Hi, everyone. Frostony Chiltano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Bladee album, Cold Visions. Swedish rapper, singer, songwriter, founder of Trash Island Records, and one of the main artists of the multi-talented Drain Gang collective, Bladee, who has been on an impressive run as of late.

One that even I can't deny, given that not too many years ago, I was not really into much of anything Bladee did. My review of his 2018 record, Red Light, ranks as among one of my most negative ever, as at the time, I did not really get much from the blissful terminally online internet trap he was mostly known for then. I could detour into a rant about the vocals and pitchy autotune on records such as Ice Dancer, but I'll spare you. The fact of the matter is, a lot of the worst elements of Bladee's sound since that time have been smoothed out while maintaining many of the more endearing aspects of his amateur style and light, youthful, innocent vocal delivery as well. Bladee and Drain Gang, generally, have been making more interesting production choices. The recent collab album with Yung Lean Psychos that just dropped while I wasn't crazy for it, it did interestingly dabble quite a bit in rock and post-punk music.

Bladee's last solo effort Spider saw some tracks dabbling in UK Drill as well as ambient pop. Not to mention the stellar crossover Crest with Ecco2K not too long ago that went full throttle into synth and art pop. For me, it's just been inspiring to see. With all that being said, though, some of what has made me warm up to Bladee's music over the years gets thrown out the window a bit on Cold Visions. However, I have no doubt that by many, this record is going to be seen as a total blowout, a fan favorite as well. I guess take what I'm saying about Cold Visions with a grain of salt because I could see why some of Bladee's biggest fans are really celebrating behind this album because in a way, it is a bit of a return to form. I mean, for example, all your Drain Gang favorites are back. Young Sherman, Young Lean, White Armor, Echo 2K, Tyboy Digital. Plus on top of it, in comparison with a lot of Blade's more recent stuff. Cold Visions is a decidedly darker record, more distorted as well. I would argue that it is maybe the most aggressive project Bladee has put out as far as a sheer material volume level of distortion.

Bladee stylistically is really focusing on trap instrumentals once again. Working on Dying Bladee is back. To a degree, Ice Dancer Bladee is back, but a lot of the glitzy, bright, frosty atmospheres that were all over that record are missing on Cold Visions. That is swapped out instead for, like I said, distortion, more saturated basey mixes. The instrumentals really do hit a lot harder with Bladee fully embracing this rage-type style that he has dabbled in before a little bit on some recent previous albums. But yeah, now we're really going into it 100%, and I will admit, I do think hopping on instrumentals of this type provides an interesting dynamic for Bladee. The way the thumping kicks and cycling high hats and super distorted bass and synths pair with Bladee's sweet gentle delivery. It creates this interesting sensation that in its best moments is both visceral and entrancing. Not to mention for the overall vibe of the project, and I'm not exactly sure if this works per se, but it's clear Bladee is going for something that is very chaotic and rough around the edges. Kind like a badly-produced Dat Piff mixtape or something, especially with all the random sound effects and vocal drops and watermark type sounds.

It's something I think Cemetery and Haunted Mound fans would get a lot out of as well. Look, I think this formula and direction works really well, especially when Bladee is pairing it with some catchy flows and a standout hook. That happens on multiple tracks to this thing. One second, fun fact, I don't I really don't like people. I really don't like people. You like me, though, right? Right? Your buddy, Cal? Again, numerous examples, Quite a few of them also are spearheaded by Young Lean, which is fine, not necessarily a shortcoming as these two are kindred spirits creatively and have a lot of chemistry. That being said, though, I feel like the impact of many of these songs is is diminished by a lot of other tracks on the album that are very similar esthetically in tone, similar vocal processing of rhythmic patterns too, but they're not quite as developed structurally. Maybe they're not as strong on the hook front. And truth be told, even though I do like all of those tracks that I listed quite a bit, their appeal is pretty straightforward, not exactly so dynamic or versatile that you could repeat the same formula over over and over and over, even with an army of good solid choruses.

