Review : COLONEL BLAST – “For the Greater Good”

Colonel Blast – For the Greater Good
released June 8, 2010 on Condate Records

Rating: 2.5/5

England’s Colonel Blast is an oddly-named and oddly-performed exercise in chaos. The group cites Converge, Carcass, and Cryptopsy as influences, so you anticipate the ride will be noisy yet nuanced. Despite their nobly sacrificial album title, they do not provide compelling reasons to remember their music.

A delicate guitar-and-bass commences “Ethical Betrayal” before erupting into a maelstrom of grinding riffs and Jacob Bannon impersonations. It sustains the greatest interest of all the songs I heard here. “Management Coat Competition” takes a different, see-saw approach between the heavy and mellow, but still fails to really hold ground. The band has recorded a video for that track, though, so it must be their favorite.

And if you want to talk about pride, they are clearly stoked about their title track, taking a Solomonic approach to achieve their end. And by that, I do not mean displaying wisdom, but rather “splitting the baby”. They could have had another “Jane Doe” on their hands here, but problems with snare sounds, overlong riffs, and awkward time shifts are frustrating.

Perhaps this is why I felt my salvation lay in “The Beacon”. It arrives about six songs deep and contains the only riff that stuck with me after multiple listens. The ending didn’t really boil my potato, but now I was excited to see what came next. No luck. The version I received somehow omitted “Frozen in Apathy” and “Blofeld Never Died”, so those will have to wait for another day, if ever.

Colonel Blast are amongst a new breed of Metal bands that does not adhere to genres, but reminds us why that kind of shorthand is useful. I wish them luck, identity, and perhaps a promotion some day; at least ‘Brigadier Blast’ would be alliterative.

FCC OK
Try: 1, 6

01. Ethical Betrayal
02. Management Coat Competition
03. Savour the Flavour
04. For the Greater Good Pt1 – The Best Intentions
05. For the Greater Good Pt2 – In the Cold Light of Day
06. The Beacon
07. Frozen in Apathy
08. Blofeld Never Died