photos by Chris Schanz
Today, No Clean Singing is hosting an exclusive premiere of “The Clockwork Grip,” the raging new track from Seattle crossover quintet COLONY DROP. The song serves as the latest single preceding the band’s debut album, Brace For Impact, nearing August release on Nameless Grave Records.
United in rebellion in the seedy underbelly of a technological megalopolis, COLONY DROP strikes like an assassin’s blade—with speed, precision, and style. Written in hermetic seclusion with pugilistic discipline, Brace For Impact is a testament to the songwriting-first ethos that made metal great in the first place: catchy riffs, vocal hooks, blistering solos, and no bullshit. Their Brace For Impact debut is a true album in the classic style: eleven knockout punches, each with its own distinct identity, each catchy enough to be a single. Together, they paint a kaleidoscopic picture of a mechanized future using sounds from rock’s glorious past. As the title suggests, Brace For Impact is a clear statement of intent: COLONY DROP is here to bring back the guillotine and watch your strongholds fall.
Brace For Impact delivers eleven tracks recorded and engineered by Nicholas Wilbur at The Unknown Studios and by Ryan Moon at Buster Room Recordings, and mixed and mastered by Alex Farrar at Drop Of Sun Studios. With logo art by Emily McCafferty and photography by Chris Schanz, this grandiose vision of the techno-apocalypse is reflected in Brace For Impact’s bold cover art and layout by Matt Stikker.
Vocalist Joseph Schafer states with the new track, “The first words in ‘The Clockwork Grip’ are, ‘A castle full of traps,’ and they reflect what writing the song itself was like. This is one of our first songs, and maybe it’s changed the most from the initial demo to the final version – Ryan’s first demo of it is ten years old! In keeping it fresh, we just had to keep adding more twists and turns! Performing the song itself is like dodging booby traps, with its sudden tempo shifts and multiple vocal styles. For that reason, it’s also our love letter to ‘Metroidvania’ type video games, and of course, the shredding soundtracks to the Castlevania game series have some impact on COLONY DROP’s sound. We love a good dungeon crawl, especially one with a trapdoor leading to a big ol’ boss fight at the end—hence the big breakdown during the climax!”
With the song’s premiere, No Clean Singing notes how it, “embodies the core of what makes COLONY DROP‘s stylistic whirligig so appealing — the kind of songwriting that sets a ton of hooks and then reels you in without mercy for the gutting to come. There are faster songs than this one on Brace For Impact, but none more groovesome. There’s a palpable air of hulking menace in the song’s jolting yet quickly addictive opening riff, and a visceral appeal to the lead-weighted bass lines and bare-knuckled drum punishment. The song also begins to rumble and rush like a big attacking tank as Schafer‘s gritty yells add hooks of their own, but it also spins up into episodes of glorious thrashing delirium and blazing heavy metal grandeur.”
Hear COLONY DROP’s “The Clockwork Grip” first through No Clean Singing now at THIS LOCATION.
Brace For Impact will be released August 25th on LP, CD, CS, and digital platforms. Find preorders at the Nameless Grave Records webshop HERE and Bandcamp where “Colony Drop (Brace For Impact)” and “Stand Against the World” are streaming HERE.
Stand by for additional previews of the album and more to post over the weeks ahead.
COLONY DROP is booking live excursions surrounding the release of the album, having just played with Deathgrave, deathCAVE, and others, and with a show supporting Yob, Ludicra, Helms Alee, and more on the way. See currently secured gigs below and watch for updates to be issued.
COLONY DROP Live:
9/01/2023 The Spanish Ballroom – Tacoma, WA w/ Yob, Ludicra, Helms Alee
Though their sound is rooted in thrash, COLONY DROP swears allegiance to no singular genre or style. The group rejects contemporary metal’s quantized tedium and pizza party purists’ navel-gazing nostalgia in favor of a no-holds-barred approach. Instead, Brace For Impact celebrates its members’ diverse passions. Stoner doom, D-beat crust, melodic death metal, classic prog, post-punk, NWOBHM, and Japanese Burning Spirits-style hardcore are some of the flavors COLONY DROP brazenly explores in their musicianship and storytelling.
Formed in 2019, COLONY DROP built their sound around the shredding guitars of Benjamin Burton and Ryan Moon (Turian), whose complementary-yet-distinct solo styles hearken back to the tradition of dueling duos: Hanneman/King, Denner/Shermann, and even Downing/Tipton. The pummeling rhythm section of drummer Eric Harris and bassist Ari Rosenschein (Stahv) supports their fretboard pyrotechnics, hence the band’s motto: “High Speed, Twin Lead.” Vocalist Joseph Schafer’s electric growl delivers a litany of sci-fi nightmares and countercultural anthems inspired by the weird fiction of authors including China Mieville, as well as classic anime like Mobile Suit: Gundam, from which the band derives its name.
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