{"id":290892,"date":"2026-02-10T17:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/290892\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:56:08","slug":"bloodred-colours-of-pain-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/290892\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloodred – Colours of Pain Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Seeing an album described as \u201cblackened death metal\u201d almost always gets my juices flowing. The problem with that tag, however, is that it can mean anything from weird avant-garde blackened dissodeath (yuck) to Christcrushing necronuclear Blasphemy-worshipping goat metal (fukk yeah!!). But Bloodred are neither of those things. This German band is technically a duo but is really more like the solo project of vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Ron Merz, who\u2019s been enlisting the talents of drummer Joris Nijenhuis (ex-Atrocity, ex-Leaves\u2019 Eyes) since the band\u2019s first releases back in the mid-2010s. I admittedly hadn\u2019t heard of these guys when I saw their name crop up in our promo bin, but I decided to give their back catalog a whirl when I saw Amon Amarth was tagged as a similar artist on Encyclopedia Metallum. It turns out that comparison isn\u2019t entirely off the mark, as the group\u2019s three prior albums generally do sound like a band capitalizing on Amon Amarth\u2019s more epic moments while increasing the black metal influence and stripping away a lot of the melody.<\/p>\n

With fourth album Colours of Pain, Ron has again kept himself within the blackened death sphere, this time by producing what\u2019s essentially a modern black metal album that still contains enough variety and heavier flourishes to keep it from being trapped solely within that genre\u2019s confines. Roughly half the songs here are similar to the opener, \u201cAshes,\u201d which faintly recalls Satyricon in how it bobs forward on rocking rhythms that support Ron\u2019s wretched, raspy growls and headnod-worthy riffs. The song is a decent tune with guitar-work that\u2019s clear and assertive, if somewhat unremarkable. Of the other songs in this style, \u201cMindvirus\u201d and the closer, \u201cResist,\u201d are the best of the bunch, with snappy mid-tempo drumming and catchy, \u201criding to war\u201d riffs that are sure to earn them a spot on my future jogging playlists. In much of the record\u2019s second half, things drift more into post-black metal territory, with tracks like \u201cDeath Machine\u201d using slightly slower passages, flashes of melody, and high-register guitars to conjure the melodrama of stuff like Woods of Desolation.<\/p>\n

On paper, Colours of Pain seems to be a pretty diverse set of songs. Yet, somehow, it still comes across as oddly homogenous. In part, this issue may be caused by Joris\u2019s drumming: While I enjoy the man\u2019s beats, I wouldn\u2019t call his performance particularly dynamic, with much of the album cruising pleasantly along at a similar tempo. As a result, many of the songs end up having a similar overall feel, even when the underlying riffing is quite different. The blame is not solely his, however. While Ron employs some decent riffs here, he never delivers anything that truly grabs you by the balls, resulting in an album that requires a decent amount of undivided attention to reveal its charms. The production has a clear and balanced sound that reminds me of Art of Propaganda signees like Harakiri for the Sky, which works for Bloodred\u2019s style but exacerbates the album\u2019s homogeneity a bit by coming across just a touch too loud and clean for me.<\/p>\n

\"\"Despite these shortcomings, Colours of Pain remains an enjoyable release overall, and its highlights become increasingly apparent with repeated listens. The title track, for instance, shifts between a nice shuffling, mid-tempo riff and more traditional black metal hammering, resulting in a cool song that sounds something like a socially-conscious version of Belphegor. \u201cHeretics\u201d is another good cut, featuring an odd sidewinding riff and a particularly combative tremolo line. The backing operatic vocals in \u201cWinds of Oblivion\u201d and the climax of \u201cAshes\u201d are also a nice touch, with the former track also serving as one of the album\u2019s only true \u201cslow\u201d songs (making it a perfect lead-up to the boisterous closer, \u201cResist\u201d).<\/p>\n

Colours of Pain is the type of album that you can put on for any extreme metal fan, and while they may not love it, they almost certainly won\u2019t hate it. Although initial impressions suggest an album that\u2019s too inoffensive for its own good, repeat listens reveal a record with enough quality ideas and variety to keep it from being just extreme metal elevator music. What\u2019s more, a perusal of Bloodred\u2019s website shows that Ron seems quite passionate about the music he makes and the politically tinged lyrics that color these songs. In all, if you\u2019re looking for a modern extreme metal album that goes down easy, you could do far worse.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

Rating: 3.0\/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Massacre Records<\/a>
Websites: bloodred.bandcamp.com<\/a> | bloodredband.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/bloodredofficial<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seeing an album described as \u201cblackened death metal\u201d almost always gets my juices flowing. The problem with that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23197,5809,139337,139338,28492,45894,139339,139340,139341,5810,93,135858,5812,139342,61,60,139343,278,563,564,87865,139344],"class_list":{"0":"post-290892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-23197","9":"tag-3-0","10":"tag-amon-amarth","11":"tag-belphegor","12":"tag-black-metal","13":"tag-blackened-death-metal","14":"tag-blasphemy","15":"tag-bloodred","16":"tag-colours-of-pain","17":"tag-death-metal","18":"tag-entertainment","19":"tag-feb26","20":"tag-german-metal","21":"tag-harakiri-for-the-sky","22":"tag-ie","23":"tag-ireland","24":"tag-massacre-records","25":"tag-music","26":"tag-review","27":"tag-reviews","28":"tag-satyricon","29":"tag-woods-of-desolation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}