REVIEW ROUND-UP: Nevertel, Colorblind, Spite House

Nevertel

Start Again

It’s little surprise that Sleep Theory’s Cullen Moore features on this album. His band are the acting figureheads of radio-rock’s new wave that, if they’re output is anything to go by, Nevertel are all too desperate to be welcomed among. It’s also a good way of proving that this isn’t an album from, like, 2016, so there’s that, too. Yep, it’s another one of those—alt-metal that rubs up against radio-rock, with a bit of hip-hop to curry favour from the all-audience Linkin Park fans, tied in a bow by a canny TikTok stim-pack. And after about a decade of it…yeah, it’s getting just a bit tired now.

So, what exactly do Nevertel wish to achieve with Start Again that others can’t? That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? After all, their slow, desaturated palette and superficially ‘epic’ style are the sword and shield of every radio-core band, wielded with no more or less finesse here. And also like all the rest, Nevertel inexplicably land upon some good moments through it. The quicker tempo of Criminal really works as an opener proper, and brushing upon alt-rock and grunge for Playground produces an earworm that’s so sticky, the gratuitous, pointless AutoTune kind of just sinks down into it. In general, though, Start Again ends up with precious little. Its approach to size and construction of a modern-rock formula almost feels pre-packaged, like every composite part is perfectly sculpted piece designed to fill its role. That’s not a compliment, by the way.

To that end, of course the guitars aren’t at all fiery or weighty, and trying to truffle out a bassline (significant or otherwise) for the most part is a lost cause. It’s listenable and agreeable, but never to a state where Nevertel embody more vehement descriptors than ‘listenable’ and ‘agreeable’. They actively take a greater blow when the rapping kicks in, as Raul Lopez has the exact tone of an MC who thinks they’re far more gifted with rhymes than they actually are. His flows could be worse, but they’re still painfully simplistic, and any time a beat comes in, there’s a wash of dated energy that leaks its way out. This isn’t contemporary or forward-thinking; instead, it makes Nevertel look as though they don’t have a single idea of their own.

Let’s ask the question again, then—what do Nevertel wish to achieve with Start Again that others can’t? Honestly, no clue. There’s no freshness here, or any sense that Nevertel have even considered developing a style of their own. Hell, they don’t even need that; Sleep Theory are on this very album, and their whole deal is going above and beyond with the hooks and feel of the normal radio-rock sound. Nevertel might put out the idea that they’re shooting for the moon, but stack them against their many, many contemporaries and forebears, and they feel so small and unimpressive. Unless your life’s work is to systematically catalogue every single band who sounds like this (in which case…have a word with yourself), you’re not missing much with Start Again.

For fans of: Sleep Theory, Rain City Drive, Archers

‘Start Again’ by Nevertel is our now on Epitaph Records.

---

Colorblind

Who Sold You This Truth

It’s been a while since we’ve had a real squeaker of a pop / post-hardcore frontman raise his head (or have it float up, heliumated). Perhaps Colorblind’s Travis Moseley never got the memo that Sleeping With Sirens have been squirrelled away into irrelevance now, or that singers trying to fill Kellin Quinn’s probably-too-tight shoes rarely see the returns they want. They’re usually fine, but if there were a moment that Sleeping With Sirens even felt close to capturing a cultural zeitgeist, none have replicated it. Throw Colorblind onto that list, then; they’re also fine, without a lot (if anything) extending past that.

Still, if you’re going to compared a band like Colorblind with other the generic morass of consensus-driven alt-metal in the scene, the one that can commandeer a solid hook is always coming out on top. Car Crash has a genuinely good pop-rock chorus keeping it upright, and while it’s easily Colorblind’s best used up at this EP’s very front, at least Moseley’s expressiveness comes through on Needle Eye and Let Down. Plus, there’s even a bit of variety to shuffle him apart from the group, namely a vocal range that seems to operate on the strict binary of a taut upper register and a growl at the entirely opposite end. Even with a song called Car Crash on here, nothing induces more whiplash than an on-the-spot plummet from one to the other, like on Let Down or God Complex.

Beyond that…well, it is one of these; you take the rough with the smooth, regardless of whether a single sound on here can truly be classified as ‘rough’. The overpowering production is the main takeaway from Who Sold You This Truth, manifested as edgeless pop-metal clouds on Misery Loves Company and Neversleep, or at the start of Car Crash, a canned beat that gates off everything behind it and ensures you’ll remember nothing before the first chorus. God Complex seeks to end things on a heavier note, which Colorblind are…okay at, but it’s also a completely perfunctory move that’s little more than an alt-metal concession. It’s not an impressive ‘pivot’ when a) they aren’t a million miles away from it to begin with, and b) clones of clones can slap down the most generic permutation of it you’ve ever heard and still get a million monthly Spotify listeners.

At least when this mould belonged to Sleeping With Sirens, there was a pop flourish at their best that could have a bit of fun and whimsy. Colorblind—just like those who’ve preceded them—seem to not understand the value of that. Thus, you get music that’s big and go-for-broke with a slick finish, but with nothing beneath the surface. And in the context of the scene today, maybe that’s good enough; again, a single differentiating factor with Colorblind can be like striking gold and oil and winning the lottery all at the same time. Coming from outside of that inch-wide purview, though, it just about scrapes through as ‘okay’. That’s being (possibly unreasonably) generous, too.

For fans of: Sleeping With Sirens, Picturesque, Awaken I Am

‘Who Sold You This Truth’ by Colorblind is out now on Solid State Records / Tooth & Nail Records.

---

Spite House

Desertion

With Spite House, you get the impression that, at its core, it’s the result of Max Lajoie’s optimal form of catharsis. It’s a band born from deeply personal circumstances, namely the loss of Lajoie’s mother to cancer ten years after his father’s passing from suicide. Therefore, it’s no wonder that Desertion sounds the way it does, like the barrel-chested expulsions of Hot Water Music funnelled through a Touché Amoré-shaped process of uncut emotions via art.

It’s powerful stuff, too, in the spiritual sense and in how Spite House perfectly capture emo’s answer to a tumbling earthfall. Lajoie’s vocals are deliberately indistinct, reliant on the Chuck Ragan school of making your voice sound like a brick wall with words haphazardly chipped into it. Alongside him comes the big rush of punk guitars and bass quintessential in sending this all galloping along. It’s the familiarity that works for it—warm and homegrown, a very authentic-feeling type of music. And yeah, in Desertion’s half-hour, you’ll be struggling to find a strictly ‘new’ idea, but that’s not the point, really, is it?

It’s why Hot Water Music themselves have persisted so long and remain so enormously acclaimed. They’re just so routinely great at what they do, and Spite House seem to have successfully co-opted their approach. The inevitable gut-punches naturally rise to the top, whenever Lajoie’s voice kicks up a gear into a natural growl, or the unresolved note with which Safe Haven closes the album. But really, you only have to take in the rigour of a song like Ten Days for Desertion’s full capabilities to reveal themselves. Just as the purest form of catharsis was the catalyst for Spite House as an outfit, it’s baked in in such highly concentrated amounts.

Overall, it brings the power of Desertion even further to the surface, almost to an unmissable level now. Pushed to the fore is this combination of great musicianship (special shoutout to drummer Marc Tremblay) and unleashed turmoil that feels a lot more potent than your average alt-punk risers. It’s good stuff, and Spite House’s lack of trepidation in digging out the soul of their work is ultimately what’ll see them soar. It’s the best kind of music for a reason.

For fans of: Hot Water Music, Make Do And Mend, Anxious

‘Desertion’ by Spite House is out now on Pure Noise Records.

---

Words by Luke Nuttall