COLORS

On Colours, BtBam seem to have fully grown into their sound, a mix of modern prog, heavy riff frenzy and metal-core outbursts. In other words, a sort of metalized version of Mars Volta with both hardcore vocals and delicate melodious vocals.

When they chose to prog out, they do it like the best of the pack. Tommy Rogers has a great spontaneous lyricism in his melodic voice and he is very inventive at finding fresh and dynamic vocal lines to accompany the inspired and adventurous music. When it comes to the metal parts I found myself in a place that will be familiar to many other listeners, I initially just frowned in discomfort at the metal-core parts. Too much one-dimensional aggression for me.

But the imaginative freedom and energetic boost from this band is simply too high to give up on them too easily. I'm glad I persisted as this is truly a remarkable album. It's extremely capricious but I don't find it a mish-mash at all. Maybe it sounds like that if you expect a song to have a head and tail and all the other parts in a logical order in between. That's the old-school prog. These disturbed youngsters throw in whatever bit that feels like a logical continuation of the previous bit and to my ears everything seems to flow naturally. Just don't expected much repeated choruses or recognizable tunes to whistle along to.