There a dark and progressive-tinged beauty to the title track of Blackfinger’s second album ‘When Colors Fade Away’: its a song that starts out like a heady mix of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin before it brings in a touch of gentle 70’s Prog. It’s effective as an opener despite the slow burn, and Eric Wagner’s vocals (Trouble, The Skull) really add that satisfyingly dark sheen to proceedings.
‘Can I Get a Witness’ that follows it is at times is almost jazzy, and lighter touches rub up against the Alice In Chains like circular riff that threads through the song, there’s also a certain quirkiness that transfixes you as does ‘All My Sorrow’ that follows. To write this off as simply another doom album would be rather trite, dark it may be but there re some wonderful textures and deft touches here that lift it to something more, something richer.
Whether irony, humor or something other the sampling of the nursery rhyme Old King Cole lyrics in ‘My Old Soul’ is a little unnerving and despite an initial reaction of a spluttering laugh it actually works and its part of the charm of this release – just little treads here and there to unnerve you.
The rest of the album works equally well and is just as disconcerting. The thick groove of ‘Afternow’ and Eric’s amped up vocals adds more than a little dark psychedelia to the soupy Sabbathy mix; ‘Crossing the River Turmoil’ injects more black into the darkness as the dirge sweeps forward; ‘Beside Still Water’ adds a glint of light before bringing on the storm and ‘Waiting For the Sun’ adds what might be described as a dark anti-ballad to the mix which echos both Trouble and early forays by Soundgarden.
The final word goes to the lightly sarcastic ‘Till We Meet Again’ whose first line could be pure Spinal Tap if taken out of context, I only say that as it is actually one of my favourites here, there’s an almost Gothic charm offset by some cool guitars and a relentless if laid back beat.
I like this stab a lot better than Blackfinger’s debut, it drags you into it’s landscape pretty effectively. If it lacks anything though its pace, this is a pretty languid affair and while some will see that as a huge part of its charm you might just be hankering for a few sort sprints here and there.
