Cold SnapAll Our Sins

Did anybody know Croatia does metal? You do now. Four albums, 15 years, and crawling callously beyond the confines of their homeland for wider reaches of recognition, Cold Snap know how to get nice and gnarly and offer up All Our Sins for the chop.

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There’s more licks of electro trance to be appreciated than you can shake a stick at and in serving as the undercurrent for the album’s first voluptuous half, means All Our Sins does initially come across more alien metal than anything–it’s like E.T. on speed and as Cold Snap aren’t sparing any effort, it’s an interesting experience.

It’s a mixed bag of tricks from Cold Snap–metalcore, nu-metal, modern metal

Cold Snap would have done really well to retain the idea throughout All Our Sins, standing out among their better-known contemporaries with some potentially game-changing sounds, but by Witness Of Your Sickness, techno underruns are gone, the rhythm steers more toward that of a pirate shanty, and the melodies and narrative often lack coherence. The bam, smack, and pow effect with which Cold Snap showed promise is washed away.  

It’s a mixed bag of tricks from Cold Snap–metalcore, nu-metal, modern metal–and while it’s great to see bands marching out and bravely attempting to dominate with new ideas, it might be better to first clear the fog in the style so we can discern a direction.

STAND OUT TRACKS: Nothing, Demons, Distance
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Soulfly, Blind Guardian, Lamb Of God