Psychedelic/Doom Quintet BLACKFINGER formed in the United States in 2012. "When Colors Fade Away" is the band's sophomore effort, and contains nine tracks. The title track leads off the album. It slogs in with a bit of a swing. The guitars are heavy and fuzzy, and the vocals seem to just occupy the space between the riffs with just barely enough presence. "Can I Get a Witness" is both shorter and a bit quicker. There is some nifty bass guitar work here, and I have always felt that some spotlight in this instrument is essential to good Doom Metal. Something in the vocals however is just a bit flat. "My Old Soul" is another song that has a groovy swing at times, and depressing loneliness at others. The song title is pretty fitting considering the sound.

"Afternow" has a chewy crunch to it, almost like the experience of eating a caramel...when your back teeth grind on it slowly until it is malleable enough to eat. The fog that hangs in the air when this plays is thick. "Crossing the River Turmoil" is a weighted affair. For a visual, imagine the journey and time involved in steering your small craft over a wide river with strife on your side. For every two steps you take forward, you take one back. "Beside Still Water" has some clean guitar notes in the beginning that rise out of the muddy swamp a bit. The main riff hits hard and loud, like atlas stones dropped from a cliff. Second cousin to BLACK SABBATH, it is a gloomy and despondent song. "Waiting for the Sun" brings some poignant moments in both the lyrics and the sweeter musical sound. If LED ZEPPELIN and BLACK SABBATH had a love child, this could be it. There are some good musical complexities here that I hadn't yet heard in previous tracks.

"Till we Meet Again" closes the album in a quick three minutes. It has some more "get up and go" but still very much rooted in the greyness of rainy skies. Once again the thud of bass guitar notes really provide direction for the song. What I might like best about the album is the visual connection one can make from the song titles to the music. Few bands are really able to make these things match as well as they do here. But, even for the genre, some of the tracks ran together and were just a bit on the dull side. Overall, a solid Doom release that will suck the life out of you.