Up front, I'd like to apologize to the one member of Colors who contacted me about posting their music here. The writeup should have been posted a few days ago, but as I stated in the shoutbox, the buttons got me disorganized, as well as did an interview that was planed for a while, yet sadly got delayed. There are several more submissions that I'm aware of in my mailbox and I will definitely get to them and I'm sorry if I neglected some of you, I really appreciate every one band that contacts me. For now I will focus on this project, so thanks to Colors for the patience and for the interest in being here.
Colors is a quartet hailing from Denver, Colorado, playing some very interesting self-designed screamo. Why self-designed? Well, during the listening of this release you just can't pin point any influences from which this band draws inspiration. You think you hear something which some certain band has, but it simply slips away from your mind before you can remember the bands name. And not only that, but Colors style of playing incorporates some other genres on top of the screamo base. The most noticeable genre addition is mathcore, recognized easily in songs like "Last Interview" and "Fancy Nancy at the Museum" which start off with speed riffs, bombed with start-stop technique of playing, as well as the song "All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling" which is constantly slashed with the choking, chest beating melodies of mathcore. This style of entwining math and screamo (and some elements of hardcore as well) goes very well together, since the chaos following math in its wake is excellently composed and fits perfectly.
With all of the explosions, screaming and chaos all around, amazing production stood up and it has done it's part great. You can hear every little change of pace or shift in melody just fine, since despite their chaotic nature, the songs are very clean in sound. What I especially enjoyed is the fact that every instrument is omnipresent which makes way for you to focus on all song aspects, thus discovering all of the genre elements that are fused together into Colors. Of course, my attention was drawn onto the bass playing, which is amazing, carrying in it's sound some hardcore effects contributed to the band. Guitar playing, as stated above has a lot of mathcore elements, ranging from start-stop to some breakdownish riffs, but the guitar also brings in a lot of screamo portions, with melodies that after a lot of thought sometimes remind me of tunes from "The Fall of Boss Koala" and "City of Caterpillar". On a special note, the drum playing is something very interesting in this band. I don't know is it only me, but when you focus on the drumming in various songs, you get a feeling like it's shifting it's place between the songs. Sometimes, like in "Three Toes of Harding County" the drums are somewhere behind the rest of the band, sounding a bit distant with a dull sound. But then in the next song, "They Built These Towers That Stretch Onward for Miles", the are launched up front and are more aggressive and bearing a stronger sound. Maybe it's just me tripping or something, but either way, drum playing is excellent. Vocal performance is amazing, with a raspy nearly broken and maniacal screaming, spitting out some very, very interesting lyrics. It is worth to note that the lyrics are found in a "booklet" inside the link along with the songs and it is a must to check them out! Also, judging by the booklet, Colors tend to have guest vocals on their song, which by itself is a very awesome thing.
All in all, you drove through "Palindromes" over eight songs and seventeen minutes of various tunes. To my shame, I didn't know about this project before and they actually released a four song demo in the summer of 2009, which absolutely kicks. And what to say other than that I'm very glad their eye caught "Natures With No Plagues" in it's flight, since something needs to be written about Colors, they deserve it. Excellent project with a lot of potential and already great material behind them. If you like them you can contact them over myspace here and check out their blog, since they tend to update it regularly. Download and enjoy, you won't regret!
These dudes are gonna go far... So excited for them all!
ReplyDeleteI checked this out...and to say the least this is some very poorly crafted music. The first thing that really stood out to me was the complete lack of proper transitions. It sounded to me like the band had written a bunch of parts and just glued them all together and said "good enough.." I love this general type of music, but I think these guys need to take a break and re-evaluate what they're doing. I know this is just nit-picking, but it also becomes very apparent throughout the album that this was all recorded without a metronome. There are parts that just lose their groove and speed up/slow down randomly, which tend to throw off certain phrases and cause the musicians to have to add or take away beats in order to complete the bars. These guys weren't quite ready to step into the studio in my opinion. The vocals really tend to take away from everything else too. The kid just shrieks incoherent nonsense the entire time, which begins to distract the listener from the already sub-par music. If they considered a new vocalist and perhaps added a second guitarist that is capable of writing more 3 dimensional music then maybe this band can start to move forward a bit. That, and A LOT of practice, that is.
ReplyDeletehey, thanks for stating your opinion with actually some knowledge behind it; we really appreciate that, but what you're asking is for us to kick one of our best friends out of the band, and that's a little silly. As for the second guitarist request, it's a possibility, but at the moment we really enjoy being a 4-piece. Also, recording without a metronome was a decided thing for everything except the first song on the album because we didn't like the amount of energy it took out. It works for Metalcore, but we don't like it.
ReplyDeleteYour biggest fan,
Andrew.
I appreciate your response. I play this sort of music as well and have taken the time to perfectly map out each count, time-change, etc. at the speed that felt the most natural and recorded it with a metronome that way. On certain parts that require a bit more of that "raw" feel we just turn the click off and let our hands do all the work. There are certain times in your album when it is apparent that a click should have been implemented, and others when it would have been ok to just play freely. Next time you go in to the studio take this into consideration as it will surely help you to produce music that is both energetic and solid. It's not the easiest of tasks, but once you get it down you won't regret it. As for the other things, they are simply suggestions for your band to expand. I feel as though a second guitar could add a much needed dynamic to the music, which tends to be a bit flat in areas. I understand the fine line that all musicians walk when it comes to members. It may be musically beneficial to change someone out, but might harm the relationship somehow. Either way, it's your choice. Just some things to consider.
ReplyDeleteI just have to jump in into this... You just have to keep in mind that this is not pure mathcore sound and things are not meant to be too much "technical". Imho they managed to fuse two different genres and take bits and pieces from both to make it cool. Similarly, the vocals are extremely satisfying. If this was intended to be a copy of Converge or something, the vocals would be way off, here they fit perfectly and contribute to the overall chaos. My two Euro cents.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your band, man? I'd love to check it out.
ReplyDeleteSorry, dude. I'm not here to promote my band, just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI'm not asking you to promote your band, I'm asking what band you're in because I'm legitimately interested.
ReplyDelete