The Red Chord engages a sensory onslaught with their new Metal  Blade Release Prey for Eyes. A sprawling enigma, the album traverses  nightmarish soundscapes with mind-bending time changes, gnashing guitars  and schizophrenic vocals. Guitarist Mike "Gunface" Mckenzie couples  bludgeoning riffs with haunting chord passages. Brad Fickeisen furiously  propels the tracks with demonic double bass drumming as Greg Weeks bolts  down a rhythmic freight train. Vocalist Guy Kozowyk is the ringmaster of  this sonic horror show. His lyrics delve into the psyches of insane  inmates, anarchist recluses and gods with a vengeance for pop music. This  is dangerous and thought provoking music that transcends genres. This is  Prey for Eyes.The Red Chord have been crafting intriguing heavy music since their  independent debut Fused Together in Revolving Doors in 2002. Combining  elements of grindcore, death metal and hardcore, that release established  them as one of the premier Massachusetts extreme metal acts. In 2005, Metal  Blade released the follow-up Clients, a tortured concept album about mental  patients, drug addicts, the homeless and the desperate and downtrodden.  While they decimated crowds worldwide touring with the likes of Gwar, High  On Fire, Between the Buried and Me, Unearth, Every Time I Die and  Hatebreed, as well as stints on OZZfest 2006 and Sounds of the Underground  2005, "Clients" established The Red Chord as innovators in the burgeoning  underground metal scene by staying away from the clichÃ© trappings that  crippled some of their contemporaries.In early 2007, the band began constructing Prey for Eyes with producer and  engineer Eric Rachel (The Black Dahlia Murder, Atreyu) at Trax East. The  record is an immense evolution from Clients. Guy states, "Every song on the  new album, for the most part, is a sketch of something that could probably  take twenty minutes to explain. It's similar to Clients since every song  has a backbone that could've been a story. However, Clients was based on  this closed environment where I was working. While writing this album, I  was all over the world meeting people. So Prey for Eyes is based on dreams,  conversations, books, random instances and occurrences. There was also a  lot of different ground that I wanted to cover in terms of these weird,  trippy dreamscapes and real crazy shit I've thought of for a long time." In  order to tell these tales, Guy has also fine-tuned his voice like a weapon,  destroying with an intelligible, distinct scream.Heightening the dynamics of the record, Nate Newton from Converge guests on  "Tread on the Necks of Kings" and "Responsibles", while Jonny Davy of Job  For A Cowboy adds a distinct vocal madness to "Pray for Eyes" and  "Prevailed." The guest appearances create a deadly vocal diversity, which  compliments the intense fret work. Guy continues, "We have a lot of  mechanical changes, but Gunface was definitely hell-bent on throwing in  these melodic soulful parts. The riffs can be incredibly abrasive and  frightening, but they also have emotion, personality, soul and feel as  well." Add to that the intricate cover and packaging layout by Paul Romano  (Mastodon, Chiodos, Through The Eyes of The Dead), and The Red Chord have a  dangerous new record on their hands.Ultimately, the stories remain central to Prey for Eyes. "I don't want this  to be one of those bands that will just be forgotten. I feel like I'm a  writer before a vocalist. My writing has always been pretty solid. With  this genre, there's a lot of repetitive themes and material. I wanted to  really break the mold on that. I just want this band to stand out and do  something different, and I feel like we achieved that." BY RICK FLORINO