Back when I started this blog (in it's previous guise) and when I didn't really know what I was doing, I mainly featured bands from my home county of Yorkshire. Those posts are still hidden in the depths of my archive on here, though for some reason the formatting has gone to shit and I haven't got the time or this inclination to fix it. Anyway, The Colour Line were one of those bands that I featured. This five-piece from Hull were finding their feet then, so it was a good match.
Since then they've recorded Riff City (released in mid 2013) and appeared on Metal Hammer's cover mount CD, as well as touring everywhere they can and causing chaos with their technical hardcore, which has seen them get compared to The Dillinger Escape Plan by some parts of the music press. They're also singed to UK label Destroy Everything
Tracklist:-
1. Colonel Sanders Flying Machine
2. Heights Of Abraham
3. Sunshine Adventureland
4. Mariachi Firing Squad
These guys have appeared at Tech-Fest previously and are coveted by Basick Records, which is no surprise when you first hear Colonel Sanders Flying Machine. It’s full of changing time-signatures and tech-laden riffs. They go a bit La Dispute during the mid-section, with a spoken word verse that breaks into occasional screams, while they back it up with light instrumentation to break of the math. There is plenty of musicality here, even for people who don’t like their music head-spinningly complex but at times they do recall past forward-thinkers like Tangaroa. Heights of Abraham is nowhere near as serene as it’s British countryside namesake. The drumming towards the end it especially intense. It is strange not hearing the technical guitar backing up some serious guttural death metal vocals, but I guess I’m just a little old-school in that respect. Sunshine Adventureland still puts the fretboard frenetics to good use. Also, the minimal use of breakdowns is a plus here, because it means that The Colour Line don’t lose momentum during their songs.
Closing with the positively mammoth Mariachi Firing Squad, The Colour Line strap themselves in for over six minutes of math mayhem. The drums are mid-paced, while the guitars flit between burst of schizophrenic picking and menacing, atmospheric passages. The screams that sit atop of the quiet guitar art the three-minute mark are full of emotion and the band are sensitive enough to not overdo things allowing the song to build as it’s many elements and textures converge to build volume and power. This is a great way to end this short EP, which along with the addition of clean backing vocals provides an insight into TCL’s more experimental edge. Now where’s that new EP at!
Have a listen to Riff City here (it's also available for free download, so it's win win!):-
Keep an eye on their Facebook page and Destroy Everything for news on the new EP.
The Colour Line Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thecolourline
Destroy Everything Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/destroyevrythng
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