Review by Daniel for Coldrain - Nonnegative (2022)

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?