Colour Revolt
, which, despite the British spelling in its name, is from Mississippi, begins its self-titled debut EP with
"Blood in Your Mouth,"
a song that leads off with a
Bob Dylan
-style harmonica and an acoustic guitar to accompany
Jesse Coppenbarger
's throaty, expressive singing. Before long, however, the band has revved up behind the guitars of
Jimmy Cajoleas
and
Sean Kirkpatrick
, and
is sounding more like a
hard rock
/
heavy metal
outfit than a
folk-rock
one. The other song titles, including
"Mattresses Underwater"
"Our Homes Are Graves,"
suggest that the band's music has been affected by Hurricane Katrina, which forced the musicians to find a new recording space. But
Coppenbarger
, whose vocals are often allowed to reach distortion volume in the mix, seems to have more general concerns in mind. "Ash to ash and dust to dust, we're all gonna die, so we have to trust something, though it might be nothing," he and his bandmates harmonize in
"Mattresses Underwater,"
which turns out to be the disc's most delicate number, but, he adds paradoxically and defiantly, "It's gotta be something."
"A New Family"
is another ballad with angst-filled lyrics, and the foreboding seems to break in the last three songs, which find the band letting loose, as
begins shouting himself hoarse. On the basis of its first recordings,
doesn't seem to have figured out what sort of
rock
band it wants to be yet, or maybe it's just too ambitious to settle for a single path. ~ William Ruhlmann