Painted Black
Cold Comfort

Painted black, what kind of name is that? The artwork looks a bit AORish with a girl lying in bed in her cold comfort but as I know that the promotion company for this album does not deal in AOR I was quite certain that was not the case, the artwork and logo still looked promising for it being something interesting. The band is from portugal and by releasing the debut album Cold Comfort in digital format they are hoping to reach the bigger audiences that they didn’t reach with the physical despite great reception from the press and so on. So you see, it would appear that the album was being released in digital form september 2011 so I was not as lazy at it would first appear even though this album did manage to slip under the radar for a while since I’ve had it since september and it was only in the last three weeks I have started to take it up and listen to it for this review.

I read somewhere that this was doom metal which might be considered a viable genre to place this album in, gothic metal is another one similar in style to bands like Tiamat or maybe HIM if you want some names to compare with. Some elements of death metal in the growls as well, I do think a band like Tiamat is a good comparison to be honest. I think the atmosphere with an air of melancholy is one of the leading features of this album, maybe it is the mood that is painted black? The album has eight tracks and it plays for around 55 minutes, the variation is one on a theme, not overly varied but the album contains some variation over these 55 minutes.

But what about the album in quality then? The reception has been good amongst the internet reviewers, the texts don’t reflect the scores in these reviews but that is another matter. I think a reason for the high ratings is that the album is quite easily accessible with its uncomplicated musical compositions and sense of melancholy. The music is dark and melancholic with good melodies and an overall good musical feel, it is an album that enjoy listening to because of this refreshing melancholy. Even though I enjoy this album and have played it for fourteen times the last three days I still cannot really recall any of the songs of this album and that is despite the fact that I think it is a good album.

There are some pieces of the puzzle fitted together in a less than ideal way, it is the songs I am talking about. Otherwise this album is great in all ways, the melodies and the atmosphere is brilliant, the sense of melancholy that they convey with this album is also very good and had they only managed to do the same thing with the songs I would say that this album would have been something really interesting, now it is a very good debut album and also a good album in most ways.

So, in the end I like this album, the atmosphere, the melancholy, the great vocalist, are all very powerful positive elements for this album. An album that has been well received by the internet reviewers and in part rightly so, easily accessible doom/goth metal with great atmosphere is what it is. I just wish that there could have been one or two really memorable songs on this album because that would have made such a difference to the overall feel of this album, it is still a good album despite it not having a real memorable song but not as great as it could have been. I think though that saying this is a good debut album is a good judgement over this album.

The debut of Painted Black, Cold Comfort is an album that promises quite a lot more than it delivers but that doesn’t mean it delivers a quality album but maybe not as high a quality as it could have been.