Colours

It’s hard to imagine a band straying further from its roots than Colours. What started as a five-piece Christian screamo band has turned into a two-piece electronic boy band.

Kyle Tamo and Morgan Alley both come from metalcore band Burden of a Day. In 2010, the whole band switched gears and began working on what turned out to be Colours’ EP Skin and Bones, released in 2013. Since then, only Tamo and Alley have stuck together, and traded Burden of a Day’s ear-piercing battle screams for ivory-smooth vocals. The result? Electronic music with dark undercurrents and a vocal control that can only be gained from playing in a band that requires full-throttle screaming.

The Florida-based duo has such pretty vocals you might conclude that they’re here to bring the boy band back–and they’ve already started with the release of their debut album Ivory in February.

Don’t worry; the vocals/ drum duo isn’t like One Direction or even more socially acceptable Hanson, but a stripped-down version that trades in lovesick rhymes for sludgy, driving electronic beats. They combine the falsetto-friendly, anti-vibrato vocals of Zayn Malik or Justin Bieber, but with the dark electronic pulses of The Weeknd.

They’ve been compared to Purity Ring and Crosses, and while these comparisons point astutely to their driving, electronic, dark aspects, to discount their vocals is to sell them short. This becomes especially true when you compare them to the days when they screamed lyrics like, “With vengeance we could light the flame.” »

– Sophia June