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Modern Color is back with their new record Time Slips Behind Us, the follow up to 2016’s CHROMESTHESIA. 2017 has been an interesting year all around especially when it comes to new music but don’t let Time Slips Behind Us slip behind you. Modern Color was once a metalcore band but they have grown way beyond that now. They continue to grow and cultivate a sound that is both unique and refreshing. I used to half-jokingly tell people that Modern Color sounds like Title Fight on steroids but they are much more than that. Genre-wise they are hard to place in a box but their sound borrows from Black Metal, Shoegaze, Hardcore, and emo to name a few.
Time Slips Behind Us opens with “Constant” a two and a half minute blast beat heavy intro to set the tone of the chaos that’s about to ensue. This track still has Shoegaze vibes but it’s definitely one of their more Black-Metal leaning tracks.
The next three tracks “Wool”, “Keepsake”, and the titular “Time Slips Behind Us” are as close to being poppy as Modern Color gets. Some of the melodies in “Wool” make me want to jump around and dance but also has a sick breakdown in it then a slam breakdown with the lyrics belting “I just want to disappear”. These tracks have very nice clean vocal harmonies juxtaposed with harsh screaming vocals, a technique that Modern Color has perfected since CHROMESTHESIA.
“Not Here” is a very Hardcore track with a southern vibe but it also has a nice clean and catchy chorus. Modern Color mixes different sounds that on paper shouldn’t work but they create a very unique and enjoyable experience.
One of my favorite tracks on the record is not a track at all but more of a brief interlude. “In Passing” is such a great and fun super fast punk track. I would like to hear a fuller song in this vein on their next record with an actual vocal track on it. Time Slips Behind Us was produced and engineered by Jack Shirley and this track gave me Comadre flashbacks.
Modern Color really packs a lot into this record and if I’m being completely transparent, I’m sure some of it went over my head. My favorite track on the record, “Spring Again” transitions perfectly from the previous track “Proxy Dream” using an array of recorded nature sounds. “Spring Again” crescendos perfectly into a very rocking riff at the end of the track. Quite frankly this is the best riff on the entire record.
So regardless if I missed some of the more subtleness that makes this record great, Time Slips Behind Us is just solid throughout from the guitar tones to the drum beats (nothing but hits). Modern Color is one of my favorite bands to jam when I’m driving alone late at night. It helps to just sit back, not think too much about it, soak in all the complexities, and jam tf out.
8/10
Purchase Vinyl from Other People Records
