A Fresh And Massive New Album from Colourtone

A brand new album release from Colourtone recently dropped, and this thing hits all the classic, 90s underground alternative rock that you can handle with such a pinpointed aesthetic and built with some great guitar work, memorable riffs, and an electric sort of energy that flows through the record as a whole.

This is one of those albums that you listen to all the way through from start to finish, simply because listening to one or two tracks may give you an idea of what you can expect, but it will not give you the spectrum of what the full album delivers.

The record has more than a few surprises around its corners, super memorable sections, catchy and anthemic choruses, and super driving guitar tones that really push everything to a certain level of intensity that gives the record life.

The album is called Horizon, and wastes zero time getting right to the point with its first track, "Whistleblower".

This is such a big sound to introduce the record with and a perfect choice as well because you are getting some of the great staples that the full album portrays in this track alone, so right off the bat, you get a feel for the energy levels.

The song comes in with a great riff that's melodic, and there are two guitars overlapping each other, one that plays the main riff while another one does chords over that, giving it this great thickness.

This is one of those staples I was talking about. Colourtone has a sort of pattern to how the songs are written and how the whole soundscape and aesthetic come through.

The drums are absolutely pounding, not just on the single but throughout most of the record itself, and this, of course, adds a lot of drive but also makes it more exciting.

The drumming is always in the pocket, but doesn't just sit there and do everything you might expect. There's great fills, inventive time signatures here and there, and the dynamic on some of the hits between the kick, snare, and crash cymbals, especially, are just massive.

Songs like "Breathing Underwater" give some of the best and most inventive drumming on the record, in my opinion. It feels like a lot is going on, but it all works perfectly to create this flow. 

It's almost like everyone's feeding off of that drummer's energy, and that helps get the songs feeling fiery.

The vocals always have this sort of soulfulness to them in a sense. There's a little bit of swagger, notes bend, it's never just flat. There's always something new happening vocally on these tracks, but it also has a lot of character that's portrayed throughout this whole thing.

Some of the more experimental and outside-the-box tracks are songs like "All The Same", which features some decimated instrumentation, tremolo effect on the guitars, and a vaster undertone that feels slightly more cinematic but still just as powerful and closed-fisted.

Following suit with some of the more experimental side of things, but still hitting pretty hard, is one of my favorite tracks on the record, which is actually the closing song called "Broken Pieces".

This track features long drawn-out chords, effects on the vocals that feel like an amp simulator or even distortion, and you get a real grungy feel from songs like this.

This is important to bring up, actually. The record isn't just alternative rock. I would say it's the main genre if I had no other choice. If someone had a gun to my head and asked what kind of music Colourtone was, I would easily say alternative rock.

However, there are all kinds of other heavy rock influences that are laced throughout the record, including punk, grunge, shoegaze, and more.

Several songs stand out as singles to me. But even so, this is again, a record you listen to from start to finish, all the way through.

The lyrics can get a bit personal at times, and you have to really pay attention to pick up on certain lines, but there's definitely a lot of persona being built up throughout the album, and songs feel like they interconnect in different ways, making it feel almost like a concept record, in a sense

I definitely dig that as well. But really, you want to get your fill. You want to be able to soak in all of the different elements, textures, approaches, and impactful songwriting styles that the record boasts because a lot is going on.

This is a 13-track record, and I can honestly say it's not much filler.

A lot of these songs have a great sort of powerful tonality to them, and that can be very infectious and something you end up holding on to.

Again, there are plenty of catchy elements like certain hooks, choruses, guitar riffs, and more, but the record as a whole has an abundance of edginess that shines through with a massive sonic presence.

I would definitely check this record out as soon as you can and play it loud because that's how it was meant to be heard.

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