theme mock up and left me miles from what I initially expected from a band I’ve heard mentioned a hundred timesand never encountered. 170.5 Manhattan Ave., Jersey City, NJ 07307. www.randallflagg.net. info@randallflagg.net. - Metal Maniacs Magazine

Randall Flagg - "Randall Flagg" (Promo CD)
Randall Flagg - "Randall Flagg" cover image
"Randall Flagg" track listing:

1. Walter
2. Lightning of Gods
3. Evolution
Reviewed by RememberMetal? on June 8, 2006
"Randal Flagg offer an effective blend of both melodic alt-metal and “to the point” modern hardcore."

If there was ever a band that could be precisely identified as a metalcore act, Randall Flagg would be it. Taking their name from a recurring villain in the novels of Stephen King, Randal Flagg offer an effective blend of both melodic alt-metal and to-the-point modern hardcore. The musicians wear their influences on their sleeve and they certainly aren’t lacking in chops either. The music itself is intricate but very direct. This is most evident in the performances of bassist Tom Paiscik and drummer Jeff Bloom. Ryan Fleming’s guitar sound and playing style call to mind the hornets nest drone of System of a Down’s Daron Malakian. Front man Adam Browning veers from the booming roar of Hatebreed’s Jamie Jasta to the more frantic screams of the Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciatto, though he tends to linger somewhere in between. Randall Flagg deliver an energetic performance on all three tracks of their album promo, suggesting that a full length album would be just as spirited.

Album opener “Walter” greets the listener with a giddy Matt Freeman style bass line and a gut wrenching scream, the band quickly follow with all guns blazing. Guitars churn menacingly; enveloping punchy kick drums while thrusting the listener into the songs first chorus of many. Eventually acoustic guitars swoop down to lay the raucous song to rest. Agitated guitar riffing and jazzy bass and drum interplay kick off the forceful “Lightning of Gods.” Stop-start rhythms and various instrumental fills keep the song fresh despite heavy repetition. The songs most engrossing moment comes during a brief guitar centric breakdown. “Evolution” closes the disk with the bands most animated performance as a unit, while Browning offers his most furious and convincing vocal delivery. The song's only true shortcoming is that it is over too soon.

Highs: Catchy choruses and a gifted drummer. “Evolution” finds the band leaving the shadow of their influences.

Bottom line: With a tight rhythm section and charismatic front man, this four piece has potential and certainly more promise than most bands of their genre.
- www.metalunderground.com

Dave Hoffman
Current editor

You might recognize the name Randall Flagg from Stephen King's The Stand (or other King novels), but it's also the name of a Jersey City-based hardcore band.

The band got together 2000 and played in their first show at Club Crannell in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The twentysomethings play two to three times a month in and around New York City at venues like Don Hill's, L'Amore's, and Downtime. They have an EP, "Issue #1," available, and plan to release a full-length recording this spring. They will play Uncle Joe's this Saturday, Jan. 8. We caught up with guitarist Ryan Fleming for an interview before the show.



Current: How do you describe your sound?
Ryan Fleming: It's always hard to describe your own sound, but we do have a definite metal base with hardcore and other influences mixed in. Some of our friends say we remind them of Poison the Well and Deftones at times.

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C: Who are your musical influences?
RF: Right now we've been really impressed with bands such as Dillinger, Escape Plan, Botch, and Poison the Well. Growing up, though, it was bands like Nirvana, Primus, and Nine Inch Nails that inspired us.

C: Tell us a little about one of your favorite gigs.
RF: Our favorite show was a few years ago at L'Amore's before it closed. We played with Diecast and it ended up being one of the craziest shows ever. There were these two fill-in sound guys who seemed as if they've never done a live show ever. We tried to get them to mic our drums but they weren't really sure how to. Their solution was to throw a vocal microphone in the kick drum hole and call it a day. Then, Tom's bass stack wasn't working because sound guy number one kept bypassing his cabinet to an in-house system that wasn't turned on. Tom fixed it, and low-and-behold sound number two came back to switch back to the non-working system again, and we finally realized what they were doing and explained to them that it wasn't going to work that way and 20 minutes into our 40-minute set we finally started playing. The crowd was great and everyone was getting into it. With all the energy, Adam the singer lost sight of his surroundings. He ran up to the drum kit and jumped off the kick drum right into a ceiling duct that was three feet lower then the ceiling itself. After Adam regained consciousness in the middle of the song, we finished up a great set. All in all, it was an awesome show.

C: What other bands have you been in?
RF: Adam used to sing in a band called Sutter Kane, and Jeff has played for Gravesend and Mother Flux.

C: Do you listen to any other bands from Jersey City?
RF: We love Mezzanine C-14. It's a great band. They'll be playing with us on Jan. 8.

C: What was the most challenging part about recording "Issue # 1"?
RF: The most challenging part of the recording was split between little mistakes and figuring out the final overall sound. Plus when you're confined to one little room for hours and hours working out one piece of a song, you start to go a little crazy.

C: What was the most fun part about recording that album?
RF: After adding each instrument to the mix, the songs would get better and better. We could hear it all coming together piece by piece, and the final product is more then you thought it could ever become.

C: Do you prefer playing live or in the studio?
RF: Live, 100 percent. There's nothing like the give and take between us and a good crowd.

C: Do you get nervous before a live show?
RF: We actually get anxious and end up tired sometimes. We hate waiting to play. But once we are onstage it's instant mayhem.

C: How do you prepare for a show?
RF: We have a pretty regular practice schedule, so we usually don't do anything different to prepare for a show.

C: Who decides how you dress for a gig?
RF: Our moms still dress us. We usually like dressing in a way so it's hard to tell what kind of band we are. It's fun to throw people off and keep them guessing what we sound like. People who've seen us know what we mean.

C: What is your favorite song to play live?
RF: "Evolution" off our EP is our favorite. It's a fast and heavy song that we start most shows off with to get the crowds attention.

C: What's your advice for other artists who are trying to make it?
RF: I think the best advice is know that you need a lot of time to practice and play in order to do it right. And just be patient.

C: What's your next project?
RF: Doing a full length album this spring.

Randall Flagg will play Uncle Joe's in Jersey City this Saturday, Jan. 8. Visit www.randallflag.net. - The Hudson Reporter, NJ

Krow King Records, 2007

I could write pages up and down about this New Jersey band, but I’ll rather start with a short but precise description of their work presented here in the form of 11 songs on their new full-length Warning: Contains Audio.

Randall Flagg is maybe unusual name for a metal band, and believe me this is not the only unusual thing about this quartet. The band is playing unusual type of music; combining alternative metal sounds with some (post) hardcore in order to manage this intense and unique piece of music. The band manages to cross all the boundaries with above mentioned combination of different genres, but also by being more technical and progressive than your usual hardcore/metal band.

The production is crystal and clear and this record and its sound seems to grow throughout the whole record. This CD comes in a kick-ass package including cover artwork, original lyrics, pictures, and a cd with album art, logos, band photos, lyrics and contact info. It is really impressive and shows once again how serious these guys are when it comes to their passion number 1 – music! I can highly recommend this CD to any fan of experimental hard/metalcore as well as some prog bands as Tool, Ringworm, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Vision of Disorder, Helmet, Snapcase etc. Being one of the more interesting albums landing on my doorstep this year so far, I can only urge you to contact the band at the following address and claim your copy of this unique album. - Metal Revolution