When I have the chance to listen to a Metal band that hasn't been really fixing itself on a particular Metal subgenre, it usually ends up as a pleasurable experience. Although I am an old school fan and the traditional sides of Metal typically inspire me more, I still have some of my heart set on different variations of Metal or Rock. COLD COLOURS, a modern US Metal band, showed me another shining light in the outskirts of what is called Dark or Gothic Metal for that matter. "The Great Depression", the band's third official release, bearing a title that would pretty much pave a way to the idea of what is inside, is an interesting piece of Metal music.

Through the tenure of more than fifteen years, COLD COLOURS has been crossing between Metal subgenres, whether dark, traditional, extreme and progressive. Even though I haven't had the chance on listening to their earlier releases, I conjured that "The Great Depression" is more than reasonable turnout of this venture's earlier endeavours. The rhythms shifted from what was seemed to be in the veins of NEVERMORE, ICED EARTH and later PARADISE LOST to the likes of early SENTENCED, HYPOCRISY, KATATONIA and early MOONSPELL. With the mixing of those veins reached to higher levels throughout the album, those were the moments that I truly enjoyed more. I liked the means of turning pure aggression into something deeper than a murderous imagery. I believe that "The Great Depression", with its themes, impressive sound production and direction, is the finer example of this line of music.

After a rather solid entranced with "Deny, Embrace, Define", where I was able to discover the amazing vocal talents, both growl and clean, of this project's ongoing leader, Brian J. Huebner, the real gloomy fun began to send its sparks. "Desire (The Fallen WIll)"shattered my mind waves with its awesome glory. NEVERMORE has never sounded so extreme until I heard COLD COLOURS with this track. "Daylight", was the lesser extreme example of this release. It had that same catchiness that served PARADISE LOST, in their later periods, so well. The track fast flew by while delivering great riffages and incredible lead section. The closing "Lost Inside" was my preferred of them all. It had the fine tools to show darkened progressiveness as something enchanting and impressive. KATATONIA's harsh atmosphere and ICED EARTH's attacking and melodic riffages seemed to embrace well in the spirit of COLD COLOURS. It was a true glorious moment. The strapping growls of Huebneralong with the clean vocal work on this track took me into various of emotional boundaries that left me dazzled.

As I mentioned, I haven't listened to the band's earlier release but I am sure that there is beyond "The Great Depression". It is a wonderful release and Sleaszy Rider Records should be swollen with pride on having such as great group in their roster. If the release could be a bit longer than the overall thirty something minutes, it would have been way better for me and probably for you guys as well.