SilentScream213 Living Colour emerged with a highly original sound and conscious, politically charged lyrics that as of then had not been prominent in Metal. Simple yet extremely catchy and funky riffage carries the somewhat repetitive songs along as Glover’s fantastic voice and words drive them home. The subject matter ranges from razor sharp critiques of social injustice to introspective, passionate longing, all done very effectively. The album is rather eclectic, and the band showcases their ability to shift between hard hitting Metal anthems and slow, funky bluesy numbers, touching on numerous styles in between.

Vivid is effectively one of the first Funk Metal albums ever recorded, with only Faith No More’s Introduce Yourself coming earlier, though this album is a more fully realized representation of the genre.

Warthur Like the preceding Time's Up, Living Colour's Stain doesn't quite deliver up a standout song on the level of the anthemic Cult of Personality, and like Time's Up it adds even more thrash metal influence to the band's funk and jazz-tinged metal foundations. In fact, the dial on the harder-edged and darker influences is dialled up enough to elevate the album above Time's Up somewhat - whilst there's no smash hit on there, there's also a substantially higher level of quality overall, and in terms of the heaviness and complexity of the material involved they aren't quite as enamoured of technical complexity as jazz-death outfits like Atheist were at the time, but they wouldn't be embarrassed sharing a stage with them either.

Warthur Living Colour's Time's Up finds the pioneering funk metal unit steering further into more experimental turf. The upshot of this is that there's no one standout hit here like Cult of Personality was for the debut album, but the album is worth digging deep into if you are keen on the idea of funk and jazz/fusion influences being combined with a metal approach.

There's just a pinch of thrash influence here too, enough so that whilst they never quite cross the line into the sort of jazz-death metal that the likes of Atheist were pioneering at around this time, at the same time the two bands could easily have opened for each other and it wouldn't have been entirely incongruous. Both, after all, were attempting to combine the technical complexity and chops of jazz with the power and force of metal - it's just that Living Colour had a bit more of a funky approach to the experiment.

Warthur Regardless of whether you were in on the Living Colour bandwagon from the beginning or came to them late because you happened to hear Cult of Personality used as CM Punk's entrance music, there's no denying that Vivid delivers exactly what its title promises: a bright, vibrant new musical sound.

Taking funk metal a bit further than fellow pioneers like Faith No More had managed and adding a few honest-to-goodness jazz fusion influences allowed Living Colour to achieve a sound that's truly ahead of its time; I was astonished to discover that this came out in 1988 when it sounds like it'd have been just as fresh and new had it come out any time in the coming decade. With socially conscious lyrics matched with excellent musicianship, Living Colour's debut might start flagging towards the end, and the rest of the album never quite hits the heights of Cult of Personality - but I'd describe that as a five-star song leading off a solidly three-and-a-half to four-star album.

siLLy puPPy Six long years after their previous albums and 20 years after their debut, LIVING COLOUR finally got around to releasing their fifth studio album THE CHAIR IN THE DOORWAY in 2009 on their new label Megaforce Records. On board are three original members found on their debut “Vivid” including Corey Clover on vocals, Vernon Reid on guitar and Will Calhoun on drums. Only bassist Doug Wimbish is a newer part of the band but has a rock n funk bass style that really adds to the overall sound the band is going for. Known for their unique brand of alternative metal riffing with nice funk and jazz elements, CHAIR IN THE DOORWAY sees the band not steering too far away from what started all the way back on “Vivid.” LIVING COLOUR is one of those bands that seems to be getting better as time goes on and these tracks have never sounded tighter or more sprinkled with interesting “COLOURS.”

LIVING COLOUR has always been a hit and miss band for me. I find every album worth owning for each contains some excellent and exciting tracks but each contains a bunch of duds as well. On THE CHAIR IN THE DOORWAY i feel the band has finally conjured up a strong batch of songs that are for the most part well constructed, respectably performed while not deviating from their standard brand of alternative metal riffs with nice funky grooves accented with Reid’s slightly dissonant soloing technique and Corey Clover’s instantly recognizable singing style.

Despite the improved consistency in their songwriting skills, what really keeps this album from being rated much higher is the awful production. While i have been reading that it is pretty bad, i find these claims to often be exaggerated at least for my tolerance level. In this case all the criticism is true indeed. This album is paper thin in the production department. It sounds like one of those cheap substandard stereo system where one of the speakers is not working resulting in a very tinny mono type of sound. It ends up feeling hollow and seriously lacking in bite.

While i have to admit that i do have a weak spot for lo-fi black metal, this is not something that i can honestly say i had in mind! The music in this case truly deserves a much better rendering as to make the brilliancy shine. Also worth mentioning is that although their are 11 tracks listed on the packaging there are two hidden tracks. Track 12 is an annoying 4:33 of silence (i HATE these!!!!) and track 13 is a catchy bluesy number called “Asshole.” A would be 4 star album robbed a half a star for the unacceptable production. Masterpieces in production can be created in a bathroom with meager amounts of affordable machinery these days for fuck’s sake. What happened here? I still enjoy the music despite it all but a major disappointment to say the least.