The Top 25 Albums Of 2021 (So Far): Drown This City - 'Colours We Won't Know'

Three EPs in, and Melbourne metallers Drown This City have shown just how far they’ve come since their juggernaut outing Alpha // Survivor back in 2019, with a resplendent third offering Colours We Won’t Know roaring to life back in May this year. Demanding attention equally for its gripping thematics and striking execution, the new EP is a ravishing entry into the ever-towering Drown This City trajectory - and one very likely to skyrocket the quintet into view beyond the underground.

Welcoming a new unclean vocalist and bassist in the form of Toby Thomas to the fold since Alpha // Survivor, while also balancing multiple Victorian lockdowns more recently, there were very little signs of Drown This City since their previous EP unfurled two years ago; but this measured hibernation ultimately saw the group come suddenly hurtling out of the gate in 2021, brandishing a finely tuned arsenal of fiery breakdowns, icy narratives, and the ever-dazzling vocal presence of frontwoman Alex Reade. Drown This City have never been ones to hide under a bushel, but this latest undertaking is utterly palpitating. 

Colours We Won’t Know takes a monumental jaunt into progressive and magnetic metalcore, with a stirring thematic underbelly heavily primed to spark empathy in even the darkest of souls. Balancing external and internal pressures of the world alongside djenty flourishes (Beyond The Glare), oscillating grit and glamour (Borderline Existence) and a cavalcade of bombastic glee (New Burn Order), it’s impossible not to get swept away by the dark yet kaleidoscopic beauty lying in wait on Colours We Won’t Know. Here, the abundance of steely ferocity may reign supreme, but it’s the added authenticity from Reade as she firmly helms intensely personal narratives amongst the sonic fire that truly sticks with you after the riffs and monstrous soundscapes subside.

A gem for the metalcore crowd, an insatiable introduction for those yet to be initiated into the heavier realms; Drown This City have struck tantalising gold on their third EP outing, and it’s only a matter of time before this lot catapults further and takes their rightful place on the metalcore throne.