Employing three guitarists in its five-piece lineup,
this London-based combo packs a hefty punch, with a
style that's part thundering metal and part relentless
Krautrock groove. Topped off with overwrought,
incoherently shredded vocals, on one level it
threatens to become a series of attention-demanding
studio tantrums. But when the band hits its stride, it
emerges that the agenda isn't cartoonish exaggeration,
but a stripped-down reshuffle of rock 'n' roll
fundamentals.
With an implied premise that there's
nothing really new under the sun, Hey Colossus carve
out an identity for themselves by grafting bits of rock's
splintered past onto one another — here scrap metal
is alchemized into a whole of significantly greater
value. Central to it all is the riff, and Hey
Colossus's riffs come with a wonderfully throaty,
corroded texture, rolling along and tumbling down with
the unstoppable momentum of an avalanche.
But alongside this textural quality the songs retain a
rhythmic discipline, which gives their fuzzy riffing a
clear focus. Nothing is wasted; the band's limited
range of expressions is put to use with maximum
efficiency, the surface patina of dirt lending it a
feeling of sustained spontaneity.
Blasting off with
the unyielding machine rhythms of "Red Giant,"
reaching an apogee with the epic, churning quickstep of
"Take It," and incorporating large doses of dissonance
into their juddering grooves, Hey Colossus's latest is
metal twisted and torn apart, then welded back together
differently, transformed into new, potent shapes.
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