Cold Colours : "Northernmost"

This band from Minnesota sounds more like they are from Sweden. Here is another case of not believing every press release you read as this one called these guys death doom. While in the grand scheme of how you want that sub-genre to read I think it could only loosely apply because I am hearing more rock n roll in their sound than doom, making them more death n roll. This is really a prominent flavor in the opening song. I think this benefits them because rock music has more of an emphasis on song writing than your typical death metal.  On  "a Life Forlorn" low sung vocals hang in the background. Things continue to rock out in shades of gray with excursions in more uptempo epic metal chords.

This album is really well produced and these guys have a big guitar sound that plays to their strength as a band. Sure there is a large dose of melo-death to what they do , but it's not all guitar harmonies, which is good because if I want that I'll listen to Iron Maiden. I don't feel as hooked into "From this Pain", it's not a bad song I just don't feel as strongly about it as I do the first two. The guitar solo section stands out a little more , but shredding is appreciate , but not my thing. "Spirit" opens with a darker and more leaning guitar melody. I like the melodic middle section of this song that helps to break things up, almost gives it a slight Opeth feel. I think at this point in the album having some with distinctly different sounds to widen the rang of dynamics is important and  "Terminal Winter" has enough of an ebb and flow to do that.

Even with the shift of guitar tone "Heathen" feels like it could be a continuation of the previous song. While this song has a great deal of acoustic interludes, for the purpose of this review I am only focusing on the actual songs. "the Parting" has more of a traditional metal feel.  "the Pale Heart" continues to push the guitar melodies , but does so in a darker less Iron Maiden fashion and more of an aggressive drive. Overall this is a really good album and the fact they are ambitious enough to have such a huge sound only adds to it, so I will give this album a 9 and see how it sits on me this year.