Detroit five-piece Kaleido emit masses of rock ‘n’ roll vibes in a modern manner, with flourishes of pop and soul underlying their hot-blooded tracks. May 19th lies as the release date of the groups debut full-length record Experience, featuring fourteen tracks of dynamic and exciting intensity.
They begin with the brief Intro, a radio intermission that aims to hook the listener right from the start, addressing them with a sultry declaration of “Here’s to the Kaleido experience”. Blue Collar Delight launches with plenty of energy, with Airbourne-esque guitars and vocals that sound incredibly alike to Lzzy Hale of Halestorm; together, the sounds work amicably to produce inciting styles of hard-rock individuality. The production is incredibly clean and very appealing to listen to throughout. The drums in particular, manage to come across as enticing and create a big impact whist still sounding pristine and well refined. The whole atmosphere that is embodied in the record is focused on real people and real emotions, which is easy for a large audience to be able to relate to.
They incorporate small snippets of interlude amongst the high-energy tracks, which wonderfully splits up the pace a bit and prolongs the excitement. Simply named I, II, III and IIII, the thirty second tracks serve as a breather for the listener between the action. The sounds are mixed when a slower pace is introduced in Trouble In Paradise, an individual track that brings in synths to accompany the vocals and vibrate drum tempo. It later heightens into an incredibly catchy chorus featuring guitar riffs reminiscent of Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates. There’s a strong sense of tropical, beach-esque vibes that reflect on the music video that coincides with the track.
Love & War, the first single to be debuted from the album, brings a new element to the record: as Alien Ant Farm’s Dryden Mitchell joins Christina Chriss with vocal accompaniment that works harmoniously. It helps round the album to a steady close, with the final few songs display more mellow features, a heartening alteration from the rest of the tracks. The End continues the mellow trend and brings the quintet’s debut to a relaxing close. It goes to prove that vocalist Christina has the capability to conquer many ranges during her lyrics, featuring many caramel-sweet pitches that conclude the rollercoaster album wonderfully.
Kaleido pack plenty of character in their debut, and its hugely commendable. Each track allows every member to showcase exactly what they can do and how well they collaborate as a unit overall. With enough energy to make the walls quake and such a diverse pack of tracks, the group have immense capabilities to grow even more and take on the world by storm.
8/10
For fans of: Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless, No Doubt
Words by Jess Boswell
‘Experience’ by Kaleido is released on 19th May on Luxor Records.
