Year : 2024
Style : Melodic Heavy Metal , Melodic Power Metal
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + front
Size : 87 mb
Bio:
Rock Music can fulfill many different roles. To some it represents rebellion and reckless abandon, to others a communal experience shared by artist and audience. To many, it may be a vehicle for technical achievement, or perhaps a necessary component and soundtrack to a party. To an enthusiast it is all this and much more. Mega Colossus, like all rock enthusiasts, revel in this multi-faceted appreciation of the loud arts. This five-piece hails from Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. Though customarily referred to as a traditional metal band (a term they accept gladly), the band's broad appreciation for various forms of music find confluence in a style that may not be as easily defined. Familiar building blocks are to be found: Subject matter of the music reflects a love for the adventurous and fantastic, including nods to stories from Frank Herbert and Fritz Leiber to Cormac McCarthy and Max Brooks, as well as a fair share of original fiction. Harmonization in the vein of Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, and Queen salutes the classics, while a punk rock sense of humor, energy, urgency, and conciseness applied to grand song structures and literary themes create a style that steers well clear of a tribute or novelty act. All this comes to fruition on the first Mega Colossus album, entitled "HyperGlaive", released in late 2016.This debut is no first effort, but a follow-up to eleven years of recording and touring under the diminutive moniker Colossus. In that time span, Colossus have enjoyed the underground metal scene, toured, recorded, produced records and videos, and grown into the newly coined Mega Colossus. Record releases began in late 2006 with "Colossus...and the Rift of the Pandimensional Undergods", after which the band found acceptance in the American True Metal scene, sharing the stage with such heavy hitters as Slough Feg, Skeleton Witch and Bible of the Devil. Subsequent recordings followed in 2009 and 2012, entitled "Drunk On Blood" and "Colossus...and the sepulcher of the Mirror Warlocks" respectively. In that time Colossus remained busy, touring regionally and enjoying such festivals as South by Southwest, The Fest in Gainesville, Fl, and Raleigh's own Hopscotch Festival. Mega Colossus continues to represent, recently sharing the stage with acts such as High on Fire, Mastodon, and Pentagram. A European tour culminating in an appearance at the Harder Than Steel festival in Dittigheim, Germany is confirmed for the fall of 2017. This is a band that consider themselves a live band first and foremost. Live shows balance proficiency with energy, abandon, and interaction with the audience. This is a band that thinks long and hard about their ideas and then lovingly attacks the audience with them.
Album:
On their fourth full-length Showdown, Mega Colossus matches epic metal grandeur with the hooks and melodies from Rainbow and Kansas!Mega Colossus has more fun than your favorite band. Not that it’s much of a contest given the typically joyless answers most metal fans give in response to the “favorite band” question in the name of cred preservation, but it’s true all the same. Nevermind that these North Carolina dudes can’t help but give the widest of grins in their promo shots; though ostensibly traditional metal, undiluted joy permeates their music on a level most power metal bands could not fathom. Unbridled exuberance seeps from every riff, lick, lyric, and vocal hook. It’s a guarantee at this point that each Mega Colossus release will be a celebration of metal and pop culture worth celebrating, and in that respect, Showdown is utterly predictable. Which is to say that it’s fucking fantastic.Showdown is an expectedly great showing, but that doesn’t mean Mega Colossus hasn’t endeavored to evolve their sound. The band has described Showdown as “hookier” than the preceding Riptime; I disagree, simply because I cannot listen to either record without tripping over a razor-sharp hook every two seconds, but it is a notably warmer and more colorful experience. Kansas and Rainbow are cited as melodic inspirations, which is evident on “Wicked Road” for anyone who’s ever listened to “Carry On my Wayward Sun” (that’s you reading this). Showdown’s resulting chords and harmonies feel classic and effervescent, with sections often veering closer to raucous hard rock (especially “Fortune and Glory” and “Showdown”) than heavy metal. Showdown is still metal through and through, but Mega Colossus’s refined approach feels refreshingly distinct in the wider trad metal canon.Classic rock influences aside, Showdown finds Mega Colossus as kinetic as ever, their riffs relentlessly diving and ascending with gleeful fervor. This is especially true for the record’s downright breathless A-side, and double especially true for the prog-power-thrash epic “Grab the Sun.” A brilliant musical retelling of Mad Max: Fury Road, “Grab the Sun” lyrically alternates viewpoints between Nux and Furiosa in a cyclical structure that mimics the film’s plot. It’s a propulsive and uplifting listening experience, and an early contender for my Song o’ the Year. This song signals the end of Showdown’s first half, and its second half, while no less excellent than the first, is relatively muted in terms of energy. This is Showdown’s sole drawback: its pacing dips on the back end, and I can’t help but wonder whether a simple restructuring of the track list would greatly preserve its momentum.The reason Showdown remains so goddamn compelling through to its conclusion, despite its mild pacing woes, lies in the brilliance of guitarists Bill Fischer and Chris Millard. Their sole rule is seemingly “no boring riffs ever”, and while this has always been the case with Mega Colossus, their playing has never been so richly textured or densely layered. Even the relatively mellow “Wicked Road” is juiced with sparking, colorful lead flourishes at every turn, constantly demanding the listener’s attention. And if the guitars somehow cannot fully command you, Sean Buchanan’s voice will surely finish the job, as he remains one of the cleanest and most distinctive singers in the scene. There’s an undefined nerdy twang to his pipes that makes him a perfect fit for a band that writes songs about both Face/Off (“Showdown”) and Porco Rosso (“Take to the Skies”) on the same album.Mega Colossus’s most recent releases have been bolstered by modern production that is far from the norm in the current traditional metal climate, and I interpret this engineering choice as an extension of their implied philosophy: fun at the expense of all trends. Showdown’s crisp soundscape is a reflection of the revelry that permeates its songwriting from top to bottom, an addictiveness further bolstered by its brisk thirty-eight-minute runtime. It’s difficult to say at this stage whether Showdown is Mega Colossus’s strongest effort, but what I can say for certain is that it has, seemingly impossibly, improved in my estimations with every single one of my fifteen-ish spins. Even if you’re like me and you typically put traditional heavy metal recommendations near the bottom of your priority list, I implore you to give Showdown a listen, as it’s sure to be one of the most entertaining records of the year in any genre.
Line-Up:
Sean Buchanan - Vocals (2005-present)
Bill Fischer - Guitars (lead) (2005-present) - See also: ex-Bloody Hammers
Chris Millard - Guitars (lead) (2021-present) - See also: Children of the Reptile, ex-Salvación, ex-Wrathlord
Anthony Micale - Bass (2017-present) - See also: Knightmare, ex-Cerebus (live)
Doza Mendoza - Drums (2010-present) - See also: ex-Salvación, Lightning Born, ex-Bloody Hammers
Tracklist:
01. Fortune and Glory 06:57
02. Outrun Infinity 06:30
03. Grab the Sun 07:01
04. Showdown 04:59
05. Wicked Road 05:58
06. Take to the Skies 06:23
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