Give me all the colors all at once

By Manuel Gemperli

I’m in a perpetual state of searching for the next record to fall in love with. The most romantic way to find your new favorite album is obviously flipping through bins at an actual record store, but since you don’t always have a record store handy, alternatives are needed. One way is to read blogs and zines, watch videos or listen to podcasts by fellow music nerds who recommend new or classic albums (like us for instance). This fills up a (to some people) ridiculous amount of my me-time. Another option I love is flipping through Bandcamp. It’s the closest digital cousin to a brick-and-mortar store. The fact that there is no algorithm forcing me in a narrow corner of essentially the same stuff I heard a million times over seems almost anachronistic at this point. When I go to the – say – metal section I will see the same list of album covers you see. And at first glance I see the same information as if I was flipping through a physical bin: just the covers. 

The other day, as I was bored out of my mind at a playground with my young son (if you have kids, I know you don’t judge me), I was searching for a little joy in my right ear in the form of some exciting new music. Based solely on its cover art, I checked out Defect Designer’s “Depressants”. It depicts some sort of industrial smokestack shooting out all kinds of colors. Looked promising. And I wasn’t disappointed. Colorful might be the most fitting single word to characterize this record. It bursts of ideas. Stylistically, it would probably be best described as some sort of tech prog death metal, just way more vibrant and fun than most records in this genre. In its weirdness they still find grooves, catchiness, emotions, even some swagger at times. It’s not just weird for weirdness’ sake, not just a showoff of technical skills. And – what surprise – it turns out you can be “progressive” without making every song 17 minutes long. I love records that keep surprising me, records that entertain. And this is one of them. I’ve listened to it countless times and I keep noticing new details. Highly recommended to all adventurous metal fans who also like fun and have a sense of humor. Sometimes, I like it black. But sometimes, give me all the colors all at once. 

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Flip through the Defect Designer bin at our store right here