1. The Sage Of Washington Oaks
2. Close Your Eyes And Look Away
3. When One Was Desolate
4. Humannequin
5. Resource:Recourse
6. A Sponge In The Ocean
7. Hopes Anchor
8. Manumission
9. The Man Behind The Hands
10. I, The Jury
Genre: Post-Hardcore
For fans of: Mayday! Cried The Captain, Enjoy The Fall
Debut album from The Color Morale, reading up on this album the lead vocalist who does both screams and cleans, only did cleans on this album, instead the bands bassist did the growling and screaming on this album. I’d have to say his screams are pretty nice, and the clean vocals and screams go along together really nicely, this album was pretty good for a debut album, theirs power behind the sound, great lyrics, two great vocalists doing their vocal parts. One thing that I could have wanted was more than 10 songs, the more the better right? The Color Morale definitely has a bright future ahead of them with this release though, if they keep the bassist doing screams and the lead vocalist doing cleans, this band might stand out a little. A few songs that kind of stick out on this album would have to be, The Sage Of Washington Oaks, Humannequin, Hopes Anchor, I, Jury. The Sage Of Washington Oaks, was a very nice song to start off the album with it shows you the power of the band, their sound, their lyrics, and made you kind of curious of what to the next song will sound like, which is something that kind of brought me into listening to this album a lot more, I’d have to say that was a good tactic on their part. Hopes Anchor was my favorite song on this album, the lyrics are pretty good and the overall sound of the song is spot on, it’s definitely one of the best songs on this album to say the least. I, The Jury is the longest song on the album and it’s the last song, I’d have to say the band did a great job at picking the first and last song on the album, I, The Jury makes you ready for the next release from the band, and I personally think it’s the most powerful song on the album, it’s the song I would tell someone to check out on the album first, that’s for sure.
Breakdown:
Cleans: The clean vocalist style is pretty good, he tries to add a lot of emotion and power to his vocals which in a way makes them stand out on the album and somewhat in the genre. The only thing I could hope the clean vocalist does to his vocals is improve them, adds more power and emotion to them.
Screams: The bassist does screams on this album, from what I read the clean vocalist had an illness and couldn't do screams, with that being the case, it makes me wonder what the next album will sound like. But anyway, the bassist does the screams, and I’d have to say his style is really nice and he does add a lot of power behind his screams, which is something that works in the bands sounds. It kind of sounds like the Screams have an influence on the bands instrument play, whenever the screamer comes in it gets heavy, whenever the clean vocalist comes in it gets a little soft.
Instruments: The vocals seem to have somewhat of an influence on the instrument play, whenever the clean vocals come in the instruments sound soft and slow, whenever the screams come in it sounds kind of heavy and fast, this gets used somewhat in post hardcore, but it varies with band, some bands do this fairly well, others don’t, I’d have to say The Color Morale does it really well and it’s kind of exciting when you hear it at first.
Rating: 8/10
