October 2022 Feature Release - The Gateway Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month's feature release for The Gateway, nominated by me (Shadowdoom9 (Andi)), is the brand-new 7th album from Japanese alternative metal/metalcore band Coldrain, Nonnegative. Coldrain is one of my favorite alt-metalcore bands, and a very underrated one in the metal community in my opinion. I'd like to see this band gain better attention in Metal Academy, and their new album is a great one to start with.

https://metal.academy/releases/38199

Here's my review summary:

2020 was the year when everything in the world slowed down due to a certain virus, and many bands were in a storm of plan changes, one of those bands being Japanese alt-metalcore rockers Coldrain. However, despite delaying album production by a year, they're still strong in creating their latest offering... Coldrain is the kind of band that prefer to rise up and not stand down. Nonnegative marks the 7th full-length part of their discography filled with ups and downs. The album is filled with heavy powerful anthems, plus a few poppy-ish ballads. Relentless guitars and great vocal variety can make real crystal gems. Nonnegative is very solid for an alt-metalcore album with barely anything worth harsh criticism. Calm sections with clean singing are mixed with heavy sections with harsh growls. The successful formula they've had in The Side Effects is still strong in this album. They're back on their path, and might be off to a golden future in J-rock/metal!

4.5/5

Recommended tracks: "Help Me Help You", "Cut Me", "Bloody Power Fame", "Paradise (Kill the Silence)", "2020", "From Today"

For fans of: A Day to Remember, Linkin Park, One Ok Rock

Here's my review:

My knowledge of Japanese five-piece Coldrain was fairly restricted prior to giving their brand new seventh album “Nonnegative” its first spin. I’d seen the name around the traps since the mid-2010’s but had never taken the plunge to explore what they had to offer which is mainly due to the circles that they seem to reside in. The idea of the alt-metalcore sound is often more of a deterrent than it is an attraction for me but there are certainly examples that have surprised me over the years. In saying that, I wasn’t even aware that Coldrain had a new album out until Andi put it forward for the monthly The Gateway feature release but I like to keep an open mind no matter what style or subgenre I’m listening to so I went in with my ears open & keen to be surprised. It's fair to say that surprised I was from the first few seconds of “Nonnegative” too.

You see, the sound that Coldrain are pushing here is amongst the most pop driven I’ve experienced in metal music to date. The characteristics of metal music are all there & I never found myself questioning the band’s credentials for inclusion at Metal Academy but if I'm being honest I have to admit that my first couple of listens were spent battling with my own internal prejudices. We get bubblegum pop hooks galore here & literally every song could be a single or a stadium anthem. Honestly, I wouldn’t even blink if I saw Kelly Clarkson singing one of these song on a Sunday morning talk-show. I particularly struggled with the gang-style backing vocals early on but the production is suitably big & glossy & there could be no denying the quality of the vocal harmonies employed by front man Masato whose delivery reminds me very much of Chester Bennington from Linkin Park.

It’s interesting that “Nonnegative” seems to be tagged as both Alternative Metal & Metalcore because the latter of the two tags is inaccurate in my opinion. There are certainly metalcore influences across a lot of the tracklisting but the majority of the material sits miles further over to the Alternative Metal side of the equation. There is a clear punk component but the thing is that it’s a gross injustice to say that an album like this one has anything to do with hardcore punk as it honestly couldn’t get further away from that scene. The punk influence is much more focused on pop punk bands like Blink 182 & there’s absolutely no connection to the likes of Converge or Knocked Loose. I think the fairest outcome is to say that it’s an Alternative Metal release with Melodic Metalcore influences as the sporadic use of metalcore vocals & breakdowns needs to be highlighted somewhere, just not in the primary genre-tagging.

In saying all that though, it’s interesting that I actually find the more metalcore focused moments to be the album’s weakest points. They simply sound so generic & immature. Although the pop hooks are particularly cheesy, there can be no doubt that they’re well done & that repeat listens see them digging their teeth in on the stronger material. For example, my first couple of listens saw me labelling the ballad “Boys & Girls” as the clear low point of the album but by listen four I’d turned that opinion all the way around to it now being the highlight of the album. The guitar solos are really well executed too but at the end of the day I find myself thinking that “Nonnegative” is a pop metal release that’s not really intended for a metal audience. It’s got much stronger ties with commercial radio & a teenage market that craves the simple vocal hooks of the pop charts. I mean there's even a No Doubt cover version included here for fuck's sake & it's not half bad to tell you the truth. Time will tell whether Coldrain ever achieve the commercial success that they are so clearly targeting but in the meantime I think my time with them might be done because, even though there are no complete abortions on offer, I only really enjoyed about 40% of this album with the rest taking me a little too far outside of my musical comfort zone.

For fans of Linkin Park, I Prevail & Wovenwar.

P.S. What the fuck is with the ridiculously cheap cover "art"?? If you're gonna create something this commercially marketable then surely it would be better served by a glossy & attractive cover to draw people in, wouldn't it?

My interactions with coldrain have been limited due to the Gateway spheres I frequent being slightly more on the progressive side. But I have heard plenty of tunes from this band thanks to the many song recommendations for monthly playlists. And in all honesty, I might have liked this band more during the 2000s as opposed to discovering them in the late 2010s. Their brand of melodic metalcore is fairly generic and the alternative leanings such as melodic songwriting sounds formulaic.

Case in point, the bands newest album, Nonnegative. When coldrain isn't directly ripping off older bands such as Slipknot on "Cut Me", Parkway Drive/Shadows Fall with "From Today", and a laundry list of chug-chug-chug metalcore bands on "Rabbit Hole", these tunes just are not that interesting. The album might have a decent guitar melody from time to time, but the vocals just feel forced and lacking in emotive drive. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the No Doubt cover of "Don't Speak", which, while not a great song in its own right, Gwen's vocals were timid and hushed as the protagonist goes through a breakup. The vocalist of coldrain doesn't seem to have a problem singing like the lead singer of a power metal band here, creating a weird dichotomy; not just between the vocals and the lyrics, but the instrumentals as well.

It all leaves me with a feeling of nothingness because I've heard all of this before...twenty years ago. coldrain's newest album does not do anything interesting to its influences, and when it does it isn't very good. It's attempts at alternative metalcore are met with a resounding "meh" from me as I have heard plenty of newer artists (i.e. Spiritbox, Bad Omens) and even older groups like Northlane growing the sound beyond the Of Mice and Men and The Devil Wears Prada's of the world. At least when BABYMETAL came out of the new J-rock scene, it was something new and got people talking. Maybe coldrain don't want to be BABYMETAL and that's fine and they will find their audience. But a well oiled machine has to keep moving, and coldrain are still stuck on ten year old technology.

5/10