Band:	Kolony
Album:	Sledge
Style:	Heavy metal, Power metal
Release date:	November 14, 2014
A review by:	Doc G.

01. I Realize
02. The Trial
03. Trust & Live
04. Echoes
05. Modern Hero
06. Anthem
07. Escape
08. I Don't Care
09. Road
10. Monopoly
11. Sledge That Shit

Have you ever listened to one of those albums where it's quite clear one member of the band gives significantly less shits than everyone else around him/her? That's Kolony's Sledge in a nutshell.

Granted, as a whole, Sledge isn't any mind blowing game changer, it's for the most part a satisfying North American heavy/power metal. Picture a less Euro-sounding, poor man's Sonata Arctica. Decent enough hooks, riffs and melodies, once again, nothing amazing, but done solidly enough.

So who isn't pulling their weight? You may have guessed it - the lead vocalist. I imagine he's going for a sort of Tony Kakko sound, but it frequently comes across as a less talented Iced Earth-era Stu Block. What happens here is a classic pitfall so many bands make; it sounds like they're building the music around the vocals/lyrics...Which wouldn't be all too bad if the vocals had more than one sound. No, I'm not even asking for that clean-mixed-with-growls approach here, just any variation at all. Seriously, the vocal delivery is so close to being identical with each song, you could probably go into the master tapes, swap the vocal tracks between any of these songs and none would be the wiser.

Luckily, Sledge ends on a high(er) note. The final two tracks have enough variation and depth within the music, it's able to stand above the boring vocal delivery. "Monopoly" sounds like something off of Finntroll's Blodsvept, while "Sledge That Shit" is an all-out rager that ends with some great Keep Of Kalessin-style riff-work.

Two noteworthy tracks, found at the bottom of the album...Sorry, Kolony, but having to wait 38 minutes for something interesting to happen is a bit much to swallow.