BTBAM - Colors II - 8/20/21

[chewpac]

it's incredible. 1st half is solid, second half brings it home in a big way.

crazy piece of musical work. i am looking forward to many more listens.

 

[Veldar]

Definitely more riff salad, akin to more recent releases.

That's a shame, as much as I loved some prog I do struggle to hang if there isn't some unity to the composition. Never got into post 2010s BTBAM because of that

 

[Pietjepieter]

I love it! Masterpiece imo.

It sounds just like the fun of music making. No boundaries, it goes wherever they want it to go.
I can only dream of ever becoming a musician of their caliber, both technically as well as creativity.

It is wild, beautiful, heavy, funny, techy and always btbam.

Will probably be mine album of the year

 

[lurè]

Very solid release, way better than Automata but maybe the name "Colors" made me build too high expectations.

Overall there are songs with very nice parts weakly linked toghter imho.

Sfumato + Human is hell is actually one of their best transitions .

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Pre-order merch arrived today. Even though this album isn't my favorite, still stoked on the stuff. No regrets. I'll always support this band as much as I can.

 

[SCJR]

Pre-order merch arrived today. Even though this album isn't my favorite, still stoked on the stuff. No regrets. I'll always support this band as much as I can.

Did you by chance order from Sumerian? Not sure if the order status just hasn't updated or if it actually hasn't shipped yet.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Did you by chance order from Sumerian? Not sure if the order status just hasn't updated or if it actually hasn't shipped yet.

Yes, I ordered from Sumerian.

I believe there are delays with vinyl, if that's what you ordered. I only got apparel. I figured I'd grab vinyl down the road after the initial rush.

 

[vilk]

Finally listened, and it was not at all as bad as I was expecting! I'd even go so far as to call it pretty good. I was very turned off by the single, but luckily that track did make a little more sense in the context of the album.

I did enjoy the reprises (is that the correct term?) from Colors, lyrically and musically. Feels like finding an Easter egg.

Damn, the breakdowns are fucking weak. A badass, cathartically heavy breakdown used to be one of BTBAM's signature moves, and you can tell that they attempted it at least once, but it was just way off the mark. Having said that, they did introduce a new move that I don't normally associate with them, and that was a black metal-esque wall of sound—and I feel they did actually pull it off pretty well.

I feel it's the best thing they've done since TGM, as evidenced as it being the first album they've made since then that I actually want to listen to again. Gonna play it while I go for my walk tomorrow.

 

[Avedas]

Finally had time to give the album a few listens. There are a lot of really cool moments and a ton of great musical ideas. So far I'm liking it a lot.

+1 on the lack of breakdowns though, and I'm a bit disappointed that Paul hates shredding now. There are like 2 guitar solos on the whole album.

The riffs may be a riff salad, but they are damn good riffs.

Also love how visible Dan is in the mix.

Anyway, back to deadlifts while listening.

 

[KailM]

Doesn't do anything for me. I think their schtick just wore off on me. Colors was one of my favorite albums when it came out, but before listening to Colors II I went back and spun Colors again a couple weeks ago and could barely get through it. Alaska is still tolerable. I think their formula just jumps around way too much, genre-wise, and the novelty is up for me.

If you like Colors and everything after, then I think you'll love this album though. It is well-produced and sounds great.

 

[SCJR]

Ultimately middle of the pack as far as their entire output goes but it's not bad by any means. I would say the back half far outshines the front. Everything from Prehistory on takes a step up from what came before it. Though I do believe they could have emitted Turbulent entirely and the album would not have suffered one bit.

 

[gnoll]

Why is it so fucking long?

There's cool parts but then there's also a bunch of boring stuff and I don't have time for that. I find myself going yes, no, yes, no, no, yes, no, no, no at all the different parts. Ultimately I just can't get through this whole thing.

 

[gnoll]

And this band's screaming has to be the most monotonous ever?

Ra ra ra ra raaaahhhh! (Same note)

 

[jwade]

I liked the first two albums, but after that I just haven’t been able to get into anything they do, and I’ve tried! I saw them open for Devin Townsend Project and did not enjoy any of it. There were no songs I knew and it was a massive chore sitting through their set.

I made it like 45 seconds in to this new track and I think this band is really just not for me, which is weird because I love the Thomas Giles shit.

 

[Spicypickles]

If you saw them with DTP then you just don’t enjoy their Coma Ecliptic album. They just played that album in full that tour.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

If you saw them with DTP then you just don’t enjoy their Coma Ecliptic album. They just played that album in full that tour.

Eh, minus Parallax I, things have been pretty "samey" post Colors I, and even more so after TGM.

 

[works0fheart]

If you saw them with DTP then you just don’t enjoy their Coma Ecliptic album. They just played that album in full that tour.

Exactly. I just could not get into that album. I saw them around that time 2 different times. The first I was super underwhelmed by the setlist so the 2nd time I thought would be better, and it was, but still very new album oriented. Seeing them last night was the best set I've heard them play.

Eh, minus Parallax I, things have been pretty "samey" post Colors I, and even more so after TGM.

I disagree on this. I love TGM (I know you're not a fan) but pretty much everything after I'm not really big on. There's been a few decent songs here and there but still.

Colors 2 is pretty decent but I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. So far I enjoy it more than their last few releases but I don't know if it lives up to the hype of being a sequel to their most popular album. I think Lorcan's post summed up how I feel about it pretty well, but I need to really sit down/drive around and take it in.

 

[GunpointMetal]

I spun it 4-5 times since it dropped and it's good, but like the last few for me its better as background music than something that holds my attention. Still an awesome live band, though.

Why is it so fucking long?

There's cool parts but then there's also a bunch of boring stuff and I don't have time for that. I find myself going yes, no, yes, no, no, yes, no, no, no at all the different parts. Ultimately I just can't get through this whole thing.

Kinda my impression of most everything post-Alaska. Lots of cool ideas, but the songs don't feel like they're going anywhere but to the next part for no other reason than to have a next part. I think most of these songs would be better if they were 3-4 minutes long and that's it.

And this band's screaming has to be the most monotonous ever?

Ra ra ra ra raaaahhhh! (Same note)

Yeah, right around Colors you could hear in the recordings that the screams were being done in a way so as to save his voice for the cleans, which ended up making both things less interesting.

 

[works0fheart]

And this band's screaming has to be the most monotonous ever?

Ra ra ra ra raaaahhhh! (Same note)

Love this band, but man this is such a true statement. While it can be argued that he has good range because he does clean singing, his growls really do leave something to be desired.

 

[jwade]

Ok eating my words a little bit, the other song I heard I didn’t ‘get’, but I like this one a lot more.