Colour Haze
Los Sounds De Krauts
4.2
This review will attempt to answer the burning question, “Who the hell are Colour Haze and why the hell should I care?” I will also attempt to keep it short, sweet, and to the point, as there really isn’t a whole lot to say about the double album Los Sounds de Krauts.
Colour Haze are, in simplest terms, a stoner rock band in the vein of Clutch, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, and Queens of the Stone Age (although definitely not as slick as the latter). They cover both ends of the spectrum here: short blasts of rock-n-roll fury, and long, drawn out “jam” songs – plus everything in between (long and fast, short and slow, or all in one). I for one prefer the faster stuff. Opener “I Won’t Stop” clocks in at just over 8 minutes of fuzzy, uptempo rock with some of the standard stoner noodling thrown in. This formula continues for the next few tracks before the first “epic” pops up, the 11-minute “Plazmakeks”, drudging along at a slower pace, and occasionally feeling like it’s going to explode into some serious fury, but never does (in true stoner fashion). Once this track completes, you’ve pretty much heard everything you’re going to hear out of this band. Not necessarily repetitive, but they don’t stick with one style long enough to lure you into the album (like the stereotypical stoner attention span), nor differentiate themselves from the aforementioned bands to stop you from making comparisons. The only real standout track here is the barnburning second disc track “Other Side”, but even that is more likely to raise the urge to pop in a Clutch CD than anything else.
Diehard fans of the genre are likely to eat this album up simply because it encompasses everything that the genre stands for. People who only dabble in stoner rock are more likely to pass this up in favor of one of the bands they already know. That I’ve mentioned those bands so often should also say something about the staying power of Los Sounds de Krauts.
In closing, to soundly answer the question, Colour Haze are a run-of-the-mill stoner rock band, and only your passion for the genre can answer whether or not you’ll care.
