Blinded Colony - Bedtime Prayers

Published Feb. 02 2007

*=Staff's pick	My Halo Bedtime Prayers* Once Bitter Twice Shy Need Revelation, Now!* 21st Century Holocaust* Aaron's Sons In Here Heart

Genre	Melodic Death Metal	Johan Schuster	Vocals
Tracks	10	Tobias Olsson	Guitar
Runningtime	36 Min.	Johan Blomström	Guitar
Label	Pivotal Recordings	Roy Erlandsson	Bass
Release	03 Jan. 2007	Staffan Franzén	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	In Flames, Soilwork

Normally, the album cover should not matter much in a review. But with Bedtime Prayers it kind of illustrates the whole experience. It shows a narrow, unfurnished room (or rather cell) without windows. There we see a child in checked shirt huddling down writing 'God' over and over again on the floor. The room is extremely grey in different nuances. The only things giving colour to the picture are the child's shirt and some red locks in its hair. At the top of that it looks like someone has poured some liquid on the picture, creating a moist damage. It looks very American influenced. It looks very 2000's mainstream-brutal metal. It looks depressing.

Now you know pretty much how it sounds as well. Take Come Clarity and… yeah, there you go. Blinded Colony adds nothing at all which makes them stand out as a band with their own specific identity. Johan Schuster screams, sings and shouts pretty okay, but that combination has also been done several times before, both better and worse. It is aggressive, yet not with an attitude. The production is modern, in the sense of boring and mainstream. Still, if you like In Flames of today, you will probably be able to take this to your heart as well. I just want to take that kid out of the room, out in the fresh spring air and perhaps give him/her some anti-depressives.

The songs are not that bad, just a bit unvaried. Bedtime Prayers, Revelation, Now! and 21st Century Holocaust is a bit above average. But as a whole there are not enough hooks to keep up my interest through the nine tracks and 36 minutes. And that is not a very long time after all.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	4	5	5	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - David