Album Review: COLOSSUS – Wake

Perennity Records/Sound Pollution

Colossus are a classic power trio delivering stoner/doom metal spliced with melodic colour and progressive elements running through many of their arrangements.

The band hail from Sweden and ‘Wake’ is their first full album following a debut EP that hit the racks back in 2011. It is a good debut and there is plenty to like in this powerful, intense and exploratory metal workout. On the other hand, not all the experimentation works all the time.

Album opener, ‘A Stir of Thunder’ is a perfect example. The track kicks off with a great guitar sound and big throaty vocals from Niklas Eriksson. Sometimes he’s a bit too throaty and you catch yourself saying, ‘cough it up, man!’ And while the track chugs along nicely for a while, it soon gets a bit rambly as if the band don’t quite know where to go with it. An odd choice to introduce the album.

‘Reflections of the Arcane’ is better. Eriksson’s guitar provides a heavily distorted, barely tethered growl on the verse that spars with a chorus driven by the murderous drumming of Thomas Norsted. The drum track crackles underneath Eriksson’s vocal who, having cleared the frog from his throat, delivers in fine style.

‘Suncarrier’ is a glorious beast built around Peter Berg’s thunderous bass and with a delicious guitar/drum groove down the main spine of the track. There’s ambition here, which is great to see. But a bit more experience will help them decide where to draw the lines. For instance the Indian influenced singing works well here, whereas the heavily distorted phrases at the top of the vocal range, for me, don’t. It sounds like Eriksson is screaming underwater.

‘Pillars of Perennity’ is just about the best track on show. It is a less complex composition than others and benefits from direct, powerful, fat riffing and proper shouty, doom vocals from guest crooner Lars G Petrov from Entombed. And check out the insane drumming on the outro. Brilliant. ‘Ruinbuilder’ is another that tends to run out of steam after flirting with a number of different arrangements and moods. The guitar hook is a bit clumsy and the track doesn’t quite hang together.

‘Traitors Gate’ is similar, but what a great guitar outro fed through a distorted wah wah pedal cranked all the way up to 11. There are plenty of good moments scattered throughout the album, from the guest drumming of Morgan Agren on ‘Kingdom’ to the heavily Sabbath influenced bassline and vocal echo of ‘Cloudhead’. The dramatic, almost plaintive vocal delivery on the ‘Fungal Gardens’, clocking in at 11 minutes, is also a well worth a double take.

For the most part this is a really encouraging full debut.

***½

Dave Atkinson

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 20 October 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 22 October 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 28 October 2024

THE RASMUS Rest In Pieces (Better Noise Music)
THE PLAGUE What Else Can I Do (FiXT)
STAR CIRCUS Turn The Tide (indie)
DEFENCES Breathe It In (Long Branch Records)

Featured Albums w/c 28 October 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)