Swiss underground Black Metal band ColdCell, founded in 2012, returns with their fifth studio full-length album, Age Of Unreason. Once again, they venture into social abysses, exploring the (un)reason of being.
ColdCell – Age Of Unreason (AOP Records)
Like much of their past material, there are some lengthy pieces, with some passing the eight-minute mark. Although there is nothing on this release to surpass the track Tainted Thoughts from their 2017 release Those, which was almost twelve minutes duration. But if, as I rather do, you like long, bleak, but thought-provoking Black Meal pieces, Age Of Unreason will be of interest to you.
ColdCell knows how to hold your focus on a lengthy track. Each piece is intriguingly atmospheric and dark, the sound ranging from melancholic and ambient to waves of driving cold black riffing. In the process, ColdCell links classical elements of the Black Metal genre with modern and unorthodox influences, keeping the sound interesting.
The vocals, definitely one of my favourite aspects of their sound, are at times corrosive, others expressively tortured and angry. They are always hugely expressive, well-intonated, and protracted, delivering the lyrics in several different ‘voices’.
This latest seven-track offering, which takes another suitably nihilistic look into the shortfall of humanity on many levels, opens with Hope And Failure, a powerful piece and dramatic builder. Overall, it maintains a gentle rise and fall to the track’s pace. Vocally, it’s superbly expressive and haunting, and lyrically it is starkly to the point, unnervingly dropping away in the second half.
A steadily undulating wave of blackened riffing opens Dead to the World. The first minute of the track is bleakly reflective before becoming intensely driving. It is the more unorthodox elements that course subtly over the top of the riffs and vocals that make this a well-created, understatedly powerful piece.
Left is hauntingly sparse and reflective to open. It is another gradual builder, with the acidic vocals cutting through powerfully. There is an abundance of haunting piano melody, which helps to make this a bleak but beautiful piece.
The vocals are expressively tortuous, delivering pain-filled screams in the more intense swathes of riffing. I absolutely love the vocals on this track. They are so expressive, impactful, and moving.
The beautifully haunting atmosphere continues with Solidarity or Solitude. Initially slow and ponderous, it elevates to an undulating wave of tremolo picking and acidic vocals that build to tortuous screams with sharp guitar work coursing over. This superbly emotive track oozes anguish, anger, and pain.
Meaningless is a slightly different offering than the other pieces on the album and features a very interesting guest vocalist, Swiss singer-songwriter Ines Brodbeck from Inezona. In her own work, she is known for her fusion of influences from jazz, pop, folk and South American traditional sounds.
Brodbeck co-wrote the lyrics for Meaningless with ColdCell vocalist/lyricist ‘S’. The song is a dark, haunting and reflective piece that still has swathes of pitch-black riffing, particularly in the second half.
Although a little different, the track sits very well with the test of the compositions on this album. Brodbeck’s haunting clean vocals add another new texture to an already fascinatingly engaging album, and I also like the way the drum work is a little more prominent on this track.
The penultimate piece, Discord, delivers dark, driving riffs with a haunting, jangling guitar coursing over and alongside the vitriolic vocals. It is not a brutally intense piece, as it ebbs and drives in waves, again with the drum work taking a little more prominence.
Final piece, the eight-and-a-half-minute Sink Our Souls, is bleak but atmospheric. Delivering an eerie soundscape to open, it gradually builds and develops. Distant drum and guitar rhythms – along with a precise raw vocal delivery – gradually come to the fore, maintaining a slower, plodding pace pretty much throughout the duration.
The song ebbs and builds in intensity, and it’s not until midway that the pace quickens briefly, with the vocals becoming a more tormented, lyrically powerful closing piece.
Age Of Unreason is yet another powerful and thought-provoking offering from ColdCell. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Victor Bullok at Q7 Studios and Woodshed Studio, the stark yet striking cover art is by Gian Andrea Signorell.
It will be available as a CD, Vinyl—in two colour choices from Plastic Head (Europe, USA, World) and Edel (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)—or digital download.