And yeah, it's going to lose its flavor, especially after a couple of dozen tracks. And yeah, in my opinion, as a 30 song project that is over an hour long and has a lot of shorter cuts in its midst, too. This thing is a little bloated. Personally, I've enjoyed seeing Bladee whittle some of his latest projects down to just their most essential moments, even if many Bladee fans feel like they're getting spoiled right now. So I do think there is some fat that could have been cut from this LP. But by that same token, I do think there is a decent amount of variety on the project. Tracks that have a bit more breathing room, melody aren't quite as distorted. And I think these tracks work well, especially when they do get across a sweet melody or have a strong, compelling emotional vocal break, like on Young Sherman, as well as Don't Want to Hang Out. The chord progression on that track is fantastic. And I think Both of these tracks serve as examples of how far Bladee has come over the years vocally, too, as he's gotten a lot better about voicing emotions around frustration, depression, introspection.

But with that being said, even some of the softer and more approachable cuts on this thing have their shortcomings, like DOA, for example, which has a production credit with Skrillex. The presentation on this one is so clean. It sticks out like a sore thumb in the midst of the LP. And there are other softer cuts that I think are a bit aimless and don't have as strong a structure or vocal performance be that false or can't end on a lost outro, which is not even the real outro for the record. The actual proper finishing track with Echo 2K is much stronger. And there's actually some odd examples of tracks where Bladee is trying to get a message or an emotionally evocative theme across, but he's not really committing that to the topic at hand, and as a result, you don't see lyrics that dive that deeply into the theme of the song or dive in that long. Don't Do Drugs, for example, given what it's going on about, I would think there would be more to this song other than just one minute and 33 seconds. Message to myself also feels like it's lacking on this end, too.

Yeah, there are just some moments to me that read as lost potential. On top of that, the handful of interlude cuts that this album brings with it, don't add that much to a tracklist that has such a messy and samey flow, which, again, I really do think that's the Achilles heel of the album. But I can give props to the lyrics, though, at least in a general sense, because across the entirety of the album, you do really get a sense of where Bladee is at emotionally, mentally, spiritually, with a lot of clear commentary about friendship relationship, materialism, God, loneliness, death, hate. Plus, there are lots of very cheeky bars throughout this project that are a little silly, and I guess, are indulging in things I can only call Bladeeisms at this point. Me and white armor going high speed in Miami doing Tai chi. I'm in a forest with a high priest. Man, I'm stepping on the court. Man, you're watching YouTube Shorts. I'm very far from regular. You could call me irregular. Clutching crystals in my hand got the Bible on my night stand. I had a dream about an emerald. I woke up, where the ice at.

"She's telling me I got good energy / It might be true / Still, I'm not friendly / Deadly, frozen / They're telling me I'm a celebrity / I'm a civilian / Let go of me / We're the realest in a sense/ I don't want friends / Tinted windows on the bends / We're with wizards in it."

And these are all just the tip of the iceberg of the various cookey but also otherworldly examples of lyrical thematic clashes you could catch across this record, which I mean, even if you find what Bladee is saying, the content of this album, to be preposterous. You can't really take away from him that he is saying something. It's not just mindless drivel. It does stick loosely to a general vibe, which unlike the vast, vast, vast majority of anything else you're going to catch out there in any rap-adjacent music today. But yeah, while I did like this album overall because I think there were some great, catchy, aggressive bops throughout the record at various points, I still think overall there are too many redundant, scant, awkward cuts to make this record stellar overall. I think Cold Visions really could have been pared down a little bit. And if it were, I think it could have been a great project.

I think a great and amazing project is in there in the fog a bit. In its current state, I just don't really see that because I think there are just too many songs, at least to my ears, that are really just breezing by without leaving too much of an impression. So with that, I'm feeling a strong 6 to a light 7 on this thing.

Anthony Fantano, Bladee, Forever.