Breathe In Colours is the kind of album that will completely knock you off your feet… this is a stunner if every sense. If you remember back to 2016 Dannish outfit Forever Still delivered a good album with Tied Down. The album suggested a band that was capable of delivering great things… and those great things have now come forward in the form of their brand new album, Breathe In Colours.
Listeners to the album are met with a fuzzy wall of sound as the instrumental side of ‘Rewind’ takes off, aside from the that the other thing that smacks you in the face is the amazing vocals of Maja Shining. This album shows that she now deserves to be mentioned alongside great female vocalists like Anna Murphy, Tarja Turunen and Sharon den Adel.
There is little doubt that this is a vocal led album, but the range and various styles of Shining’s vocals that makes this an album that needs to be treasured. ‘Fight!’ sees her mix up a range of melody and furious screams, ‘Is It Gone?’ takes a real Celtic flavour while the manic screams of ‘don’t let me go’ on the title track reveal that Shining is a vocalist at the very top of her game here.
The harshness of the lyrics and vocals on ‘Survive’ conjure up memories of Tura Santana as the line ‘you’re nothing but a snake’ reverberates through your skull. Even at their most harshness though there is a feeling of true heart and soul to Forever Still, perhaps because most of these tracks were written in the most simplistic of writing sessions without a full studio of equipment surrounding them.
The mixing of genres for Forever Still continues on ‘Do Your Worst’ which early on portrays a real Middle Eastern vibe before a more intense industrial metal feel comes to the forefront. Then comes one of the best tracks of 2019 in the form of ‘Pieces’ which shows real diversity with some troughs of mellow before reaching some real epic heights. Instrumentally and vocally this track is perfect.
Aside from the Shining’s vocals though it is also the willingness of the band to try so many diverse things throughout Breathe In Colours that makes the album such a standout. Somehow the band finds the right mix of aggression and melody on ‘Rising Over You’ before the slowed down electronic feel of ‘Say Your Goodbyes’ reveals the amazing talents of Shining once again. The album then closes with ‘Embrace The Tide’, another track that you simply want to listen to over and over.
So many albums have already put their hands up to get included on ‘Best Of 2019’ lists and now Forever Still have thrown one into the fray as well. This is a stunningly amazing album that may not be embraced by old school metal lovers but is an album that any lover of truly amazing vocalists must have on their shelf.
