“Polyester Zeal” by Red Sun Rising is an album prone to breed mixed feelings inside its most demanding listeners. The average ones will enjoy it grandly, the musicality proving why modern rock and post-grunge became so popular and Mike Protich’s voice leaving quite a mark.
Although some people will frown at how familiar the songs sound, as it’s more than the I’ve-heard-this-somewhere-before feeling – one can actually place that “somewhere” and so it feels just a little short of a rip-off. It almost makes you want to joke about the title, when you use “plastic” as a synonym of “false”.
It’s a fetching album nevertheless. Well structured, top-notch production, the melodies flowing easily. There’s the catchy somberness of “My Muse”, the diversity of rhythms in “Unnatural”, the acoustic softness of “Bliss” and the liberating rock of “Imitation”, so if you put aside the resemblance of “Amnesia” and “World’s Away” to the mainstream vibrancy of Sixx A:M:, or how “The Otherside” could almost fool Alice In Chains fans, and “Blister” sounding like any other cowboy song, and also the Disturbed intro of “Emotionless”… yeah, if you’re not big on comparisons, you’ll find “Polyester Zeal” peachy.
