RANDOM — Todo.s los colores del (review)

RANDOM — Todo.s los colores del album cover

Album · 2011 · Progressive Metal

4/5 · 2011-12-08
Conor Fynes

'Todo.s Los Colores Del' - Random (8/10)

The word 'random' brings to mind, a lot of mental and musical imagery. Sporadic, jagged, and even nonsensical, the word is used to describe everything that is unpredictable, uncertain, and unplanned. Now, the band Random and their music are not quite as unexpected as the name may suggest, but there are definitely more than a fair share of surprises on this debut album from the Argentinian trio. Firing from a wide range of different angles within the metal world, the verbosely titled 'Todo.s Los Colores Del' is an incredibly eclectic hour of music that surprised and even shocked me at times; but most of all, it has left me feeling very impressed by what the band has accomplished here.

'Todo.s Los Colores Del' goes through a few different stages within the course of the hour, with each section gravitating towards a different stylistic approach. Random's sound is very diverse, and throughout this album, I was hearing everything from Pantera to Tool to Meshuggah to Primus to Mr. Bungle and even The Mars Volta and Pink Floyd. Despite being a fairly newcoming act, Random has already mustered one of the most exciting sounds I've heard from a debut album this year, although most of the sounds they make here can be traced to a fairly explicit origin. Hearing such a wide range of influences thrown together was very exciting, and Random makes sure to emphasize that they don't adhere to any one trick. On the whole, there are plenty of surprises here that couldn't all be concisely touched upon, but 'Todo.s Los Colores Del's first half draws mostly from alternative metal and thrashy grooves. Some of these ideas are executed pretty strangely, with the strange electronic lead of the first song's intro played out of sync with the rest of the music being a great example. There is Gojira's heaviness here, and when the band decides to get really intense, I was hearing the sort of slap bass quirk that Primus would use. It was really exciting stuff.

The second half only gets better. Here, the band tones down their thrashy edge and gets more adventurous. There is a much greater atmospheric vibe to the music on the latter part of the album, as well as a lean towards the harsh post-metal sounds of Tool and palm muted riffs of Meshuggah. It was here where I started noticing how diverse the band really was, especially towards the middle of the album where I was hearing latin rhythms and psychedelic soloing that could easily pass for the handiwork of The Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. As far as gripes here go, the whole thing is phenomenal musically speaking, with some incredibly intense moments that impressed even someone who is now well-passed being a veteran of metal music. The album does seem to close out in a somewhat anti-climatic fashion, continuing to build up and then simply fading out quickly, which- even after listening to the album several times- still does not feel right to me. The biggest thing here that could have been a little better are actually the vocals, which at times sound perfect for whatever style they are playing in, but when the band gets heavy, I was not too impressed by the pseudo-melodic thrash vocals, which sounded out of key and therefore, very out of place on an album that consistently dazzled me on an instrumental level.

'Todo.s Los Colores Del'- suffice to say- has been a real jolt of fresh energy for me, and something that took several listens to grab me. There are a few faults here that I really hope the band deals with, but here is a real grower of a debut album, and I now eagerly anticipate what Random does next with their sound.