Metal Underground.com

Gothic metal is something that's either really good or really bad. While Cold Colours call themselves a mix between goth metal and progressive metal, they come across as something equivalent to a poor man’s Amorphis. On its third full length release, “Anno MMIX,” the band touches on a few worth-while ideas musically but drop the ball whenever vocals make an appearance.

Every song on this short mini-album has something to offer musically. While it’s nothing complex or groundbreaking, and is honestly quite generic at moments, there are also spurts of infectious melodies and some rather decent guitar work. The best example of this can be found within the track “Daylight.” While again it comes across as being a much lesser version of Amorphis or Daylight Dies, it is by far the strongest track on the disc and showcases the band’s ability for writing a catchy song.

Like mentioned above what kills this band is the vocal work. While the growls are simply average at best they do fit with the overall style of the music, but it is the clean signing that hurts this album so much. On every song, as soon as the off-key clean signing makes its appearance the track instantly takes a nose dive into complete mediocrity. Even the better songs on the album are knocked down a few steps from the atrocious clean vocal sections. The band may even know that the clean vocals are nothing to be excited for, as they are often layered behind death growls, but the poor quality breaks through each and every time.

While "Anno MMIX" suffers from quite a few production issues, as well as some quality problems on part of the band members, it is really not as bad as it seems. Fans of older My Dying Bride and that particular style of gothic metal should actually enjoy this release much more than the casual listener. "Daylight" and "Redemption" provide some of the disc's better cuts and the closer "Lost Inside" also contains some cool moments. For those that prefer the more melancholy and dark side of metal, this album might be the right fit for you.