Mala In Se - Mala In Se (2011)

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These past few days I completely melted my brain with various black metal bands and found myself in need of some new stuff completely out of the norm. Plus, I haven't written a release review in quite a long time, so this seemed like a good excuse to get back on track.

"Mala In Se" is a trio hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, presumably formed in 2010. I say presumably, since on some places the year 2010 is found as a release year of this album, while on others you will find the year 2011. In the email I received from "Phratry Records" the spring of this year is mentioned as the official release date, so we'll go along with that. In any case, "mala in se" is a phrase in Latin which means "evil in itself" or "offenses against conscience". Once you take a listen to this album you realize how much the name actually suits the band, since the name implies the existence of multiple layers of something (in this case evil if you take it literally, but we will get to that as well). Namely, the band whips out a completely weird mutation of noise, mathrock /core, psychedelic and quite a few other tidbits as well. The instrumental section and overall style of song composition is absolutely hard to define, since there are a ton of genres, tempos and layers of sound flying around. For example, the intro song named "Time lapse photography of decomposing animals" starts off with spasmic, pounding and rushing drums which are accompanied by extremely distorted and chaotic strings. After a few seconds of smashing into your brain, the aggressiveness calms down, followed with some howling of the strings, only for everything to explode again in the next instance, but this time with a bit of a sludge-like tone. Things shift between this and the rushing drums from the beginning, yet somewhere at the middle of the song we are greeted with a section that reminded me of something that could most likely crawl from a "Meshuggah" song. One other great example is the song "Devil Dung". The intro is an eerie sound made by the guitar, but it is soon broken by some overtly technical playing, later transformed into a fast metal-like beast. Tempo drops drastically moments after and it lasts for a while until everything acquires a post metal/sludge tone. Yet, once all the behemoth smashing is over, the ending is executed in an extremely minimalistic fashion and just trails off. As you can see, there are really multiple layers per song, but everything is tied together with a sort of unifying undertone that keeps it all tight and orderly. Be it a certain instrument, a repetitive vocal performance or something else, there is always one element keeping a specific track from being lost in utter chaos. Tempo and melody changes are almost omnipresent, yet you always feel as though everything is in order and there are no stray tones.
Speaking of vocal performance, they definitely deserve some special credits as well. Both string players contribute with their voices and the cool thing is that even here some contrasts and different layers are present. On one side you have a screaming/yelling vocal, while on the other there is a sort of half whine, half shrieking one. This not only provides the above mentioned contrast, but also the combination is unique and quite interesting, not to mention how chilling it is especially when the vocals are followed by some gruesome riffs. The vocals justify the name of the band as well, since they speak of animal cruelty, environmentalism and similar subjects, the evil I mentioned in the beginning. However, it is here where I have a complaint, though it is not a real complaint per se, and that is the band not posting their lyrics on their bandcamp page (which is found here, by the way). What little notion I managed to grab from their words was kinda tough and seeing as though the lyrics are in theme of the rest of the band, posting them online would definitely make things much more enjoyable. So yeah, not really a flaw, just a minor suggestion, if anyone from the band reads this.
All in all, I am really impressed by "Mala In Se". Not every band can manage to throw at you such a bomb filled with chaos and succeed in taming it. This trio has a specific talent with that and I am honestly looking forward to hearing some future work from them. Until then, definitely check out their self titled release, you won't regret it! Download link is provided by "Phratry Records". Enjoy!

Colors - Palindromes (2010)

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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!