Gideon - Cold album review

Alabama’s Gideon flirted with the heavier, more technical template on 2014’s Calloused, but sadly album number four still lacks the requisite fire to set the four-piece apart from the metalcore also-rans. The main issue with Cold is that it leaves you, well, just that. Opener Champions employs the standard chugging riffs and emphatic gang vocals whilst Daniel McWhorter’s throat-ripping screams are punctuated by softer cleans alongside melodic breaks on The Game and Watch Me Sink. Shifts in tempo are sporadic, but when they hit, they hit harder. The four-piece aren’t quite screaming their faith from the rooftops – preferring instead to go down the ‘stay positive’ path with lyrics like ‘If you don’t like the way I’m living, then just leave me alone, ’coz I’m a renegade’ along with references to staying strong in the face of adversity. Rage-against-the-establishment anthem Freedom pulls in Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta to deliver the lyrical message, steering it far enough off-piste to inject a modicum of cross-genre deviation. Recognising the devil truly is in the detail will be Gideon’s true calling.