Newly signed by Fearless Records, The Color Morale have just released their fourth album ‘Hold On The Pain Ends’, and it’s really bloody catchy. The five-piece, who hail from Rockford, Illinois, deal in chugging riffs and big choruses, and it’s pretty indisputable that they’ve made an album that is full of disgustingly infectious songs.
The post-hardcore five-piece have said that they wanted to use this platform as a way to talk to people who are going through a hard time, and ‘Hold On Pain Ends’ as a title is apparently a message to their fans. Despite the largely energetic songs and upbeat choruses, the themes of the album can be a lot more serious, covering depression and addiction among other things.
It’s always good to see a band use their position to speak out about more serious themes, and it will undoubtedly help a lot of people who are going through a bad time. Craig Owens of Chiodos and Dave Stephens from We Came As Romans guest star on the album (on ‘Developing Negative’ and ‘Suicide_Stigma’ respectively), and both of their contributions are excellent.
As far as highlights go, recent single ‘Outer Demons’ and the aforementioned ‘Developing Negative’ are right up there, due to their catchy choruses. They will undoubtedly provoke huge singalongs at shows, and when you can tell that even on a first listen, you know it’s a good sign.
They slow things down for album closer and title track ‘Hold On Pain Ends’, which is completely stripped down with just an acoustic guitar and frontman Garret Rapp’s impressive vocals (before bursting into gang vocals at the end). It’s a great song, and a fantastic way to end the record.
If you’ve never listened to The Color Morale before, their fourth album is a great way to be introduced to them. Incredibly enjoyable.
LAIS MW